“I’m the idiot who splashed myself!”
He shook his head stubbornly, parking up, and coming around to pull my door open, helping me with the seatbelt once more, and then guiding me out of the car. He acted like a loving boyfriend, rescuing me, just like he’d rescued me the day I showed up in town with nothing. If he’d wanted me back then, would I have stayed? Would I have said no to Sean and saved myself years of horror? Why was my mind going there right now? Oh, maybe because it was something to dwell on rather than the pain, and the knowledge that it’d get worse before it gotbetter. I already had scars on that part of my arm, and I worried about how this new burn would affect them.
“Hey, we need help. She spilled boiling water on her arm.”
The nurse at the booking in station took one look at us, then seared him with a fierce gaze.
“Did she?”
He hesitated, his brow pinching into a frown. “Uh… I’m not the bad guy, I swear.”
They whisked me away from him, and I cast a few looks back as we walked, seeing him standing desolate and afraid in the waiting room. I kept telling them he didn’t do it, but that’s the thing about abused women. We protect our abusers out of fear, or love, sometimes both. It means that our protests get seen as conditioned behaviour. If I hadn’t been there myself, I wouldn’t recognise it for what it was.
“He didn’t do it!”
Chapter Sixteen
Iwas in adaze, stepping outside with my phone in my hand, as I processed what just happened. She burned herself so badly, and was in so much pain, so most of me was just relieved she was being seen or at least triaged quickly. Hopefully they’d give her something good for the pain.
The worst part was her injury, her pain, but the bit that chilled me inside was the fact that they thought I did it. Those nurses immediately assumed I’d deliberately burned her, that I was an asshole, a monster like Sean.
Fuck me. My fingers were shaking as I dialled my phone, leaning my shoulder against the tall concrete post outside the entrance. As it rang, I realised the tones were a little robotic and scratchy, so I walked away from the entrance until it cleared, putting me out in the concrete walkway between the hospital and the car park.
“Hello?”
“Lissa? It’s Henley.”
“You sound terrible. What’s happened? Is Glory okay?”
My breath sounded like a fucking ragged sob, so I swallowed hard and forced air into my lungs.
“She’s hurt. She… fuck! She was cooking, and she splashed boiling water. It’s bad, Lissa. She’s… I don’t know what to do. They think I did it, and maybe that’s true. Maybe it’s my fault. I mean, I walked into the kitchen and she was fine. Happy, even. That’s where it all went to shit, but I didn’t mean to. I didn’t…”
“Shhh… take a breath, Henley. You didn’t hurt her. You couldn’t, and we both know that. Tell me everything.”
I haltingly tried to explain, going back to how determined she was last night to cook, and how I thought she might have changed her mind, but there she was, cooking what looked like fucking home-made pasta, and then it all went to hell.
“It’s my fault. If I hadn’t distracted her, she’d be okay. She wouldn’t be burned if I didn’t-”
“ASSHOLE!”
Someone slammed into me from behind, sending my phone skittering across the concrete, and as I spun to try and defend myself, fists flew at my face, and I saw blonde hair flying. The fists hit fucking hard, but the scent of feminine perfume told me I was being attacked by a woman, so what could I do but defend? I wasn’t about to hit her, no matter how hard she was wailing on me. I swear her fucking foot hit me right in the gut, and I doubled over, taking a knee to my face as I fell back, cradling my stomach and gasping for breath. Just one. I’ll take just one fucking breath right now.
“That’s enough, sweetheart!” The endearment caught my attention, because that’s my name I use for Glory. It’s not original, admittedly, but she’s always liked it. At least that was my hope.
In front of me was a huge guy, but in his arms, flailing and hissing like a pissed off cat, was a blonde woman. Fucking fistsof fury, but those feet were deadly too, if the pain gripping my stomach was anything to go by.
“Calm down, woman. That’s it, just fucking calm down. Let’s take a breather, and then you can break him.”
“I’m going to tear you into tiny fucking pieces and flush them down the toilet, you hear me?!”
The man chuckled and she cursed.
“Fuck you, Marco! He hurt her!”
Wait, what?
“Hurt… who?” I choked out, my breathing still ragged from the kick I took.