For Once In My Life (Stevens Book 2)

Chapter 6

It was a week later, and Dana had settled into a routine.  She helped Quinn out on Tuesdays and Thursdays and helped with some of the cooking in the mornings.  Bertie was an excellent teacher who had been astounded that she couldn't cook.

Lizzy and Elizabeth had become her gossip partners, and they spent most evenings on the porch chatting and catching her up on all of the current events and pop culture that she had missed in her isolation.

She had even looked for, and had Lizzy purchase, as a surprise a database system for Quinn's practice, and she had spent hours entering all of Quinn's client's information into the system, and even updating his files while she was at it.

She had never slept so well at night despite the vivid dreams she was having about Quinn. She would wake up not recognizing the new feelings coursing through her body. She had never wanted a man before but oh how she wanted Quinn.

Just a kiss, what she wouldn't give for just a kiss.

One evening, after a rousing game of cards on the porch with Lizzy and Caleb, she was on her way to bed,  when she noticed that the light was on and the door was open to Quinn's office. She had the thought to say goodnight, but when she went to knock on the door, the conversation she heard stopped her.

"It's hard to believe she is only twenty-two." Bryce was saying.

"No it's not." Quinn's deep voice responded.

"You've not seen these."

Dana heard the slap of paper on the desk and felt her heart grow heavy.  Bryce felt the pity that she was afraid he would feel after seeing her files.

"It seems Dr. Eves was very detailed.  He had hoped she would want to press charges one day, so he documented everything, and I mean everything."

"Then that should help you," Quinn said, his voice sounded off to Dana.  Suddenly, she felt anger so intense she was almost choking. She hadn't felt such anger in a long time.  She pushed the door open, looking at the two men who turned to look directly at her, neither showed remorse for their conversation about her.

Slowly, she walked over to the desk and opened the first file. There it all was every gory detail.  All of her broken bones, black eyes, concussions, and other intimate information. She flipped through it all and came to the part about the miscarriage. That was when Dr. Eves had told her she wouldn't be able to have children.

Dana suddenly wanted to shock, she needed to shock them, maybe then they wouldn't feel pity for her then.

"But this is just my husband, now my father he was a treat."

She pushed the files towards Quinn. "Go ahead have a look see my married life and all of its gory details."

"Should I tell you about my father, Bryce? I want you to have the whole picture."

Just as quickly as her anger had come it fled at the thought of her father. That was the first time she had felt truly helpless. Just as she felt now, she couldn't hide her past.

She swallowed hard, fighting back the bile that rose in her throat. "Marcus bought me from my father when I was seventeen.  I went from one jail to another. My Father came to me four months before my seventeenth birthday and told me I was to be married to Marcus. I had met him a few times, and since he was twenty-five years older than me, I didn't see him as a potential suitor.  I tried to tell my father that I had no interest, and when that didn't work I moved to begging and pleading, and when that didn't work, I ran away."

She looked blindly at a picture on the wall behind Quinn.  It was of a beautiful bluebonnet scene, but she didn't see it at all. "I was only sixteen, and it didn't take him long to find me.   When he did he..." She swallowed hard remembering the beating. "Well, he wanted to make sure that I didn't run again, so I spent the next four months in my room. I didn't even get to finish high school. Father insisted on a tutor, so I did graduate, but he said college was up to Marcus and Marcus definitely said no." Her jaw worked hard as she fought back the tears. How could they not pity her when even she pitied herself?