Derek- 2 months later

"Can we keep him, Derek?" Riley grinned, batting her long eyelashes at me. Her arms were draped around the neck of a German Shepard puppy. "Please, please, please."

"Yeah, can we Derek? Please." Cam smirked, shooting me the exact same grin as her daughter.

"Where did you find that thing?" I chuckled, folding my arms over my chest. They had gone to the beach this afternoon and returned with a tiny terror of a puppy. It had been in the house for maybe two minutes and already chewed a pair of my favorite shoes.

"That thing is named Champ, and we found him at the ice cream shop." Cam laughed, rubbing Champ's head. "His mom was hit by a car."

"Please, Derek! He doesn't have a family! We could be his family!"

I wasn't a huge fan of dogs. We had a dog growing up, and he was my best friend. We did everything together when I was younger, and when he died, I was crushed. I never wanted another pet after that, and even when my parents got us a puppy for Christmas, I kept my distance. Dogs were hairy and dirty and the chewed on everything.

I had no fucking hope while looking down at Riley's excitement, though. She was already head over heels in love with this dog and it would shatter her if I told her she couldn't have it. All I could think about were the white leather couches in my pent house back in New York. I had to remind myself that we weren't in New York, though, and we weren't going back for the foreseeable future. I didn't hate the idea of having a dog for protection and, obviously, it would make the girls happy.

"Fine." I conceded, a smile tugging at my lips. I loved the way Riley thought we could be its family, like we were already in our own little family unit.

"Yes!! See mommy, I told you he would say yes!" Riley jumped up and down excitedly, wrapping her arms around my legs.

"But here's the deal..." I bent down in front of her. "If he's going to stay, you have to feed him, and pick up after him, and take him on a walk every single day."

"I will! I will!" She grinned wildly. "Come on, Champ! Come see my room; you can sleep in my bed. "

"Ugh." I cringed, putting my arm around Cam's shoulder as we watched Champ chase after Riley down the hall.

"We don't have to keep him." Cam smiled softly. "We can find a home for him if you really don't want him. He was just so cute and we couldn't resist him."

"How exactly did you find a puppy at the ice cream shop?" I chuckled.

"There was a guy with them in the trunk of his car." She explained.

I rubbed my temples. "You followed a guy to the trunk of his car in a random parking lot?"

"No!" she insisted. "He was right in front of the shop and there were all kinds of people around looking at the puppies."

"But let me guess... you were the only one who ended up taking one?"

"Buying one." She clarified.

I let out a sharp laugh. "This story just keeps getting better and better."

"He just made her so happy, I couldn't tell her no. I'm sorry."

"It's fine, babe. Really." I said, leading her into the kitchen. "We'll figure it out. And it'll teach her some responsibility while we're at it."

"How are you more like her father than her own?" Cam rolled her eyes and then gave me a gentle kiss. "We're so lucky to have found you."

"I'm the lucky one." I pressed my lips to hers again, holding the kiss a few seconds longer. "But speaking of her father... How are you feeling about the trial starting next week?"

Cam's eyes fell, and she looked out the window. I tried to get her to talk to me about this so many times over the last few months, but she was so closed off about it. She was relaxed and happy and things were better between us than ever before, but she was pretty closed off when it came to Robby and his impending trial. He was about to go to jail for her murder, and I knew she was swimming in emotions. Even though she shouldn't, she felt guilty. And she felt scared that it wasn't truly going to be the end.

She shrugged. "I feel fine. I'll be happy when it's over."

"Anything else?" I pressed. I hated that she was bottling everything up this way. I knew it was hard for her to talk about, but I wanted to be able to be that sounding board for her. We'd come a long way in our relationship and she knew she could trust me with whatever she was feeling.

"Derek, do we have to do this? Riley and I had a good day, and all I wanted to do was come home and make dinner and be with you. Is that so bad?"

"Of course it's not." I reached for her hand. "But what is bad, is you keeping all of your emotions inside like this?"

"What do you want me to say?" She threw her arms in the air. "I don't know how I'm feeling. I'm happy because he's finally going to get what he deserves, but I'm sad because he's not the person I fell in love with or thought he was. And I feel sorry for Riley, who is caught in the middle of all of this. And I feel stupid for even giving any of this a second thought when I have you in my life. I can't make sense of it and honestly, the last thing I want to do is talk about it."

That was the most I'd gotten out of her in weeks.

