Page 7 of Vanishing Point (Bent County Protectors #1)

“Magnolia. The day I found out I was pregnant, I had a black eye and a bruised rib. Eric didn’t want kids, but I didn’t know what I was more scared of. His reaction if I told him, or his reaction if I decided what to do about it on my own.”

She could still feel echoes of that old fear. That complete powerlessness. Knowing she wanted her child and knowing she didn’t have any real say. It had been a breaking point.

“Even if he’d let me keep a baby, I just…

I remembered how awful it was to be a kid whose parents screamed at each other.

I couldn’t imagine how much worse it would have been if my dad had ever physically hurt my mom.

I didn’t want that for any child of mine, and I wanted her.

So badly I wanted…to be a mother. To love someone. ”

He held her tighter against him. “You said, back when Rosalie first had me come out, you said he tried to have you committed.”

“I called in a report that day. At first, the officers who responded took me very seriously. But as the days went on, I heard more about how I’d waited. How the prosecutor wouldn’t take on a case like mine. I knew Eric was making sure everyone thought I was lying.”

Thomas’s expression was mostly blank, but she saw in the way he held his jaw, tight and hard, he wasn’t just absorbing this information. It bothered him. She supposed she couldn’t be hurt by that.

“The next time he hit me, I called the police right away. He didn’t even stop me.

I thought… I don’t know, I really thought that would be it.

But he just laughed and told me he’d always win.

I didn’t know how at the time, but then the cops showed up.

They knew him, of course. And when he said I’d hurt myself, that I was a danger to him and myself, that I should be involuntarily committed and he’d be sure I got the help I needed, I realized there was no real end. He had all the power.”

“He doesn’t,” Thomas said firmly. Then he relaxed a little, as if he was trying to make himself. “But you figured that out. You left.”

“It was my word against theirs, and there was no proof, so they couldn’t involuntarily commit me.

But I knew if he got another chance, he’d make it happen.

They made us separate for the night. And I just took that as my opportunity to run.

I went to my dad. I was afraid… Well, I thought maybe he wouldn’t help, but it was my only chance. ”

“I know your dad wasn’t perfect, but he did love you.”

Vi nodded, trying to blink back tears. “Yeah. Him and Suze saved me. They got me a divorce lawyer. At first, I thought it would be enough.” She shook her head, swallowing at the lump in her throat.

“Stuff started happening at Dad’s house.

Tires slashed. Mailboxes knocked over. Little petty things, and no way of proving it was Eric. ”

“But of course it was Eric.”

“Yeah. Luckily, they served him the divorce papers at work. Apparently it was embarrassing enough for him that he got his own lawyer. They somehow made it look like he’d wanted the divorce first. Tried to make it out like I was unstable and a danger to him .

I didn’t even care at that point. Whatever got me out, especially if he never knew I was pregnant.

But it left me flat broke, and too close.

I couldn’t stand the idea of Dad and Suze getting hurt just for helping me, so I was going to leave. ”

She inhaled, just as her therapist told her. Breathe in and let it all out. Feel your body. Know you’re safe.

“Dad insisted on helping me, and I didn’t have a choice. I had no money. No…anything. So first, they got me on a flight to Suze’s sister in Chicago. Then my aunt and uncle in Phoenix. My aunt and uncle drove me up to Denver, and Audra and Rosalie picked me up there. We thought he wouldn’t find me.”

“How long did it take?”

“It was almost six months before he called my new number. Every time I’d change it, he’d find it sooner.

But it was just…messages about how I was nothing.

How much better his life was without me.

How he’d won. It’s all kind of a blur. Magnolia was born two months early, and I was more focused on that than what messages he left. ”

“Has he ever threatened Magnolia?”

“I never told him I was pregnant. I didn’t go to the doctor until I got out. He doesn’t know she exists.”

Thomas was clearly confused by this. “If he’s gone through the trouble of phone numbers and email addresses, don’t you think he knows you had a kid?”

She hesitated for the first time since she’d started. Because the next bit was…well, illegal. “Let’s just say…it wasn’t exactly… I didn’t perhaps give the hospital the full truth.”

He frowned at her. “You can tell me, Vi. I’m not going to arrest you.”

He seemed irritated enough by the idea, so she figured he deserved the full truth. “Audra… She had me use all her information. Name. Social. Insurance. If anyone looks at Magnolia’s birth certificate, they’d think Audra was her mother.”

He inhaled slowly, let it out. She couldn’t really decide what he thought about any of that, but she’d told him. It was all out there. Whatever happened from here on out was with the whole true story between them.

If he balked now, that was on him . She really tried to convince herself it would be on him.

“And that’s the whole story?” he asked.

“Pretty much every terrible detail. He calls and leaves a message from time to time or writes an all-caps email from some fake email address. He’s usually drunk when he does it.

And maybe they sometimes have gotten a little threatening, but he’s never left Richmond.

Never come looking for me. It’s just…him convincing himself he can still mess up my life. He can’t.”

“No, he can’t.” Thomas reached out, tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “I need you to tell me when it happens. Even if it’s not a threat. Even if we then pretend it never happened. I need to know.”

She didn’t like that but was trying to let this relationship be the real deal. Which meant listening to her therapist, not reacting , but dealing. Not retreating but putting herself in another person’s shoes.

And Thomas dealt with this kind of thing. The crushing regularity of a man who terrorized his significant other. So how could she keep something like that from him?

As much as she wanted to. “If it makes you feel any better, I promised Rosalie and Audra too. Back on that night you came over. I know it’s hard to believe, but I…

As much shame as I’m still working through, I am working through it.

I know it’s not my fault, what happened to me is not my own failure to hide. Or I’m working on knowing it.”

“Vi. That’s a lot of important words, but none of them are I promise .”

She studied his face. The faint hint of whiskers from a long day. The lines around his mouth and eyes now. But those eyes were exactly the same. Blue and earnest and in love with her .

She cupped his face with her hands, pressed her mouth to his. “I promise,” she managed to say, through a too tight throat.

“I love you, Vi. Call it old, call it new. I don’t really care. It’s all there.”

She hadn’t expected that , but maybe she should have. “I’m not sure I’m ever going to be okay with you being a cop.”

He sucked in a breath, pained. Like she’d stabbed him clean through. Still, he didn’t yell. He didn’t withdraw or get cold. He just nodded.

Because he wasn’t Eric. No matter how she kept waiting for her judgment to be wrong, but this wasn’t just any guy.

It was Thomas Hart. The first boy she’d loved, and she still recognized that boy, but he was settled in a strong, mature man who’d seen his fair share of bad.

“But I do love you, Thomas.”

He studied her face a long time. “I just want you to be happy, Vi.”

She thought about her life. Living out here on the ranch and taking care of the ranch. Watching Magnolia grow. Falling in love with her sweet high school boyfriend who maybe had a job that terrified her but was still the same good person she’d loved as a boy.

Two years ago, she’d had no hope she’d ever experience happiness again, and these days she felt it more than all the other things.

“I am happy, Thomas. Very happy.”