She grabbed my hand, tears in her eyes. “When you were a child?”
I nodded.
“I’m so very sorry that happened to you, sweetheart. None of it was your fault, though. None of it.”
I shrugged, and luckily the movement didn’t hurt too much. I couldn’t agree and didn’t want to disagree.
“Can I hug you?” Patty asked, her voice thick with emotion.
I nodded again, and she wrapped her arms around me, pulling me in. I hugged her back, and then I couldn’t hold in the tears anymore. I sobbed in her arms, Thor at my feet, until suddenly Liam was there, kneeling in front of us. His mom passed me over to him, and I cried into his chest until I had no more tears to cry.
When I finally pulled back, he looked at me with red-rimmed eyes and a sad smile. “I hope you’re hungry. The more you cry, the more my parents are going to cook for you.”
I laughed, the sound raspy and both right and wrong at the same time. “Your parents are great.”
“I know, and they love you already. I’m glad you and my mom talked.”
“Me too.”
Liam handed me my phone. “You have a bunch of missed calls and texts.”
I scrolled through the messages. My parents were taking a flight out tonight and they’d go straight to a hotel and come over in the morning. Izzy was furious that she didn’t see Daniel for the vermin he was, devastated that she’d left me alone, and promised work was covered and I shouldn’t worry about anything but myself. Juliette and Nicky wanted to come see me, and so did Hayden. I wrote back to Izzy, swearing it wasn’t her fault and promising to call soon, then I filled Liam in on everything.
“Do you want to see your friends?”
“Yeah.”
“Then tell them to come over. The guys asked to come, too. I said no, but you should know they’ve been asking about you.”
“I thought it would be weird to see your parents with them knowing something so personal that happened to me, but it wasn’t. I’ve always dealt with everything myself. If they want to come…yeah, that might be nice.”
“There’s that light, shining through the darkness. I think it’ll be nice too, Firefly.”
We decided to have just Juliette and Nicky over first, and we invited everyone for a barbecue in a few days. It was a small step. Having our closest friends over in the safety of Liam’s house wasn’t anything like venturing out into the real world of strangers, but still…it felt good. It felt like hope.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Jenna
“You’re making Thor nervous. Come sit.” Liam was on the couch, his arm stretched across the back, pretending to be relaxed, and Thor sat next to him. Together, they watched me pace around the room.
“My parents aren’t going to be like yours.”
“Would you rather mine don’t come? They’d understand.”
“No! We can’t do that.”
“We can do whatever makes this easier for you, and they’d want the same.”
If only it were that simple. “I want them to meet. I’m just…I’m nervous to tell my parents. They’re going to ask questions, and every answer makes me sound so naive and stupid.”
Liam was in front of me in an instant, holding my face in his hands. “Firefly, it’s not your fault.”
“That’s what everyone wants to think. But it doesn’t make it true. I walked willingly into that room with him!”
“If you’d refused, do you think he would have just given up? He gave you the illusion of control, and it’s messing with your head, just like he wanted it to. If you didn’t walk in, he would have forced you in. Or he would’ve kept trying until he got to you.”
I stared up at him, too overwhelmed to unwrap all the emotions inside me. I wanted to believe him so badly. I wanted to let him absolve me of all the guilt. But...