Pretty Amazing Grace {Ryan Blaney || Sequel to Sweet Caroline} ✔️

twelve

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"I will say, this is an interesting situation." The therapist's face lit up a little, probably thankful for a change in her normal pace. Lydia was thankful that both her and Ryan's therapists had reached out and briefed this therapist on the situation. "I think I'll leave it up to you guys on what we start with."

Ryan fidgeted a little before lifting his eyes to meet Lydia's. He had been waiting for this moment, to be able to apologize and explain what happened at the courthouse. He had been rehearsing what he was going to say for days, even asking his therapist for input. His therapist had advised to go beyond just an apology and offer an explanation. "I'm sorry for what I said to you at the courthouse. I was so scared that I'd never see you again and I reacted in anger..." Ryan's voice trailed, his mind blanking on the rest of what he had wanted to say. "And I'm sorry for pushing you to talk when you had already told me that you didn't want to."

Lydia nodded, "I should have just told you what was going on instead of driving away." She tried to blink back the tears but she couldn't. "All I could think about was getting far away until I came up with a plan."

"Where did you go?" Ryan asked, grabbing her hand.

"I took Caroline to Durham, to Louisa. I knew Louisa would keep her safe. Then I went back to my hometown." Her voice shook a little, her mind transported back to the terror that she felt on the five-hour drive. She wasn't sure if she should tell Ryan that she had been a missing person, that Lydia wasn't even her birth name.

"Why?" Ryan's eyes were wide.

She shrugged, pulling eye contact away. "I wanted to see if there was anything I could do to keep Kyle away from us." Lydia settled on a half-truth. She didn't think that Ryan needed to know the whole truth, that the whole truth would be too much for Ryan to handle right now.

"Was there?" Ryan prompted, leaning in towards him.

"He's in jail. For good." Lydia nodded slowly.

Ryan's face crumpled a little bit. "For what he did to you?" His words were choked as he imagined Lydia's situation.

"No." Her words came out as a whisper. Lydia could feel where this conversation was steering -- right where she didn't want it to. "Why did you get so angry at me?" She hated that she was deflecting back to Ryan but she could tell where his questions were heading.

Lydia had a feeling that Ryan wanted to know the specifics of her abuse but she wasn't ready to talk about it, she wasn't sure if she would ever be.

Ryan's shoulders shrugged. "I think it was because I had had Elle in my ear all weekend and then you bolted back into the bathroom -- which why did you do that?" He paused, his eyes waiting for Lydia's answer.

"Morning sickness." She mumbled, thankful that her morning sickness had morphed into just nausea, more manageable and easier to hide.

"Right." His brow furrowed for a moment. "But when you bolted, I don't know. That angered me, it felt like you were trying to get out of explaining what happened."

"You scared me," Lydia whispered. "It was like everything I thought that I knew about you was gone." Lydia winced in anticipation of Ryan's reaction to that statement. She didn't want to hurt Ryan but she knew that if she ever wanted to feel better, she had to be honest with him.