Gabriella
“No way! She cheated on Hudson and broke his heart. I’m not going to be in the same room as her,” I tell Javier. We’re walking the beach, and he just told me Kate Contro is about to arrive to be Lena’s and my therapist. “I can’t even believe that Hudson is allowing her to set foot in his house.”
Javier stops and holds my arm. “Gabriella.”
I huff out air and turn toward him.
Stop glaring at Javier. It isn’t his fault.
“Carter is paying for her services. He said she’s the best and only qualified person he knows who has helped women rescued from the Twisted Hearts. Lena has no money, no insurance, nothing. She needs therapy.”
“She can get all the therapy she wants from Kate. Doesn’t mean I have to talk to her.”
“But you do. If you don’t talk to her, Lena won’t.”
I take a few steps into the water and kick at it then spin back to Javier. “How could Hudson even agree to this?”
Javier quietly says, “Kate is the best in the country. He wants Lena and you to have the best therapy.”
“So, he has to live with all of us and her?”
“For right now, yes. Hopefully, we can move back home soon.”
Back home.
“You’re going to stay with me?” I ask him.
Javier steps closer and puts his hand on my cheek. “Unless you don’t want me to?” His expression seems panicky like he thinks I might tell him I don’t want him to stay.
I put my arms around his waist. “I’m going where you go. I’m sorry I made a big deal about not coming home with you last night. I just...” I close my eyes.
“It’s okay. Whatever you are comfortable with is what I’ll do.”
I open my eyes. “I want you with me.”
Javier strokes my head. “Okay. That’s what I want.”
“What Kate did was unforgivable. She cheated...” Nausea rolls through me, and I spin and throw up in the water.
“Gabriella!” Javier fists my hair and rubs my back.
When I’m done, he tears his shirt off and hands it to me so I can wipe my mouth then pulls me into him. He puts his hand on my forehead. “Do you have the flu?”
I lean into him. “I don’t think so. It just hit me, but I feel okay now. Maybe I ate something bad.”
He kisses my forehead. “Let’s go back to the house.”
“Okay.”
We turn and walk back. When we get there, I say, “I really do feel okay. Can we sit here for a few minutes?”
He feels my forehead again. “Okay, for a few minutes. You don’t feel like you have a fever.”
We sit side by side, and I lean into his chest as the waves crash into my feet.
“I thought of Kate as a sister. She destroyed Hudson. He only bought the beach house because that was her dream.”
Javier takes a deep breath. “I know this isn’t ideal, but she’s supposed to be the best. Lena is in bad shape, but I want her to help you, too.”
“I’ll figure my own mental health out. I have a handle on it.”
“No. You can’t with this. Not right now. You need someone trained to help you.”
“You don’t know that,” I defensively assert.
“I do.”
“You don’t. You weren’t there,” I bite out.
“I don’t need to have been there to see Triker did a number on you,” he cries out.
I freeze. My pulse quickens. “So, you think I’m crazy?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to.”
“Listen to me, Gabriella. I know what the declaration process is...what they do to women...why they do it...how they break you. The guilt you’re feeling over anything that happened isn’t warranted.”
“What exactly do you think they do, Javier? Hmm?”
“You sound angry. Please don’t be angry with me. I just want to help.”
“Tell me how Sid broke me.”
His face hardens.
“Tell me,” I say through clenched teeth.
“He took away your freedom and made you believe you had a choice. He threatened to kill everyone you love and lock you away for life if you didn’t give yourself to him. He made you believe you needed him to protect you and he loved you.”
“Sid did love and protect me,” I blurt out.
Javier’s face falls. “He didn’t love you.”
“He did,” I insist.
“If he loved you, he wouldn’t have done what he did.”
“You don’t know him. You weren’t there,” I say. As soon as the words leave my mouth, I put my hand over my mouth.
Why are you sticking up for Sid?
Javier’s jaw clenches.
“Oh God. What…oh God!” I hug my knees and sob.
Javier pulls me into him.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I don’t want to hurt you, but I’m so confused,” I cry out.
“I know, baby.”
“I hate myself for letting him touch me. I shouldn’t have let him. I could have told him no.”
“No, you couldn’t have,” Javier sternly says.
“I could have. He kept telling me I could.”
“That’s what they do.”
“You weren’t there. I had a choice,” I wail.
“Shh. You didn’t. It’s okay. Everything will be okay,” he murmurs.
“What if it’s not? What if it’s never really okay again?”
“That’s why I want you to talk to Kate. She can help you.”
“Isn’t there someone else? She’s a horrible person.”
“I know you don’t like what she did to Hudson. I don’t, either, but if Hudson is willing to deal with her, then don’t you think you should give her a fair shot?”
“I can’t believe Hudson is allowing this.”
“He will always do what he thinks is best for you. This is what is best for you right now.”
I stay quiet. Kate hurt our family, and Hudson was devastated after what she did. I saw my brother’s entire personality change. She caused him so much pain.
Javier turns my face toward his. “Please give it a chance. If after two weeks you don’t want to continue, then I’ll support your decision to find another therapist to work with.”
“This means that much to you?”
“Yes.”
“Fine. But if she hurts my brother again, I’m going to kill her.”
“I’ll be the first person to send her packing,” Javier says.
I peck him. “Deal. I do have to tell you, it seems strange how you and Hudson appear to have become besties.”
He snorts. “I told you from day one I wasn’t intimidated by your brothers.”
I hug him. “That you did.”
“Let’s go up to the house. I don’t want you getting burnt.”
I rise, holding his hand, but all his comment reminds me of is the day I sat in the sand with Sid, and he told me to forget about Javier and what I needed to do for him not to kill my family and Javier. He was worried about me burning, too.
Wasn’t that because he loved me?
Didn’t he die trying to get me to safety in the club?
I don’t say anything else to Javier but blink back tears on the way to the house. I know Sid was warped, and so was the situation, but I wonder how it could be true that Sid didn’t love or protect me.
The bad parts of Sid everyone saw, but didn’t I see the real him? And if I didn’t see the real Sid, then am I more messed up than I thought?