Her smile fell off as she looked down at their hands. “She told him that no woman should talk to her husband that way, that he needed to put me in my place. Blah, blah, blah. She even smacked me once. Right across my face because I told her I wasn’t cleaning up after all of them when they had a party the night before. I left when she did that. But of course, Rick talked me into coming back. Said our baby needed both of us ’cause he knew what it was like not to have a dad. But, in retrospect, I know that’s when shit got really bad.”

Looking up, she shook her head as she looked into his eyes. He was hanging on every word she was saying, unsure how someone as beautiful and strong could end up like that. “I was so stupid. I still can’t believe I stayed as long as I did. I tried to go to school, I did. But it didn’t work out ’cause Rick always had my car, going to ‘work,’ and I wouldn’t have a way to school. It was sad, and I let him ruin my dreams.

“My dad offered to take me back in, that he’d pay for my schooling, the whole nine if I divorced Rick and came home. I was so stubborn that I wouldn’t accept it, saying I loved him. At that point, I really think I might have. I’m not sure. And then when I was in labor and I had Angie, I was in the room with my family. They were all loving on us because not only was it a new baby, but because they hadn’t seen me in months. A woman walked into the room—”

Her nose crinkled a bit as she shut her eyes, slowly shaking her head. “Heidi, it was Heidi who walked into the room. Rick was downstairs getting me something to eat—or really, hiding from my dad and brothers—and she walked in. She asked if I was Lucy Hart, Rick’s wife. I had noticed her a few times; she lived about nine trailers down from us. She was a few years younger than us, went to school with us, but I never paid her any mind. I was living in hell, why would I?” she added with a humorless laugh. “But I said, yeah, that’s me, and she goes, ‘My name is Heidi Slattery, and I’ve been sleeping with Rick for the last eight months. We’re pregnant.’ She opened her coat, and sure as shit, she was pregnant. Big and pregnant.”

“What the hell, Lucy? Really?” Benji said then and she rolled her eyes. “So Nina and Angie are—”

“Two months apart,” she said, shaking her head. “I wasn’t even shocked. I didn’t cry or anything, but my dad and mom freaked the fuck out. I mean, they were cussing, screaming, and my brothers, bless them, Jace had no clue what was going on, but Jayden and Jude did. They tried to fight Rick, but he left. Left me at the hospital.”

“He left you?”

“Yup, and his brand-new baby. My dad convinced me to go home with them. I was about to leave, but Rick showed up the day I got released and told me that he hadn’t come back before because of my family. That he loved me, to come home, that he was sorry, Heidi meant nothing to him, blah, blah, blah. It was a dumb mistake, he loved me. And my dumb ass believed him. I think I was scared. I didn’t want to be the statistic. Now, I’m proud of my life and Angie, but then, I was scared. So I went home with him.” Wiping away her tears, she looked up at him and all he could do was stare at her. She was so strong. So amazing, it blew his mind that she was that girl at one time. “For the first two years of Angie’s life, Rick did nothing. He claimed he worked, but I never saw a lick of money. I was constantly borrowing money from my parents to get Angie the things she needed and working side jobs, tutoring the kids in the trailer park, and cleaning houses because I could take Angie with me. He hardly ever helped me. Bless her, she had such bad colic, and he would just leave. Let me deal with it as his mother yelled at me to ‘shut that baby up.’”

When she paused, Benji was fuming, his body shaking with anger as he watched her come undone. Holding her breath, she let it out quickly and closed her eyes, shaking her head as the words played in her mind. He wanted to ask her to stop, but he knew she wouldn’t. But yet, he said roughly, “Lucy—”

“He never hit me before, though,” she said then, looking over at him, the tears spilling onto her cheeks. “Not really. He’d push me or act like he was going to, but he never did. I knew it wasn’t right, and I knew I deserved better, but I didn’t want my parents to look at me as a failure. I had already failed out of college because I didn’t go, and I didn’t want to disappoint them further with a failed marriage. So I figured I’d stay until I could save some money. But then I found out he was still with Heidi. Like full out. When he wasn’t with me, he was with her, raising her baby. All his money went to her, and he was also promising her that he would leave me. That he felt sorry for me and he stayed ’cause my family had disowned me. Not true. I stayed because I was embarrassed. I heard it from her cousin whose kid I tutored. I know, it’s like some backwoods reality show,” she said, shaking her head as she scoffed. “I was trailer trash, and I knew it. Talk of the trailer park, Lucy Hart. Well, that was it. He wasn’t going to do that to me. It was Angie’s third birthday, and this wasn’t going to go on any longer. I was going to confront him and he was going to choose us, or I was gone. I should have just left but, eh, you live and you learn. But he came home, I told him what was going to happen and, Benji…he whooped my ass.”

Benji’s fists clenched as he watched her close her eyes, the tears spilling down her cheek. Reaching out, he wiped them away and whispered, “Jesus, Lucy.”