Love In Slow Motion (Love Beyond Measure #2) - E.M. Lindsey Page 0,9

Julian. Your father can’t see it, but you can. I can. Corinne will make friends, and they’ll be able to see it too. Those filthy shoes, those clothes. He’s at that school because his father works in the front office, and that is not the sort of friend you’re expected to bring home.”

“He’s my only friend,” Julian said, and Ilan’s heart twisted in his chest because yes, he knew that. It was obvious that before he’d come to the school, Julian had been a deserted island.

“That’s because you don’t try. It’s bad enough we can’t hide that scar, but this chubby little face of yours…it’s no wonder no one wants to associate with you. Sometimes I wonder if your father only loves you the way he does because he can’t see…”

And then Ilan ran, because he couldn’t take it. He could fight bullies and hug Julian and make promises that someday they’d run away together and never look back. But he couldn’t ever undo the things his own mother must have been saying for years. And he fundamentally couldn’t understand how anyone could hate that small, quiet, kind boy.

Something shifted after that. They watched movies, then ate dinner after Mr. Pedalino got home, but Ilan couldn’t bring himself to smile or hold conversations the way he normally did. They went outside when they were finished, because it was near summer, and it was still light out, and Julian wanted to swing. Ilan didn’t feel like doing much of anything, because he was too young to understand how to fix the situation, but he was old enough to know that Julian was slowly shattering inside, bit by bit.

And there might be a day where there was nothing left of him.

“You were very quiet tonight,” came a voice to his right, and Ilan looked over to see Mr. Pedalino making his way across the grass with his cane. It hit the table Ilan was sitting on, then he stopped. “Are you here?” he asked after a prolonged silence. “The cook said she saw you sitting at the table.”

Ilan shrugged, then remembered he had to speak. “Yeah, it’s just me though. Julian’s on the swing.”

“I know. I was talking about you.” His hand reached out, found the bench, then he sat. “Do you want to talk about what’s wrong?”

Ilan bit the inside of his cheek. “Why does she hate him?”

Mr. Pedalino blinked like he’d been slapped across the face. “I don’t know who…”

“Mrs. Pedalino. She hates Julian. The stuff she says to him is so…” Ilan stopped when his voice cracked, and he felt suddenly weak and desperate to go home so he could hug his parents. “Why?” he finished on a whisper.

“She doesn’t hate him,” Mr. Pedalino said, but the words sounded like the lie they were.

“Yeah. Yeah, she does.” Ilan felt his anger rising, because it was obvious this man loved his son, but he also didn’t do anything to stop his wife from being so cruel. “My mom doesn’t talk to me like that, even when she’s real, real mad. My dad…he never would. They love me. She doesn’t love him. Why don’t you stop her from making him cry?”

Mr. Pedalino’s eyes closed, and he let out a breath, and he said nothing at all.

It was that moment Ilan knew that he’d protect his friend with his life. And it was in that moment he wasn’t sure he would ever forgive Fredric Pedalino for not doing the one thing he was supposed to do as Julian’s father. It was the moment Ilan realized that love wouldn’t always be enough.

Leaning back in his desk, Ilan glanced around his office. His diplomas and certifications lined the walls, dusty because the moment he put them up, he stopped giving a shit about them. He liked his office, he liked his staff. He liked at least thirty percent of his patients as people, which was an astounding amount compared to most of his colleagues.

And once upon a time, that shit mattered. Once upon a time, he reveled in being the man who was best at his job—who had a reputation for patients falling in love with him because he was competent and kind. He liked the idea that no one had been worth settling for, and no one ever would be. Julian had always wanted more for Ilan, but he also respected that Ilan held the idea of relationships in contempt and was going to be satisfied staying out of one for the rest