Page 183 of Cross Checked
Because she was right.
She was so right it made my chest ache.
Aura and Charm knew more than anyone else, but even they didn’t know all of it. They knew Luke scared me. They knew I avoided certain parking lots, certain hallways, certain family events unless Ryker was there. They knew my phone could light up with one name and ruin my whole night. They knew enough to hate him, but not enough to understand he still found ways topunish me when I stepped too far out of the invisible lines he had drawn around my life.
I swallowed hard and reached for the collar of Cade’s hoodie.
“Bliss?” Charm asked, her voice changing instantly.
I pulled the fabric aside just enough to show them the bruise near my neck, the ugly blue-purple bloom Luke had left behind when he pinched me hard enough to remind me that he still thought my body was something he had rights to.
Charm went completely still, and Aura’s face changed in a way I had only seen a few times in my life.
Not shock exactly.
Something colder.
Something sharper.
“He still hurts me,” I whispered.
The apartment went quiet around us. The neon lips on the wall glowed pink over Charm’s pale face and Aura’s clenched jaw, and for one horrible second I wished I could take it back, shove the hoodie higher, laugh it off, make it smaller than it was.
But I was done doing that.
“Not always like this,” I said quickly, because the silence felt too big. “Sometimes it’s little things. Pinching. Grabbing too hard. Getting close enough to scare me when nobody’s looking. Showing up where he knows I’ll be. Saying things that sound normal if someone else hears them, but I know what he means.” My fingers trembled against the hoodie, but I kept the bruise visible because hiding it now felt like handing him one more piece of me. “He’s still controlling me. He’s still punishing me. He has videos and texts and pictures he threatens me with. One wrong move and he can ruin my life. My family. I play by his rules, and I am really good at making it look like nothing.”
Charm’s eyes filled with tears. “B.”
“I know,” I whispered. “I know. I should have told you.”
“No.” Aura’s voice snapped hard enough to make me look at her. “Don’t do that. Not here.”
My throat tightened.
“You told us now,” she said, softer but no less fierce. “That’s what matters.”
I nodded, but tears slipped down my cheeks anyway.
“I told Cade last night. Not every detail. Not the whole horror-show director’s cut, because nobody needs that, including me. But I told him enough. I gave him the truth, I’m telling you guys the truth, and I refuse to put it back where it was.”
Charm reached for my hand, and I let her take it.
“I’m done letting Luke control me with fear,” I said, and the words shook so badly they almost fell apart before they made it out. “I’m done letting him use threats and shame and all the things I was too scared to say out loud as a leash. Cade and I are going to talk to my family later this week. I’m going to tell Dad. I’m going to tell Knox enough that he can help me figure out what to do legally. A restraining order, police report, whatever has to happen next.”
Aura’s eyes shone, but her voice stayed steady. “Good.”
“It doesn’t feel good.”
“It won’t yet,” she said. “But it is.”
Charm squeezed my fingers with both hands. “And we’re coming with you if you want us there.”
I gave a watery laugh. “Obviously. I can’t trauma dump on the Bennett men without my emotional support glam squad.”
Charm sniffed, then smiled through her tears. “Finally. Respect for the brand.”
Aura’s mouth twitched, but her eyes stayed on the bruise. “B, he doesn’t get to keep doing this.”
