“She…uh, she has a bruise on her wrist.”
Dottie’s head whips up and the pain in her eyes makes tears well up in my own. “You think he’s hurting her?”
“I… Yes. I asked her about it and she said she was being clumsy and he grabbed her when she fell but I just don’t believe that,” I admit and hatred burns in my gut as I think about someone hurting my baby sister. I set my cup down on the table and lean forward. “What can we do?”
Dottie is quiet for a moment, staring down at her coffee as she absentmindedly stirs it, before letting out a sigh. “Years ago, I had this friend who met what we all thought was the most wonderful man, but it didn’t take long for me to realize that something was off. I suspected he was knocking her around and even though I had no proof, I just couldn’t let it go so I asked her about it. She straight up denied it and got mad at me for sticking my nose where it didn’t belong. It tore our friendship apart and I didn’t see her for nearly a year when she showed up at my house in the middle of the night, six months pregnant, with a black eye and a broken arm. I had been right, but it didn’t matter because she wasn’t ready to face the truth.”
“What are you saying?” I ask, horrified that she might actually be suggesting that we do nothing.
“I’m saying if he’s hurting her, his hooks are already in deep and if we say something, we might just push her away when she needs us the most.”
I stare at her with my mouth hanging open and voices roaring in my head. “You can’t be serious. I won’t just let him hurt her.”
“If we do this and she pulls away, she won’t have anyone to turn to when she is finally ready to leave. Believe me, child, I want to do whatever it takes to get her out of there, but I know this is something she has to do herself, even if it kills me.”
“So, we do nothing?”
She shakes her head. “No. You be there for her. You let her know that no matter what happens, you are always by her side because she will need you. Maybe not right away but someday, she’s going to need her big sister to be there for her.”
“I can’t believe this,” I mutter, dropping my head into my hands and sucking in a breath.
“I know it feels like everything that you shouldn’t be doing, Carly, and trust me, I briefly considered grabbing my gun and going for a drive, but it won’t fix anything. And even worse, Ivy would never forgive us.”
“At least she’d be alive,” I hiss, looking up at her.
She nods, taking a sip of coffee with an eerie calm settling over her. “We take this one day at a time, Carly, and if things get worse, we’ll be there to help her. But if you charge in now, you won’t be around and you won’t know if she needs you.”
“I hate it.”
“I know. I do, too.”
Silence descends over us and I take a sip of my coffee before taking a deep breath in an attempt to relax.
“So,” Dottie prompts, watching me with a raised brow. “Anything else on your mind?”
I shake my head. “Nope.”
“Whatever happened with that boy of yours?”
After another sip of coffee, I set the cup down and sigh. “I took your advice and let him in.”
“And?” she asks as she fights back a smile.
“And, turns out the asshole is married.”
“No,” she gasps, shaking her head as she lays her hand on the table in front of her. I nod, my chest aching with all the things I’ve been avoiding as I look away from her. “Tell me everything.”
With a sigh, I turn back and step completely out of character as I spill my guts – telling her everything from the moment I met Chance until last night when he was pounding on my door and telling me he couldn’t walk away from me. When I finish, she’s quiet – studying me intently.
“Could it be a mistake?”
I scoff. “No.”
“Did he confirm it? Did anyone else?”
“No,” I say, shaking my head. “You’re the first person I’ve talked to about this.”
“So, it could all be a misunderstanding.”
“A secret wife is not a misunderstanding.” My phone buzzes on the table and I grab it, thankful for the distraction.
Ivy:
Julian has tonight off.
Family dinner at 6?
“Ivy wants to have a family dinner tonight at six and she’s bringing Julian,” I mutter, already uncomfortable with the thought of being in the same room with the man who I’m convinced is hurting my baby sister.
“Okay,” Dottie says, looking toward the kitchen. “I think I can scrounge something up.”
Me:
Sounds good.
After pressing send, I stand up and offer Dottie a smile. “I’ll see you tonight then, I guess.”
“We were still talking about your beau,” she points out and I shake my head.
“There’s nothing to talk about and I have an appointment to get my nails done. Hopefully, a little relaxation will help me forget this shitty week.”
She makes a noise of annoyance as she stands up and wraps me in a hug. “See you tonight, Sweetie.”
* * * *
“Ready to do this?” Aunt Dottie asks, looking a little pale herself, as we grab a few plates full of food and turn toward the dining room where Ivy and Julian are waiting for us.
“I don’t know. Are you?” I’m not feeling anywhere close to okay, but I have to keep a straight face and be polite to Julian for Ivy’s sake. After some time to think about what Dottie said this afternoon, I realized she was right. As much as I want to rush in and whisk my sister away somewhere safe, she has to make the decision but as soon as she does, as soon as she’s sure she wants to leave, nothing will stop me from helping her. I have to believe she’ll come to her senses eventually because Ivy is smart and it won’t take her long to come to the realization that this relationship isn’t good for her.
She shakes her head. “No.”
“All right,” I sigh, trying to psych myself up. “Let’s do this.”
Dottie leads the way, stepping into the dining room with a smile on her face as she sets a platter of food down in the middle of the table. “Hope y’all are hungry. I made plenty.”
“Thank you, ma’am. This all looks delicious,” Julian says, charm oozing out of every word he says. It’s easy to see how my sister fell for him. If I had met him before I saw that bruise on her arm, I would have been equally as charmed by his southern gentleman routine but now I see the snake beneath his mask.
We all sit down and fill up our plates in silence before Ivy nudges me under the table. When I glance up, she shoots me a look that implies I should talk to Julian but, for the life of me, I can’t think of anything to talk to him about. Actually, that’s not true. I could ask him what made him believe it would be okay to hurt my sister, but I have a feeling Ivy wouldn’t appreciate that.
“So,” Dottie says, cutting the tension in the room. “How did you two meet?”
Julian smiles, glancing over at my sister as her lips tip up and it makes my blood boil. “I saw her at a charity function and I thought she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen but I needed a little liquid courage before I could go talk to her and by the time I was ready, she had disappeared. For days afterward, I couldn’t stop thinking about her and I tried just about everything to find out her name but came up empty, so imagine my surprise when I spotted her as I was grabbing lunch one day. Of course, she wouldn’t even give me the time of day but I was determined to win her over, so I kept coming back to the restaurant every day after that, hoping she would show up and when she finally did, I convinced her to give me a chance. The rest is history.”