My whole body stills. I turn my face away from him.
“Here you are? Why are you hiding,” Riza asks cheerfully. She’s holding Justin’s hand.
I can’t understand how she can just forgive him. I need to blow of some steam. “How can you, Riza? After all the man did to you, you’re just going to forgive him and let it slide?”
The smile drops from her face. “There’s nothing to forgive. Justin didn’t do anything to me. He was there for me.” She frowns, actually looking angry with me. “It’s because of Justin and Garrett that you’re here, living your dream.”
Anger bubbles hot through me and my temper matches hers. “It’s not! Don’t say that! It’s because of them we were taken,” I hiss back at her. “This …” I wave in the general direction of the store, “all this is because I worked my butt off and refused to give up.”
“You wouldn’t be here if Garrett didn’t buy your freedom for you,” she snaps. With her revelation icy realization pours into my veins, extinguishing my hot temper.
“What?” I gasp.
“Garrett bought you at the auction. They could’ve left us there but they chose to give us our lives back,” Riza says, only now realizing that I never knew.
“How do you know?” I can’t believe what I’m hearing.
“Justin dropped us off at the police station. I recognized his smell. I’d recognize it anywhere.” She smiles up at Justin and I see the love in her eyes.
I look at Garrett where he’s been standing, letting me figure this entire mess out on my own. “You could’ve told me!” I want to hit him. I want to hold him. He didn’t just forget about me!
Feelings crash over me. Feelings I tried to bury but I never got that quite right. First shame and anger, and then acceptance. Yeah, I never claimed to be normal.
~*~
Chapter Thirty Three
Garrett~
I want to shake her. I want to yell, swear and hit something.
Kristine laughs bitterly. “You know it’s actually worse, Riza. At first I thought a stranger bought me and then ended up changing his mind. But,” she starts to walk away towards the front of the store, “it turns out we were never good enough to begin with. There were many times Garrett told me I was nothing, nothing but a slave. He proved it by throwing me away. You’re a fool if you think Justin loves you.”
I want to stop her and explain but the second Mom sees her, she calls her over to the table. I glare at Riza. “Drop the subject and let me handle it.”
Kristine stays close to my mother and even when the signing starts, she doesn’t leave her side. I’ll have to wait until she closes the store. I stick around for a while, making sure Mom sees me, and then I sneak up the stairs to Kristine’s apartment. While I have time I look around, curious about the space she calls home. It’s small and pretty empty, not quite what I expected her to home to look like. It looks like she put most of her time and energy into the store.
I notice there’s no door to the bathroom and that makes me look at the apartment again, it’s just one big open space. I take a seat on her bed and when I look straight ahead I see the television, and her front door is right next to it. The whole apartment is laid out so she can see when someone comes. I’ve reduced my wildcat to a paranoid, scared girl.
I lean back on the bed and place a pillow at my back. I might as well make myself comfortable. I let my memories wander back to that week I spent with Kris. At first I was too consumed with worry for Andrea to really care about Kristine’s feelings, but as every day slipped by, she wormed her way in under my skin. Those last few days she gave me her trust and I thought by giving her her freedom, I’d be making her happy. I thought it’s what she wanted, I was obviously wrong. She saw it as being rejected. I have to restore her sense of self-worth. I’m going to make it my goal to get the old Kris back. I broke her … I’ll fix her.
It’s after one the afternoon when the door suddenly bursts open. Kris rushes in and slams the door shut. She rests her forehead to the door and after a few seconds I hear her take deep breaths, trying to regain her composure.
I get up and slowly walk to her. When I’m right behind her, I reach out and gently touch her shoulder. “Hey.”
She spins around, fear and fright clouding her eyes. “What the hell? I thought you left! What are you doing here?” The fear quickly makes space for anger.
“We never got to finish our talk.” She tries to squeeze by me but I take a step to the right, causing her to walk into me. I grab hold of her shoulders and yank her even closer. Her eyes dart up and just like that we fall into the old roles. I’m the tormentor and she’s the slave. For the life of me I can’t let go. I can’t step away.