My heart was beating fast and my chest was moving deeply with my heavy breathing as I stared at my pale face in the mirror.

And I stared for a long time at my pale face in the mirror.

God, I hadn’t really looked in the mirror for ages. Not really. Not for years.

Was that what I looked like?

“Ms. O’Hara,” he called, his voice different, quiet, weirdly gentle, but I kept staring at my pale face in the mirror, stunned by what I saw. “Tess,” he whispered and my head turned, my eyes sliding to his. “Your husband raped you?” he asked softly.

“I know it sounds funny,” I found my lips whispering. “He was my husband but it happened.” I held his eyes and kept whispering. “It happened.”

“It doesn’t sound funny,” he whispered back. “Not the least bit funny.”

I held his eyes and said nothing.

“You ran away,” he stated.

“Yes,” I whispered.

I ran away. Fuck yes, I ran away.

“Had he hurt you before?”

I nodded. “He was changing. Something was happening.” I hesitated, then repeated, “He was changing.”

“What was happening?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. I tried to talk… we had… we fought. He would get…” I paused. “Suddenly, it never happened before, but suddenly when we fought it would get physical so I stopped trying to talk.”

“He fought the divorce.”

“Damian doesn’t like losing hold on what he thinks is his.”

He studied me with eyes now as gentle as his voice.

Then he said quietly, “But he left you alone for four and a half years.”

“Yes, he left me alone,” I whispered.

“Then he wanted you back.”

“Yes.”

“Did he explain why he approached you after all this time?”

I shook my head but said, “He said he was… he said…” I pulled in a deep breath, then told him, “He said he loved me, missed me, messed up, and wanted to make it up to me.”

“And since that lunch, he’s been contacting you regularly in an effort to do that?”

“Yes.”

His head tipped slightly to the side. “And after what he’d done to you, you took his calls? You had lunch with him?”

Suddenly, needing to know, needing to know since I’d told him something I’d never told anyone before, I asked, “What’s your name?”

“Sorry, I’m Agent Calhoun.”