I Sent Him to Prison, Now I'm Falling for His Brother novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: What He Never Did

I woke at seven with sunlight across the bed and Darius's arm heavy across my waist.

For a minute I did not move.

I waited for the old panic to come, the one that always came when somebody's weight was on me.

It did not come.

I lay there and counted the quiet.

He woke when I shifted.

"Morning," he said.

"Morning."

"You're still here," he said.

"I told you I would be."

"I'm glad you are."

I pulled the sheet up over my chest and sat against the headboard.

"I have something to say to you," I said. "And I'm going to say it once."

He sat up and waited.

"Nine years," I said. "For nine years your family wrote the story of what happened to me. Your mother told it at dinner parties. Your brother told it in a letter. And you were on the other side of the world with your phone off, so you wouldn't have to be told."

"Yes."

"I hated all of you. You included. I hated a man I had never met because he had the same last name as the people who made my mother cash checks."

"I know."

"Last night I wanted you, and I hate that I wanted you, and I'm telling you that so it's on the table."

"Thank you."

"Don't thank me."

"Then I'll say this." His gray eyes were open and level. "I can't fix those nine years. I'm not going to try to explain them. I'll just tell you what I do from here, every day, until you stop watching me for the next mistake."

"That could be a long time."

"Then it's a long time."

I looked at his hands on the blanket.

Then I leaned over and kissed him, once, hard.

"Make me coffee," I said. "I'll hate it."

He laughed, a real one, low and surprised, and it changed his whole face.

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