Someday, he’d be bigger and stronger than his father and be able to fight back. He lived for that day. He dreamed about being able to flatten his father with one punch. In gym class, he took every chance he could get to lift weights so he’d get bigger and stronger faster. He lifted rocks in the backyard and concrete cinder blocks that sat outside his friend Jimmy’s house.

“Where is he?” Mark asked in the rage-fueled tone that had Owen shrinking back against the wall, wishing it would open up and swallow him.

“I don’t know.”

“He’d better show his face, or I’ll go looking for one of his brothers. How do I know it wasn’t one of them who broke the window?”

“They weren’t even here!” Sarah cried. “Leave them alone. Leave them all alone.”

“Don’t tell me what to do, you useless, worthless bitch. If you had the first idea of how to discipline them, I wouldn’t have to do it.”

“I hate you.”

“What did you say?”

Owen bolted from his hiding place and ran for his mother. “Get off her, you miserable bastard!”

He woke up, gasping and sweating and crying. Jesus. His heart was beating so fast, he feared he might be having a heart attack. Thankfully, he was alone in bed, so he had a minute to collect himself. Where in the name of hell had that come from? He hadn’t thought about the broken window in years or the hellish beating he and his mother had both withstood that day.

The goddamned trial was dredging up all sorts of shit Owen had thought he’d buried a long time ago.

He ran his hands over his face and took a series of shuddering breaths, trying to calm himself before he got up to find Laura. A sound from the bathroom had him sitting up and getting out of bed. He pulled on a pair of boxer shorts and headed for the bathroom. Tapping lightly on the door, he opened it a crack. “Princess?”

“I’m okay. Go back to sleep.”

Owen went into the bathroom and closed the door behind him so they wouldn’t wake Holden.

“You’re not going back to bed,” she said weakly as she rested against the wall between bouts of vomiting. She took a closer look at him. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” He sat next to her and took her hand. “It started early today.”

She leaned her head against his shoulder. “It never really ended yesterday.”

“I don’t mean to beat a dead horse or anything, but how are you planning to manage feeling this way while we’re in Virginia? It’s bad enough when we’re home.”

“Don’t you worry about that. I’ll manage it. Somehow.”

“Laura…”

“Owen…”

“How did I end up shackled to the most stubborn woman in the history of the universe?”