Lina slowed her steps, but as soon as the living room came into view and she saw Shiloh, spread out on the floor with a man on top of her, his pants pushed down around his knees, all thoughts fled. “No!” Lina screamed. “No!” She was across the room and on the back of her sister’s assailant, pulling his hair and scratching his face.

Strong arms encircled Lina from behind and she was dragged backwards. “No!” Lina continued to scream.

“Shut her up!”

“Lina!” Phil’s strong voice pierced through the air.

Lina buried her face in Phil’s neck, clinging to him as she had the entire time they were questioned by the police, when a paramedic approached and asked to examine her. “Don’t let them touch me,” she whispered.

“We just want to examine her—make sure she’s okay,” the young woman said.

“She’s okay,” Phil said.

“Son,” Mr. Hunter began, “they need to look at her.”

“No,” Phil said firmly as he enclosed his arms around her. “She’s okay.”

“We just need to verify that.”

“No! No one is touching her!”

“You should take Lina home now,” Alice told Phil a short time after she and Adele arrived in Shiloh’s hospital room. “She needs to sleep.”

Lina stared at Shiloh’s battered face. Both eyes were swollen shut, her nose was broken and her lip had been busted. If Lina’s bedroom had been closest to the stairs, it would have been her and not Shiloh lying in the hospital bed. It should have been her. She was older and she hadn’t been a virgin. Lina felt something on her face and realized she was crying.

“Lina.” Phil’s voice penetrated her reverie. “I’m taking you home.”

“No, I…” She paused as she again focused on Shiloh’s battered face. “Did someone beat—”

“No, it’s from the impact with the airbag,” Phil told her before speaking to Adele and Alice, who were beside Shiloh’s bed. “I’m taking her home. I’ll come back—”

“Don’t worry about us,” Adele interrupted. “We can take a cab or Uber. Just get her out of here.”

Lina sunk into the soft leather seat of Phil’s car, pushing her thumb and finger into her eyes as she tried to quiet her thoughts, hating the visions swirling in her head of Shiloh’s battered face.

“She’s going to be okay,” Phil said, curving his hand around the back of her neck.

“Did it make you think of that night?” Lina asked.

“Yes.”

“I could never have made it through that without you,” Lina whispered on a shaky breath. Her mind once again transported back to the hospital all those years ago.

“Let’s go home,” Phil said.

Lina was sitting on Phil’s lap in Shiloh’s hospital room, leaning back against him as he held her in his arms. “You won’t leave me?”

“Never.”