Page 31 of Justice

“You know what I mean,” I said. “I’m praying that none of what they suggested will happen and that this is actually dad’s drug dealer and he just wants his money.”

“Yeah, I hope that too. Then we can bring Belle and you back here safely.”

I looked up at him. “You want Belle to come here?”

“Of course, I do. Besides, she might not be safe if this is Deacon. Either way, she is better off here.”

I had to agree, but if the best happened and it ended up like that, maybe I should tell him. “Um, Justice. My sister isn’t…” I faltered.

He stared at me. “What?”

“She hates men,” I blurted it out.

“Why?” he asked.

“It’s my fault mostly.”

“Ok, now I’m really lost.”

“The two relationships I had. She was there for those.”

He shrugged and said, “So? Sometimes things just don’t work out.”

“No, they ended in disaster. The first one… I had to put a restraining order on him and he ignored it. “

“Ignored it?”

I looked away. I just didn’t want to tell him the truth about that. “He beat me up badly when he finally caught up with me.”

Silence.

I looked back over at Justice to see real rage on his face. “I had to move back home for a while, I was a mess. It took mea long time to heal up, he almost killed me. He went to prison for deadly assault against me and when they went to arrest him, they found drugs and weapons, so he had those charges on him too. Belle knew what happened. Then with number two mistake of my life…” My voice fell away.

“He was like that too?” Justice asked.

“No, not at all. I don’t think I ever met a man as kind as he was. Well, except for you, but that wasn’t the issue. ”

“So what was?”

“He was married,” I admitted.

Justice slowly shook his head.

“Of course, I never knew that. But it was so sad.”

“Sad? I’ll say, cheating is no way to go.”

“I-it wasn’t like that,” I defended.

He raised an eyebrow at me. “Either he was a cheater or he wasn’t.”

“No, it wasn’t…” I shook my head as I paused. “You see his wife had been in a coma for a year and they said she might never wake up. I bumped into him going into an elevator where I was going for a job interview.”

“And that started it?”

“It didn’t happen right away. After I got that job, I discovered that he worked in that same building. We got to know each other. He was so warm and easygoing. But I did see sadness in him.” I shrugged. “Maybe that spoke to me after Wade…The stalker boyfriend. I felt sad too.”

“And that like… drew you to him?”