See Me .(59)

If she had any more tears left, she would’ve shed them. “You don’t know what it’s like, Sean. He’s capable of killing a person. He’s a monster.”

Sean flinched. “Trust me, I understand. Tell me the rest of this. I want to know everything.”

Everything—such an easy word to say. How in the hell could she tell him everything?

“Tell me about this one.” He knelt next to the tub. She felt his fingertip run along the scar at her bikini line. “Tell me how you got this one.”

She tucked her knees up to her chest to hide the reminder. That was the worst scar—the unforgivable one. “H-Her name was Caroline. I was eight months pregnant when he took her from me.”

“That bastard took her from you.”

“He took her from me when I lost too much blood. S-Sometimes I can still feel her moving in there. Little feet pushing against my stomach. She used to hiccup around seven months. I’d be eating dinner on the couch, and there she’d go, little butterfly wings flapping in there. When I woke up in the hospital, they told me she looked perfect when she came out. A perfect little girl with no breath and no beating heart. I got her a white casket with pink satin lining. She was sleeping. At least that’s what I kept telling myself. She was just sleeping on that tiny pillow. I gave her the stuffed elephant that played ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.’ She was my little star. That scar was from the C-section. I was already in the operating room so they could fix other things in there. I’m still not sure what all happened, but I guess I died on the table, and they had to bring me back. So they delivered her in the operating room.”

Abigail kept her face buried against the edge of the porcelain. Sean said nothing. What was there to say? No one wanted to hear the horrible things that had happened to her and Caroline.

A whisper drifted over her from the edge of the tub. “I bet she was beautiful, just like her mother.”

She rolled over and wrapped her arms around Sean’s neck to pull him over the water. She needed his touch, his safety. She needed him to take all the bad away, to make everything all right again.

His lips nestled against her neck as he let her pull him into the water. “Baby, God, I’m here.” When his arms tucked behind her, she knew it was okay. The burden was not hers alone anymore. Sean was strong enough to share it with her. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” he said, easing the memory a bit with every word.

He tugged her against his chest. “It’s not your fault. Nothing is your fault. I’m sorry you lost your daughter. You would’ve been the greatest mom. Caroline was lucky to have been with you for as long as she was.”

Abigail found the tears that she’d thought had dried up. She sobbed against Sean’s shoulder. “She was so precious, my baby daughter.”

“Yes, she was. Come on. Let’s get you out of here. You need to eat something.” Sean helped her stand up. With each stroke of the towel, as he dried her off, he studied her skin. “You’re beautiful, Abigail. You survived, and that makes you so fucking beautiful.”

“Sean?” she asked as she wrapped her arms around his waist.

“Yes, baby? God, it feels good when you put your arms around me.”

She smiled, something she seemed to do only in his presence. “Thank you.”

He ran the towel over her wet hair. “No, thank you. You trusted me enough to tell me what happened. I need you to trust me again.”

She tightened her arms around his waist. “O-Okay.”

“Tell me why you didn’t go to the cops. Didn’t the hospital do anything with the police?”

How could she explain how weak she was, how terrified? “He said if I lived and told who did it, he’d get out of it. He’s a lawyer, and his dad’s a politician. The whole thing just went away. When they questioned him, he’d come up with some kind of alibi. I was so scared I told them I didn’t know who it was who’d attacked me. He’d have gotten out of it anyway. I was afraid.”

“That fucker is going to pay for what he did. Do you trust me?”

Abigail looked down as he dried the scar from where her daughter had been born. And died. “For Caroline, I’ll trust you.”

He tucked her head under his chin. “For Caroline.”





Chapter Twelve

Sean looked over at the alarm clock and shifted his hip. Trying not to dislodge a gently snoring Abigail, he tapped the Off button. The clock flashed 6:00 a.m., and the glow around the closed curtain told him it was time to get up. They were supposed to be at Carl’s by eight to set everything up for the campout. He slipped his arm from under Abigail’s neck and stuffed the pillow under her head. He could get the truck packed up, giving her another twenty minutes of sleep.