Dave winced. “I had a slip. Thinking of coming here, facing you, apologizing… I didn’t handle it well.”

Guilt swirled in my belly. My mother’s face flashed in my mind. The final harsh words I’d hurled her way. She had been fighting for her sobriety, but that hadn’t been enough for me. Tears stung the backs of my eyes. “I can’t forget what you did.” I wouldn’t lie to him. The terror he’d wrought on my family had molded us all into who we were now. “But I appreciate you coming here to apologize.”

Dave swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “I want to make things right. Maybe I could do some work around your house. Or bring you groceries. Whatever you need.”

“If you want to make things right, you’ll stay sober. You’ll work your program, and you won’t be the person who hurt my family ever again.” A little of my anger lashed out, the rage that had built over the seven years I’d been soothing nightmares and reassuring fears. I swallowed it back. “That’s what you can do.”

Dave nodded. “I will. Promise. I got a good sponsor, and he’s helping me. Please believe me. I don’t want to hurt anyone the way I did those kids.”

“What did you just say?” a voice growled. I turned to see Griffin stalking towards us. “Who the hell are you?”

Oh, no. This was not going to be good.

39

Griffin

I took another step towards the man. The rage pumping through my veins was a living, breathing thing. I couldn’t have heard him right. This wasn’t the man who had terrorized Will, Ava, and Mia. He wouldn’t have the audacity to show his face here. “I asked you a question. Who are you?”

“Griffin—” Caelyn began. My head snapped in her direction, and she immediately stopped speaking at the look on my face.

“I—I’m Dave Herbert. I’m not here to start any trouble. I just came to apologize.”

“And what are you apologizing for?” I punctuated each word as if it were its own sentence.

The man’s jaw went hard, and he lost a little of the fear in his expression. “That’s between me and Ms. O’Connor.”

“Oh, really, now? Well, Ms. O’Connor is my business, so I beg to differ.”

His eyes widened in understanding. “I really did just come to apologize. I swear.”

A hand encircled my arm, the touch firm, but the skin delicate. “He’s telling the truth, Griffin. Dial it back a notch.”