“I’m here, and I’m not leaving. You did everything right; you can’t keep torturing yourself like this. I didn’t know Blythe, but I can guarantee she wouldn’t want this. You don’t know if that little girl would have lived if you didn’t go in there when you did. You saved her, gave her a chance at living life. That is not nothing; it’s not something to keep tearing yourself apart over. Nothing I say can bring back Blythe or make the memory of her hurt any less, but if you are going to play that memory over and over in your mind, you need to remember what she sacrificed herself for. You saved a life, a little girl with no one else to protect her. That to me makes you both heroes.”

Stone nodded slowly, averting his gaze from mine. He stared down at my hand that he now held with both of his.

“You are covered in blood,” Stone said suddenly, as if just noticing the red on my hands.

“Let me help,” he said and jumped up from the couch.

His suitcase sat across the room, and he sifted through it, pulling out a band tee I’d never seen him wear. He handed it to me. “I’ll wash the one you’re wearing for you,” he offered.

He just shared his deepest trauma, and now he’s offering to rinse the blood from my own shirt?

Men like this didn’t exist. Stone couldn’t be real. Three years ago, I would’ve done everything to hide the stain so I wouldn’t be yelled at for it.

I stood and pulled my white shirt over my head without thinking. My bralette kept me covered, but Stone’s eyes trailed down my torso the second it was exposed. The moment his eyes halted, I knew what he saw: the grotesque scars still prominent across my skin. His gaze settled on the one I hated most.

The reminder of everything I lost that night.

“Sorry,” I muttered, trying to scramble to untangle my arms from the white shirt.

“Don’t apologize,” he said firmly, moving closer to me. His hand reached out, but he paused before touching my skin.

“It’s okay,” I told him.

His fingers brushed gently against my skin, running along the jagged scar, the stitches rushed because of how many wounds I had when I arrived.

“It’s a miracle you survived with only scars,” Stone said in awe.

“Involuntary hysterectomy,” I whispered. “Thats the price I paid. I can’t ever become pregnant again.”

My eyes dropped to the floor. The reason Jake threw me out, the thing that continued to haunt me from that night. It was why I could barely bring myself to face my brother after his announcement, why the thought of being around a baby in the family pained me, my heart breaking.