“If they saw a child being abused and didn’t say something, they weren’t good people.”

She throws up her hands, catching the rain. It sparkles against her tan skin. I want to lick it off. Even now, in the middle of an argument, with her sad past pulsing between us, both of us cold and drenched, I want her more than anything. There’s something raw about it. As if we’re being reduced to our baser selves the more the rain pounds us. As if it’s washing away the last layers of societal conditioning, leaving only a man and a woman. “They had their own problems to deal with. I don’t judge them.”

“I do.”

“Maybe they were worried about what would happen if they intervened. Maybe they were worried about retribution, the same way I’m afraid of Joe Causey, but I won’t let that stop me from speaking up. I can’t let that stop me, otherwise surviving the foster home was for nothing.”

“For nothing?” I say, my voice thickened with emotion.

Her dark eyes shine with more than rain. There are tears. “I made it out of there so that I could become a social worker and help kids. But how can I do that, how can I face the people who abuse and neglect them, if I can’t confront Joe Causey?”

Whatever restraint I have left snaps like a thin, brittle twig. I grab her in my arms and hold her against me—too tight. I know that, but I can’t seem to moderate my grip. I have no control, no finesse. I press my lips against hers. It’s not even a kiss. It’s a claiming. “Don’t ever say that you survived for nothing. You didn’t survive to help other people. What you do for them? That’s a gift. What you do for me? A goddamn miracle, but it’s not your purpose. Not your worth. You’re worth more than gold, than diamonds. You’re worth everything all on your own.”

She’s shivering, but I don’t know whether it’s from the cold or from the intensity of my embrace. “You don’t know,” she says, her voice shaky. “You don’t know what it was like. I go around smiling and laughing and living, but there’s a part of me that will always be in that house, that will always be fourteen years old and terrified.”