The Thief Who Saved My Life

Chapter 21

I don't think my father even realized I hadn't gone to school until well into the morning. Even then, I was sure the only reason he found out was because Julia noticed that I never came down from my room this morning and came to check on me around 10. I had still been sleeping and had only woken up once since Brandon dropped me off and that was because I had set the alarm on my phone to remind me to take another pill. When Julia nudged me awake and asked why I hadn't gotten up for school, I woke up enough to find all the paperwork from the hospital that I had set on my bedside table and gave them to her.

If I hadn't been so tired, I would have told her I was sick. My brain wasn't awake or alert enough to lie and I ended up passing her the truth. I realized my mistake when I heard her gasp.

"Evie, what happened?"

I sighed into my pillow and muttered, "Is there anyway I can go back to sleep and we can talk about this later?"

"Absolutely not."

It was the most firm I'd heard her speak. Gone was the airy, soft voice I had grown used to in the last week.

"I know you don't know me very well, Evie, but this is not something that will go undiscussed."

"Alright," I said quietly and shifted until I was sitting up in the bed. It was all going to come out anyway. All of it. If it hadn't already. "Can I just take a shower first?"

Julia nodded. "I'll see you downstairs in twenty minutes. I'm going to call your father and see if he can come home."

He wouldn't come home for this. He wouldn't come home when his only child attempted to kill herself, I doubted a couple broken ribs would do the trick, but I would let Julia figure that out for herself. After making sure that I was really getting up to take a shower and not going to go back to sleep as soon as she shut the door behind her, Julia left. I found my phone, attached to the charger still and pulled it off. I had one new message from Garret. I didn't need to look at it though, I was sure I knew what it said. I had a couple missed calls from Tyler that made me sure he had talked with Brandon sometime this morning. I wanted to call him back, but I knew whatever conversation we were going to have wasn't going to be a quick ten minute call.

I sent him a message that we would talk later and apologized for missing the calls. Setting my phone on the counter, I reached into shower and turned the water on, twisting the knob until it was as hot as the water would get. Undressing, I turned my back to the mirror and looked at myself. My back looked disgusting the left side covered in a bruise. I could see where it had began to yellow as the bruises were almost healed and then the deep purplish shade from where I landed on the gear shift in Brandon's truck. Right now, painkillers still coursing through my system, it looked like it hurt a lot worse than it did. When the mirror began to fog from the steam, I turned away and stepped into the hot shower, letting the water pour over me. I scrubbed the smeared makeup from my face and washed my hair until I no longer felt grody.

When the hot water began to turn cold and I knew I didn't have much excuse to delay any longer, I shut off the water and stepped out. Gently toweling myself dry, I changed into my favorite pair of pajama pants and a teeshirt that was two sizes too big that I had bought specifically for sleeping. I let my wet hair hang down and then slowly dragged myself downstairs where Julia was waiting for me.

"Cal couldn't get away from meetings he has all day," she said, clearly irritated.

I lifted one shoulder in a shrug, I hadn't expected him to take the afternoon off and come home to listen to me explain all of this. I sat down on the plush couch and pulled one of the throw pillows into my lap.

"I don't want you to feel like I'm upset with you, Evie. But I need to understand how four of your ribs broke."

"It's a really long story."

She gave me a small smile. "We've got all day."

I knew I needed to tell her. I needed to tell someone and she didn't know me very well, didn't have a lot of expectations. And sometime soon all of this would rain on down her just as it had been on me for the last two years. I just didn't know where to begin. And even if I did know where to start, getting the words to actually come out of my mouth was difficult. Julia thankfully didn't continue to demand I explain myself. Several long, silent minutes passed before she spoke again.

"Let's start with how you ended up in the hospital last night."

"Someone was trying to stop me from... something. He picked me up and when he dropped me, my back hit the shifter in his truck."

When I chanced a glance up, I saw her brow furrowed in confusion.

"And that broke four ribs?"

I shook my head looking back down at the throw pillow in my lap as I picked at the fringe. "No, that just made it worse." I pulled in a deep, ragged breath that only hurt a little and counted silently to three. When I reached three, I opened my mouth and told her. "It was Garret that broke my ribs," I said, "a couple weeks ago."

"Weeks?"

She sounded shocked, which was good because it meant I'd done well at hiding it. I nodded without looking up.

"Who is Garret?"

"He was sort of my boyfriend," I started and then explained it all. I didn't reveal the worst, not now. But I told her that we'd started dating when I was 16. I explained how I loved that he was so different from the stuck up guy I'd met at my father's parties. Garret was kind and flattering. I never had to get dress up to hang out with him. For a while I could just be me. I didn't look at Julia I told her about the first time he was violent—when he hit the wall—and the first time he hit me. It kind of snowballed from there. I skimmed over the first time I tried end things with him just enough to explain why I stayed. "A couple weeks ago, I said things I knew would get under his skin and he... well, this."

Julia was silent for so long that I looked up at her. I don't know what I was expecting but it wasn't to see her eyes welled up with tears.

"You should have gone to your father," she said but it wasn't a reprimand, more like a plea, a wish that I had. She didn't know him well enough to know that wasn't an option. I figured she would find out soon enough.

"My father wouldn't have cared past being embarrassed that his daughter had a sex tape."

"Oh, Evie," she said. "I promise he would have. I know sometimes it seems like—"

"I tried to kill myself," I blurted out and shocked, her jaw dropped. "My father didn't even call. He didn't leave where he was to come take care of me. Even later when we spoke, he didn't ask me why I'd done it, he didn't ask what he could do. He was with you," I said. "Proposing to you, while I in the hospital. And I'm not trying to hurt you or make you feel guilty over it, just... we don't know the same person."