Page 10 of Restitution

“Our babies,” she cries. “We need to help them. Please help them.”

He strokes the back of her hair, his arm around the small of her back. “We will. I promise we’ll get our kids back.”

The door opens again, and my eyes land on Jason.

5

STACEY

My head is fuzzy as I pry my eyes open, wincing from both the sunlight shining through the window and the ache in my muscles.

I curl into Kade’s embrace and freeze all over, like ice-cold water has doused my naked body when I realise the chest has no tattoos. The hand resting on my hip belongs to someone who isn’t my boyfriend. And when I lift my eyes to see the person’s face, my stomach curdles.

It’s Jason.

Kade’s big brother.

I’m in my boyfriend’s brother’s bed. With no clothes on.

I feel like dying when between my legs throbswith the worst pain imaginable.

“No,” I blurt in a croaky, dry voice and pull away from him – my heart instantly racing and shattering to pieces. I inwardly wince from how stiff my body is. “No. No, no, no. Please no.”

He groans and tries to reach for me. His eyes are closed, a frown line between his brows as he tries to pull me to him. “Go back to sleep, Giana. We’ll go buy tests later.”

The breath I let out catches halfway, and everywhere tenses as his hand lowers to my ass.

I launch myself away from him with a scream and hide my naked body with the duvet, pulling it completely off his. I close my eyes and beg myself to wake up – to rise from this nightmare as I back into a desk chair and drop into it.

I open them to slits when I hear the bed shift. I keep my hand up to hide his lower region.

Bile rises in my throat.

All I can think of is how Kade is never going to forgive me – I’ve broken his trust and ruined our future together. I’m not like this. I love Kade more than anything in the world. He was the only person who kept me breathing. He was the air to my starved lungs.

And going by the indents on my chest, the bite marks all over my breasts and the cut on my nipple, not to mention the bruising and dried blood on my hips and inner thighs, I know I’ve screwed everything up.

Jason sits straight on the mattress, one eye still shut. “Baby, what are you—” His voice stops, and he tilts his head at me – looks back down at the bed then back to me, completely lost. “What are you…? Who…? Stacey?”

He grabs a pillow and holds it against himself, his hand shakingas he brushes it through his sweaty hair. “What the fuck?”

A tear slips down my cheek as I shake and look at the wall. I’m trying so hard not to sob, to drop to the ground and curl up into a ball and scream for forgiveness.

I’ve betrayed Kade. I… cheated on him. With Jason.

Why would I do that?

I wouldn’t. Kade is everything to me. He’s my person. The one I’ll have a big family with – grow old with.

I don’t blink, my body trembling as I rise from the chair, keeping the covers against my chest as I put as much distance between me and the bed as possible. If my body allowed me, I would run, but I can barely stand.

My ribs are still cracked. From Chris finding the ultrasound picture in my room and throwing me around in utter rage, kicking me repeatedly in the stomach until my baby girl died.

I barely recognise my own voice as I stand and somehow ask, “Did you touch me?” I already know the answer as my words break. “Did we…? Did you…?”

Jason’s eyes bulge. “Wait. Hold the fuck on a minute. We fucked? I fucked you? I thought you were Giana.” His mouth hangs open, and he looks down at the dried blood all over his lower abdomen. “Is this your blood?”

I try to gulp and fail, nodding. “I think so.”