“I’ll take you,” he said decisively, putting an immediate halt to her nervous rambling. “Jacqueline will watch Liam.”
“You don’t have to. Take me, I mean. I can go by myself.”
“I want to go with you. If you will allow me, that is.”
Eden did allow it. In fact she found it harder and harder to find reason why she should mind that Dominic was escorting her to the hospital. He declined the chauffeured services and instead they took a different car that got them to the hospital in less time than it would’ve normally taken. Of course that was also with Dominic driving like he was on a race track. Three hours later, they emerged from the emergency room. There was nothing broken, according to the doctor on duty, but it was a pulled muscle for which he prescribed a higher dose of painkillers and advised her to ice it to keep the swelling down. Nothing she hadn’t already been doing.
“Why are you so quiet?” she gently prodded in the silence of the car, knowing he’d taken to the caverns of his mind again.
“I’ll take care of him.”
Eden frowned. “That’s not what I want, Dominic,” she said carefully, needing him to understand. “I didn’t tell you so you could come to my rescue. I can handle this.”
“Handle it by further getting hurt?” he countered derisively, the condescending undertone she hated so much scraping against her skin like thorns. “He will not come near you again.” The finality of that statement was punctuated by him killing the ignition and stepping out of the car.
Eden ran after him, catching his arm before he could walk too far away “So that’s it? Whatever you say goes? I don’t get a say?”
“I will not compromise when it comes to your safety,” he grated, his lips compressing into a thin line of disapproval.
“I’m a big girl, Dominic, I can take care of myself. I spent an entire year away from you, and I was fine. Alex is in jail. He assaulted me and I’m pressing charges. He already has a rap sheet for what he did to Jenna. Getting him convicted shouldn’t be that difficult. It’s not your job to take care of me. At least it won’t be…” she trailed off, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear as she met his gaze.
“Right. The divorce.”
The inescapable death of this marriage hung over Dominic’s head like the blade of a guillotine. If he asked for more time, she would cry foul. Then there was the very real prospect of her suing him for breaching that damnable contract. The money wasn’t the problem. He had it in abundance and had always shared it with her regardless of the glaring fact that he’d used it to control her in the past. He drew in a deep breath still frustrated by what had happened to her. She had his hands tied in demanding that he not intervene on her behalf when he had the means to do exactly that. He now regretted the agreement they’d made in telling James not to tail her. If his security guard had been there, she certainly would not have gotten hurt.
“Yes, the divorce,” she reiterated. “Four more months.”
“You count the days so diligently.” There was hardly any bite to the soft delivery, nevertheless the statement spoke of his frustrations on the subject.
Eden’s brows drew together. “Aren’t you? I mean it’s what we both want.”
His lips curled up into a halfhearted smile as he stepped closer to her reaching out to gently brush a lock of hair behind her ear, his hand lingering on her cheek. “What I want is… not important.” He leaned in to brush a heart wrenchingly sweet kiss at the center of her forehead. “I’ve always cared about you, Eden,” he confided truthfully, pulling back, “I’ve just been horrible at showing it.”
She took a step back with a shuddering breath “Well, it doesn’t matter now.” The lies she told could fill a gorge. She lowered her gaze knowing his perceptiveness would glean the truth from that lie. And the truth was that a very large part of her reveled in his softly spoken words, the ill placed delight reaching down to stroke at her foolish heart.
“No,” he murmured, “I guess it doesn’t.” His long legs carried him away, leaving Eden standing in the wake of his uncharacteristic tenderness, her mind an utter mess of thoughts that did not make the slightest sense, all the while wishing he would return and explain himself.
“I think this one might be a little stronger,” Jenna warned, her voice slightly hoarse from scream-singing half the evening. They were in their swimsuits. Eden’s a little black number with red polka dots and Jenna’s a dark blue one that displayed her cute little tanned ass. Strawberries and tequila perfumed the warm summer breeze while the intermittent sound of the blender whirred over the Third Eye Blind’s “Semi-Charmed Life” playing through the speakers that they knew by heart. It was nineties night, at least that’s what they’d dubbed it four margaritas ago as they sang rather horribly with every song they recognized, which was all of them. Drunk wasn’t exactly what one would call Eden’s current state, but she was bordering on happy, a.k.a tipsy, two levels beneath absolute inebriation. Jenna on the other hand... Eden chortled as she watched the blond haired woman stumble back from the little bar area they’d set up by the lounge chairs, the frothy, iced drinks she had in her hand spilling all over the ground.
“Here, try.” She handed Eden what was left of the coral red, strawberry scented drink before lowering herself down the pool’s ledge, plunking her feet back into the warm water.
It was icy tequila with very little strawberry. Eden sipped it. This one was going to take her a minute to finish. “You didn’t even try on this one,” Eden joked, nudging Jenna’s shoulder. “So, are you okay?” It was only right to ask considering Alex had been sentenced to three years in prison today. It wasn’t only the assault on Eden that had prompted the judge to convict him. It had been a culmination of petty thefts to drug charges and outstanding warrants for his arrest that had ultimately sealed his fate. They’d gone to court earlier this afternoon and when they’d come out, Jenna had been pale and withdrawn, barely saying a word to Eden until they’d retuned to the mansion.
Jenna shrugged. “I didn’t want to see him that way. He looked old, worn. Like the world chewed him up and spit him back out. He wasn’t the Alex I remembered, the Alex who…who looked out for me, you know?” She turned to look at her best friend with glassy eyes, hoping she would understand what she wasn’t able to say.
Eden didn’t know, because to her, Alex had always been the asshole that beat up her best friend. She hadn’t known any other side to him than the piece of shit he’d been. So no, she didn’t know exactly what Jenna was talking about. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t empathize. Nineties, margarita night was made for reasons like this. “Maybe he had good intentions when you guys first met, but he’s not that guy anymore. He’s changed and so have you, Jen. For the better. You deserve so much better than the brand of love Alex gave you.”
“And how about you?” Jenna nudged her back.
A small knit materialized between Eden’s brows. “What about me?” she asked, kicking and splashing the water with her legs and feet.
“What are you going to do about your baby daddy?”
Eden tossed her head back and laughed. “What I planned on doing from the beginning.”
“The divorce?”
Why everyone suddenly seemed surprised that she was still intent on separating from Dominic was news to Eden. Nothing had changed. This was the only end result that would benefit her in the long run. Dominic couldn’t hurt her or control her or lord over her life like he’d done so many times before in the past. Old hurts, the humiliation she’d born as his wife, along with the mental abuse had left a stain on her soul, one that could not easily be washed off. She wasn’t heartless, and on some level she knew his brutality towards her stemmed greatly from the atrocities he’d endured as a child. Even now thinking on it, knowing the constant struggle he faced made her hurt for him. Like the pain was so intense that it struck her chest like a shot put.
“Eden.”
Eden raised a hand to the site of her pain, center left side of her chest and found the muffled battering of her heart against her damp hand. “We had a deal,” she said quietly, distractedly soothing at the dull ache. “It’ll be good for both of us.” Abuse only produced more abuse, in some form or another. This was why Eden needed to leave him. She didn’t want to be the victim who later became the abuser. She would cut off both arms before she ever laid a hand on Liam, but words damaged just as deeply.
“God, fucking listen to us. Ruining our girls’ night talking about fucking men who don’t deserve us! Well fuck that and fuck them.” Jenna wobbled to her feet, gripping Eden’s shoulder when she teetered. She thrust her glass up in the air, the contents spilling on Eden, who deciding to come to her feet lest she end up covered in margarita followed in best friend’s antics. “Let’s fucking drink to us and the awesome dildos that can rightfully take their places.”