Page 75 of Billionaire Unbroken - Asher
I didn’t ever want to feel vulnerable again, but I trusted Asher.
Now that I had calmed down a little, I was seeing the nightmare as a sign that it was time for me to talk about my past with Asher.
Honestly, I’d thought about telling him when we’d first come home from Millie’s family dinner earlier, but the moment we’d stepped inside the door of his house, he’d kissed me. We’d gotten so wrapped up into each other after that kiss that any thoughts of having a serious discussion had completely slipped from my mind.
“Then tell me, sweetheart,” he said huskily. “Maybe I can help you chase the nightmares away.”
Tears filled my eyes.
He probably had no idea how much it meant to me that he actually wanted to help me fight my demons, but it was everything to me.
I’d spent most of my adult life feeling guilty, inept, and alone.
I shifted to try to get into a more comfortable position, knowing it was going to be a long discussion.
Asher pulled me between his legs as he leaned back against the headboard. When my back was rested against his front, he wrapped his arms tightly around my waist.
We’d fallen asleep nude, so I was comforted by the way we were together skin-to-skin.
I thought about turning on the bedside lamp, but this was a story that would probably be easier to tell in the darkness.
I took a deep breath. “Before you, I only had one man in my life, Asher. I was married for twelve years. We dated for two years before that. Three years ago, he tried to kill me, and he almost succeeded.”
I felt Asher’s body tense, but I continued.
“For most of my marriage, I felt like everything bad that happened was my fault. After a while, I’d been gaslighted for so long that I almost eagerly took the blame for everything. He couldn’t keep a job, he said horrible things to me, and he was never kind. The physical abuse started about a year before he tried to kill me. He told me that I drove him to abuse, and sometimes I even believed that, too. I went through a cycle of guilt and anger until I couldn’t take it anymore. I knew I had to get out, but on the day I finally tried to escape for good, he beat me so badly that I couldn’t get out.”
“Fuck!” Asher cursed. “The police?”
“I couldn’t get to my phone,” I told him. “That beating went on for a long time. He broke my ribs, my arm, and some of my facial bones that day before he filled the bathtub and started to hold my head under the water for long periods of time. I lost consciousness twice, but I didn’t die.”
“What the fuck?” he rasped in a furious voice.
“He wanted me to lie, and I wouldn’t. I knew he was going to kill me, Asher. I didn’t want to go out groveling. I’d done that for long enough. When he finally grabbed the gun, he shot me in the stomach first. He wanted to see me suffer.”
“What did he want you to say?” he growled.
“He wanted me to tell him that the child I was carrying wasn’t his. He wanted to feel like he was justified in killing both of us,” I said in a rush, the pain and anguish of that day flooding over me.
“He killed my baby boy first,” I choked out as I placed my hands on Asher’s forearms and squeezed. The agony of losing my child still hit me hard. “I was six months pregnant. That was what finally motivated me to get out. I didn’t want to raise my child in a marriage like ours. The rational part of my brain knew that I had to get out of my marriage and straighten my head out for the sake of my child. Jordan knew I was done. He killed my baby first, and then shot me in the chest. It was a miracle I didn’t die that day, Asher, but for a while, I really wished that I had.”
It had been a very long physical and mental recovery for me before I’d decided that I wanted to live.
“What happened to him?” he asked tightly.
I took a deep breath and let it out. “He’s dead,” I told him. “After he shot his child and then me, he shot himself in the head.”
I kept a tight grip on Asher’s forearms, but I felt a few of my muscles relax.
Now that I’d gotten the horrific facts out, the details would be easier, and I didn’t plan on holding anything back from Asher.
Before the night was over, he’d know about everything that had happened during those dark years of my past.
Asher
Breathe, Remington.
Just. Fucking. Breathe.
