broken arm, a collapsed lung, a busted lip…you name it, he broke it. He broke me.” She patted her chest hard. “That man in there—the ‘hoodlum,’ as you call him—took me to physical therapy, stayed by my side, loved me. He never once judged me for making the stupid decision to stay with Dennis even after he became abusive. He doesn’t care that I order a big ol’ bloody steak for dinner and drink whiskey and can’t walk in heels,” she sobbed. “And you know how I repaid him? I hurt him and pushed him away. Your precious Dennis threatened me while he was out on bail. Told me he would destroy Slade. Kill him. So I lied to Slade in order to protect him. Well, I thought I was protecting him. I had to disappear for a week in order to keep up the charade that I wasn’t testifying against Dennis. I was holed up in a motel, scared and alone, waiting for the trial to start so I could testify, all the while knowing that I stood to lose everything I had built here if I came back and was not forgiven. But as you can see, this town, these people, they can be very forgiving.”
She took a deep breath.
“And by the way, Dennis will be serving a lot of time in prison, seeing as he tried to kill me at his own trial when he saw I was about to get on the stand and testify against him.” She turned to Francesca. “Thank God you were there. I’m so sorry for the way I treated you. You were always around, and you’re so beautiful, and…and I was jealous and insecure and just so stupid. I’m sorry.”
“No problem,” Francesca said with a smile. “We women, we gotta stick together.”
“Still, I owe you a huge apology and an even bigger thank-you.”
“How ’bout I get invited to your next girls’ night and we’ll call it even?”
Jessica snorted a laugh, even though her tears were still flowing. “You got it. Friends?”
“Absolutely, honey.”
Jessica closed the gap and gave Francesca a hug.
Minutes later, after the rest of Slade’s friends had gone back to see him, Jessica’s father turned to her. “Why didn’t you tell us?” he asked, his voice laced with hurt.
“Why do you think? Look how you treated my friends. I don’t want to leave Tarpon Springs, and I know this town doesn’t look like what you wanted for me. But Mom, Dad, I’m not what you wanted, either. I don’t do teatime. I don’t want to marry a doctor or a politician or whatever so-called perfect guy you two handpick for me. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, but I didn’t want to hear it. Plus I was embarrassed. I never thought of myself as a victim. And it felt like you loved Dennis more than you loved me sometimes.”
“Oh, sweetie, we’re so sorry. We love you first and foremost. We want you to be happy,” her father said warmly.
A choked sob escaped her mother. “Jessica, honey, you should have told me.” Even though she was not a public-display-of-affection kind of woman, she enveloped Jessica in a tight hug. “We love you so much, and we just want what’s best for you. And if we’ve overstepped or misjudged, we are so sorry. I am so sorry.”
Mrs. Cross pulled back a little to look at Jessica. “So this Slade person. Why is he in the hospital? Is he going to be all right?”
Jessica sobbed even more in her mother’s arms. “Oh, Mom. I love him so much. He’s given me more in a few months than Dennis gave me in five years. He is—actually he was—but because he was so mad at me, he began again….”
“Honey, take a deep breath,” her father said. “You’re rambling. We don’t understand what you’re trying to say.”
Jessica took a few deep breaths, then started over.
“He’s a professional cage fighter. It’s called mixed martial arts. He also owns his own academy. He’s had too many head traumas throughout the years and wasn’t supposed to fight anymore. But he did. He fought. And that too was my fault. But he won. He always wins. Apparently there was a small blow to the head but because he was already suffering from too many concussions, he had some hemorrhaging. He had to have emergency surgery yesterday and they drained out some blood. He has been in an induced coma while his head healed and the swelling subsided. Now he’s awake