Read Online Better (Stark Ink Book 2) by Dahlia West - Free Book Online

Ten
     
    “Zoey?”
    Instead of answering him, she got up off the bed and crossed the room to open her overnight bag. As she started filling it with her things, he sighed.
    “Don’t do this,” he said. “Talk to me. How long has this been going on? How many times? How bad was it?”
    Her hand hovered over her hairbrush, but she didn’t pick it up. She refused to meet his gaze. “Once,” she said quietly. “One other time.”
    “Just once?”
    She bit her lip and nodded. “Right… right after we found out I was pregnant. He was angry. He said we couldn’t have a baby. We couldn’t afford one, which I didn’t understand because he’d just bought a new car. How could we not have enough money? He told me I had to get rid of it. That’s what he said, ‘Get rid of it,’ like it wasn’t a person growing inside me, like it wasn’t our baby , like it didn’t even mean anything. He didn’t go with me. He said he had to work. When I got there, I couldn’t do it. I came home and had to tell him the truth.” Zoey shuddered and balled her hands into small fists. “He was livid. He hit me. That was the first time.”
    Dalton himself was furious but held it in. Yelling would only upset her, even if, technically, it was directed at someone else.
    Zoey fiddled with the zipper on the bag. “He seemed to realize right away that he’d gone too far. He freaked out and left the house. When he came back he said he was sorry. He said he was just so stressed out from work that he lost it for a second. He said it was okay, that we’d find a way to keep the baby, but things were never really the same.”
    “Jesus Fucking Christ,” Dalton muttered.
    She finally looked up at him. Her lower lip trembled, but she didn’t cry. “When things happen slowly, you just don’t notice them. Or don’t want to.” She laughed, tense and brittle. “Like a frog boiling. By the time you realize the person you loved— or thought you loved— is gone, you’ve lost so much.” Silent tears ran down her cheeks. “My friends were gone. I barely talked to my parents. I guess I didn’t realize how alone I was until I had no one to call for help. I just grabbed my wallet, my keys, and the hospital bag I packed for when the baby comes… and I ran.”
    She perched on the edge of the bed and smoothed a wrinkled t-shirt on her lap. “None of this is the way it was supposed to be. He was supposed to be kind, thoughtful. I mean, he was at first. And… I’d needed it for so long.” She looked at him guiltily before turning away.
    Dalton moved further into the room. He didn’t go to her, even though he wanted to so badly. Instead he leaned against the wall. “It’s okay. You can say it. You can tell the truth, Zoey.”
    She chewed her lower lip. “He didn’t need to be perfect. I never asked for that. He just… he just wasn’t…”
    “Wasn’t supposed to turn out like me.”
    Zoey’s breath caught in her throat.
    For a moment, Dalton thought she was going to cry again, but she held it together.
    Her voice came out breathy and quiet. “I don’t know how I let this happen.”
    Dalton snorted. “Don’t you? You ignored everything about me for so long. You just kept turning a blind eye.”
    She looked up at him with a pained expression. “I was hoping you’d get better.”
    “I taught you to hide the truth, or at least living with me did.” He sighed and turned his gaze to the bedroom ceiling. “I drove you to him and I fucked you up so badly that you went through hell all over again.”
    “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
    Dalton’s head jerked back down. “Why? Why are you sorry? Zoey, I just said it was me. It was my fault.”
    She shook her head. “But I shouldn’t have come here. And I definitely shouldn’t have stayed. You don’t need my mess and I—” She looked away and stood up.
    You don’t need mine, thought Dalton. He nodded. The last thing he wanted was to complicate her life. If she didn’t feel like she