Charlotte had been numb with shock, unable to forget the chill of her father’s hand that day she’d gone to fetch him down for breakfast. She’d found him with a faint smile on his face, his expression peaceful.
Swallowing past the knot of old grief, she said, “I just couldn’t get my mind around the fact that they were both gone.” It had been one blow too many.
“What about your parents’ families?” Gabriel scowled. “They should’ve been there for you.”
“My parents were both only children, and their parents died when I was little.” Charlotte had never known a rambunctious extended family like Gabriel’s. “They had a circle of good friends though, and Molly later told me those friends had stepped in to help her figure things out. But she was the one who held it all together.”
Gabriel touched the fingers of his free hand to her jaw, tilting her face toward him. “I’m guessing you did the same for her when the scandal tore her family apart.”
“It wasn’t the same.” Then, as now, Molly had been tough.
“What does Molly say?”
“That she wouldn’t have made it without me,” Charlotte confessed.
“You were my oak tree,” Molly had said once. “Enduring and protective and with a loyalty so deeply rooted, I knew no storm would wash you away. I would’ve drowned without you.”
“I think she knows what she’s talking about.” Gabriel tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. “I bet your parents wanted her to live with you after the car accident that took her folks.”
Charlotte nodded jerkily. “Except the doctors had already found the new cancers in Mom’s body. The social workers wouldn’t approve Molly living with us.” They’d said Pippa Baird didn’t need the stress, but Charlotte’s mom had worried constantly over Molly. “She had to go live with strangers, but mostly, she just slept there.” Molly’s foster parents hadn’t been bad people; they just hadn’t had the tools to handle a teenage girl who’d lost everything.
“It was a no-brainer to share living space when we began university.” Neither she nor Molly had anyone else they trusted enough to live with. “At the start, we lived in my parents’ home, but I sold it a month later—they had very good insurance, so there were no bills, but I couldn’t bear to live there anymore.” The silence had been crushing. Her father’s laughter would never again light up the room. Her mother’s voice would never again rise in a silly song as she worked.
Charlotte hadn’t been able to stand it.
“My father always told me I should never waste money on rent if I was in a position to invest it in a property instead,” she said, her voice raw, “so I bought the town house.” Going from a family home to a smaller town house had left her with enough money to put herself through university.
“Molly and I had the biggest argument because she wanted to pay me rent. I finally used guilt to win.” She laughed and it was real, if a little wet. “I asked her if she wanted my mom and dad to haunt me. After all, they’d always treated her as another daughter.”
“Devious.” His lips brushed her temple, his hand warm and protective on her hip. “No wonder you two are close. You’ve been through a lot together.”
Feeling safe in a way she hadn’t since before Richard, she nodded. However, the warmth that came with talking about her parents and her best friend faded into a shivering chill as she looked into the darkness. “I met Richard two months into my first semester.” His name was like broken glass in her throat. Hard and cutting and bloodying her from the inside out. “He was smart, good-looking, and he liked me. At least that’s what he made me believe.”
Pressed as she was to Gabriel’s body, she felt the thrumming tension in him, his muscles bunched up. “It’s all right, Gabriel. He’s in prison.”
“Jesus, Charlotte.” His arm tightened around her. “What the fuck did he do to you?”
Charlotte knew she just had to get it out—Gabriel had to know. “Four months of being in a relationship with him and I finally started to understand he was bad for me. He made me doubt everything about myself, made me think I was worthless.” Looking back, Charlotte couldn’t believe she hadn’t seen through him sooner. “I wish I could go back and shake myself.”
Gabriel scowled. “You were hurt and grieving. He took advantage of that.”
Intellectually, Charlotte knew she’d been in a vulnerable place at the time Richard came into her life, but it was so hard not to look back and wish she could change the past. Still, that insecure, shy girl hadn’t totally let herself down. “One day, while we were talking about a paper for a shared class, he hit me,” she said past her thundering heart, conscious of Gabriel’s muscles going hard as rock against her. “Said I was giving him lip.”