"I'm sorry. We don't have to talk about it. But when you decide you want to, I'll be here." I assured her.

"I know." She said. "And I know you're trying to help, but sometimes talking about it does the opposite. Sometimes I just want to forget everything about Robby and the things he did to me. I don't want you to know about them because I don't want you to look at me differently." Cam clamped her mouth shut as if she'd just divulged an enormous secret. I could see she regretted it the second it was out of her mouth.

"You think I'll look at you differently because of what Robby did to you?" My eyes widened in shock and horror.

Cam rested her head on her hand, covering her eyes. "I guess it's not about the things he did to me, but the things that I did to make him happy."

"Camryn, look at me." I put my fingers to her chin, forcing her eyes up. "That would never happen. I don't blame you for a single thing you did, because you were in survival. You did whatever you had to do to get to the next day. Nothing you say to me could change the way I see you. "

"You say that but..."

"But what, Cam? I've killed men before. I tortured a guy in a shed a hundred yards from this house while you and Riley were here. You know those things about me, but it doesn't change me in your eyes."

"Thats different. You were always protecting people when you did those things."

"And so were you. You were protecting you and Riley. And you did a great fucking job. You protected yourselves long enough to get out of there. If you hadn't done those things, whatever they are, you wouldn't be here."

"Really? Because having a threesome with Robby and his partner doesn't sound all that much like protecting myself. Or lying to donors to get them to buy into his father's campaign. Or covering for Robby a thousand times and giving him an alibi when shit happened at work. The more I see Robby being punished, the more I realize how big a part I played in all of this. I egged him on. I liked to make him mad in the beginning. I've hit him before when he was coming after me."

"Camryn," I let out an exasperated sigh. "Those things happened because of Robby. He manipulated you into doing them, and he made you feel like you had to or you'd feel his wrath. You've got to let yourself off the hook. I don't care how many times you hit him when he was coming after you, or how much you egged him on. The things Robby did were disgusting. There is no way of getting around that. I understand you feel guilty. It's perfectly normal, but I won't let you beat yourself up over that shit."

Cam sat silently for a few minutes, just absorbing my words. I could tell how conflicted she was, and it broke my heart.

"I'm going to go take a shower." She said, standing up and disappearing down the hall without much more explanation. I thought about following her, but I knew she could probably use a little time to herself. The last few months had been tough. We'd been waiting for something to happen with Robby and now that it was, it was a little scary for us all. There was no way they wouldn't find him guilty if they were going by evidence, but the force had already proved they didn't have much regard for evidence. It took the FBI coming in and doing their own investigation. We just had to pray it was enough to see it through.

My phone rang with a number I didn't recognize, but I answered. "Hello?"

"Mr. Bennett, this is detective Mullins,. I have been working on the Robby Hastings case." My blood froze.

"Okay."

"I was just calling to let you know that you're going to be subpoenaed to testify in the trial. Robby is still using you as part of his alibi for the night of the murder, and we need to ask you some questions."

"Why?" I growled. "I already answered the other detectives' questions."

"Yes, but this is just a formality. And it will be under oath." He said. "We delivered the subpoena to your office, but your partner told us you were still out of the country, so I figured I would give you a call. We'll need you back in New York in two weeks."

"Are you fucking serious? I can't reschedule my whole life for this. I was with the guy for sixty minutes."

"I apologize for the inconvenience, sir. Like I said, it's just a formality and hopefully will only last a day. Please call me when you get the paperwork and we can go over the specifics."

He hung up the phone quickly after that.

I slammed the phone onto the counter. "Fuck!"

There was no way I was going to leave Camryn and Riley to go testify in this God damn trial. They'd have to come with me. I knew that would be a whole new issue for Camryn. I felt like she was drifting away, and it worried me. Not just from our relationship, but retreating into her own mind. This was a lot of for her, and the trauma was overwhelming. Especially when she wouldn't talk about it. I had to respect how she wanted to handle it, despite how much I didn't agree with it.

"Derek, where'd mommy go?" Riley came out of her room with Champ at her heals.

"She went to take a shower." I said, trying to surpass my frustrations.

"Well, we need to go get some toys for Champ, and he needs food." She said.

"Oh." I hadn't even thought about that. "You're right. Why don't you and I let mommy rest for a while?"

"Okay!" she agreed, and we headed out to the car.

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***If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence of any kind, please reach out to someone in your community. In the US, that number is 1-800-799-7233**