Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 105846 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105846 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Take this to court? My brain feels like it’s going to explode. How did I wake up this morning thinking the worst part of my day was going to involve being a barista and end the day talking about pressing charges?
I stare down at my hands, pointedly avoiding the fresh bruise on my arm and try to make sense of the situation. I came to Red Bridge to move on, to put the past in the past and never see Thomas again—not to end up facing him in court, of all places, for probably days or weeks on end.
My chest burns with discomfort, and it’s moments like this I wish my mom weren’t an evil roach so I could go to her for comfort.
Josie sits beside me and reaches out with a soothing hand to place it on my knee. “Do you want to press charges?”
“I…” I pause because my voice is all shaky and weird, and it sounds nothing like me. I clear my throat. “I don’t…I don’t know.”
Sheriff Peeler’s office grows silent while they wait for me to decide. But I don’t know what I should do. I don’t want Bennett to face charges for stepping in to protect me when he could very well have left me to deal with it on my own—in which case, God knows what would have happened—but I don’t want to go to court either.
“Pete, do you mind giving us a minute?” Josie asks, and the sheriff gets up from his desk chair without hesitation.
“Take all the time you need.”
His door shuts with a soft click, confirming he’s gone, and yet I still can’t bring myself to look up from my feet.
“Norah, are you okay?” It’s the first question Josie asks me and the last question I expect. Her eyes are reassuring and so, so patient. It’s the opposite of the sister who almost told me to get the hell off her front porch three days ago.
“Honestly? I don’t know what I am right now.”
“Do you think you can tell me what’s really going on?” She squeezes my knee again. “Because I want to help you, but I’m really in the dark here. Why did Thomas show up here in the first place?”
I let out a deep exhale. “It’s a big mess.”
“Well, obviously,” she says through a soft laugh that ends up making me snort.
Yeah. A big, fat fucking mess. Apparently, I didn’t realize just how ugly of a person Thomas could be.
I look up to meet her eyes again, and the softness that sits within their green depths only makes the burning sensation in my chest grow more intense. Josie was more of a mom to me and Jezzy than Eleanor ever was, I’m reminded. Back then, I just didn’t understand it.
“So…Thomas is your ex-fiancé?” she asks, her voice like a feather. “As in, you were supposed to marry him?”
“We were supposed to get married, but I…couldn’t go through with it.”
“And that’s why you came to Red Bridge?”
I nod. “I didn’t have anywhere else to go.”
“What about Mom?”
All I can do is shake my head. Our mother is the last person I want to talk about.
“Norah, what happened?” she asks, and there’s an edge of desperation to her voice. “You can tell me anything, I promise,” she adds quietly. “You’re my sister, Norah. My only family that I care about.”
And I want to tell her. I really do, but the words just aren’t there.
“Josie?”
“Yeah?”
“I need a breather,” I whisper.
Her eyes turn glossy with emotion at my use of something our father used to say. It was his answer any time he saw either of us looking sad or feeling stressed or in the middle of a temper tantrum. “You need a breather?” he’d ask calmly, and for some reason, it always worked. It was a silent lifeline of love.
Back when she was still living in New York and hadn’t left me for Red Bridge, Josie and I used to use that with each other all the time.
“Okay,” she whispers. “But at least let me help you figure out what you want to do about this current situation. Do you want to press charges?”
“I just want him gone, Josie,” I say, pushing past the ball of emotion that sits heavy in my throat. “I don’t want him here. I don’t want him in Red Bridge, but if the prosecutor charges him, they’re going to hold him here until the case goes to court. And if he’s here, that means his lawyer will be here, his family will be here and…” Our mother will be here.
I don’t know if I could mentally handle that. I came here to get away from all that. From them.
“But I definitely don’t want someone to get in trouble because they were just trying to help me,” I add, and she meets my eyes. “I don’t think Bennett should have to deal with consequences. He didn’t ask for this. Thomas made it clear he wants to charge Bennett with assault. And his family, Josie, they aren’t the kind of people who play nice. They can be so cruel.”