Her Reluctant Husband by Erica Marselas (summer beach reads txt) 📗

fucking sorry. I know it won’t be enough. Listen, just tell me you’re okay. That’s all I need to know right now. That’s all that matters. I love you.” I say the last words quickly and then hang up my phone.

Deacon’s letter is now on the floor, mocking me. I pick it up and crinkle it into a tight ball before sending it across the room. It does nothing to diffuse my anger, but I know I can’t fully destroy it either no matter how much I want to.

I start opening all the other desk drawers. I don’t know what I’m looking for or if I’ll find anything. It’s not like I need more proof of what this motherfucking asshole did. I didn’t need anything more than what she told me or what the sheriff confirmed, but it’s like I need to find anything and everything to stab more daggers to my heart.

I need more to hate myself for all I did and the pain I caused her.

She shouldn’t be alone in this.

I don’t find anything after throwing every paper and file out. I fall back in the chair, exhaustion hitting me, and Liz’s office is a mess. Guess we’ll have no choice but to do something with it now.

Mindlessly and hopelessly I wander out of the room. I find myself heading upstairs to June’s room. I fall to her bed and pick up her sheet, inhaling her lingering scent of lavender and vanilla.

What the fuck am I going to do?

How the fuck do I fix this?

My eyes draw around the room, trying to take in her presence and it’s when I really notice she hasn’t made this room her own. The walls are blank besides a hanging painted picture of a beach. She has her dresser with some knickknacks, but it’s otherwise plain. I don’t know why I didn’t notice before.

Over in the corner sits the boxes of Kathleen’s things Liz packed up years ago. I throw June’s sheet to the side and decide to go scavenger through them. Maybe some of June’s stuff will be hidden inside. I open up the first box, a box that has been closed for years, and I find Kat’s pink fluffy blanket, among all her dance trophies. She was going to be world class dancer and the bastard took her from us.

“She wanted to start a dance studio,” I mumble to myself. At least June in a way still gave her that.

I spot something purple on the bottom of the box and yank it out. There’s a ballerina on the cover and I realize it’s Kats journal.

I flip the pages open, nervous about what I might find of my sister's hopes and dreams. I’m feeling locked out of everything. I didn’t know Kat and I sure as hell never knew June. I skim the pages of her talking about her day to day. I run right over one page about her talking about a boy, no use getting upset now. I read one about the time I took them all dirt biking.

Then I fall on a page, that has me stumbling back to the bed.

 

I’m so scared. I have no idea what to do about June.

I found her yesterday with her clothes torn and gashes on her skin. She tried to tell me she fell again. But I refused to believe it. She was crying so hard and finally told me about what Deacon was doing to her. He raped her last night. And it wasn’t the first time.

I’m so mad that I didn’t see it. I’m mad she didn’t tell me sooner.

He’s been hurting her for years and she’s been keeping it to herself for years.

This whole time, I’ve been thinking she was taking her dad’s death and her mother's rejection the hard way, but it was Deacon.

Here I thought Deacon was my friend, Alex’s friend, but he’s nothing but a monster.

June won’t let me tell anyone. I feel so hopeless.

The journal drops from my hand and I can’t finish the rest. We all failed her. We were all so blind. We didn’t fight harder for her.

All those years he spent deceiving us.

Motherfucker.

I let the two people I loved the most in the world down. I let them fall victims to the hands of Deacon.

Fuck!

I slam my fist into the mattress over and over again as the rage pours out of me.

How did I not see it?

I’ve known him since I was ten. I hung out with that motherfucker almost every day. The bastard would cry at a fucking sucker punch to the gut or when I kicked his ass playing video games. And he just used me to get to her?

If I do get my hands on him, I’m going to kill him. He better not even think about coming near her.

“Alex, are you here?” Ms. Gandy’s voice rings up the stairwell.

“I’m up here. In June’s room,” I call back down.

Ms. Gandy appears in the doorway. “You look like someone just shit in your cereal.”

“If only someone shitting in my cereal was my problem. Do you have any idea where June is by chance?”

“I do.” Ms. Gandy steps into the room and sits next to me on the bed.

“Where is she?”

“She’s at my house.”

“Thank god. Is she okay?”

She pats my leg. “Alex, we need to talk.”

“About?” I rub my neck nervously and I already have a feeling where this is going.

“She told me what happened.”

“Which part?”

“Well, all of it. I can’t believe you tried to force…”

“Ms. Gandy, I wouldn’t have hurt her or done anything she didn’t want. I wasn’t thinking. Fuck!” I lunge off the bed and yank on my hair, hoping I can pull it out. “You have to believe me. I’m