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“I’m not hungry. I was just going to head to bed.”
“You need to eat something. I’ll see if I have any soup in the freezer.” I led her down the stairs, my hand in hers, not letting her sneak off to bed.
She sat quietly at the table while I heated up some chicken noodle soup. “You really don’t have to make that for me. I doubt I can eat much of anything.”
I grabbed a soft ice pack from the freezer and wrapped a clean hand towel around it, bringing it up to her cheek.
She winced before I even touched her, and then when she must have realized I wasn’t going to hurt her, she eased back.
I dropped a soft kiss on the top of her head before retreating back into the kitchen by the stove to check on dinner. I heated up some leftovers from yesterday because while Ariella may not have been starving, I was famished.
Thirty minutes later, and two bowls of soup eaten, she placed her spoon down.
“Wow, I ate more than I thought I would,” she said.
“Good.” I cleaned up the dishes and shut off the lights.
Skylar still wasn’t home, and I hadn’t gotten any texts from her either. Maybe she had a boyfriend who I didn’t know about? “Have you heard from Skylar?” I asked, doubtful that Ariella knew anything more than I did, but they were both girls.
Didn’t girls talk?
“No,” Ariella said as she followed me to the sofa to sit. “It’s not my day to watch her.”
“I see you still have your sense of humor.” I pulled her into my lap and grabbed the blanket off the back of the sofa, pulling it around us. “Can I do anything for you? Get you anything?”
“No, that feels nice,” she whispered, her eyes closed as I wrapped my arms around her protectively.
“That was the point,” I whispered into her ear, smiling, relieved that she let me hold her.
Her voice was soft, tentative. “I want to tell you what happened, but you have to promise not to be mad.”
I couldn’t do that, not if she meant that she didn’t want me to be angry with Ben.
He’d drugged her, assaulted her, and who knows what else he’d have done if we hadn’t shown up when we did.
“I have no reason to be upset with you.” I wanted it made clear that my anger wasn’t directed at her. “You didn’t do anything wrong, Freckles.”
“It’s my fault. All of it.”