A few hours later Charlie was asleep in his room and I was sitting on one of the couches while Damien was talking to his father on the phone in his office.

I could hear his muffled voice through the closed door and I tried my best not to eavesdrop to give him some privacy but I couldn’t help but wanting to know what was going on, and if there were any news on Graham.

We had been avoiding Graham’s name the whole evening to not ruin the buoyant atmosphere, but I still felt a certain unease and sometimes I felt my mind wandering back to the youngest Black.

I didn’t know Graham very well and everything that I did know, I had heard from someone else but still his frequent disappearing worried me, not just because of Graham’s safety, but also because of the rest of the family.

I could tell they were all really close.

The phone call hardly lasted a few minutes, but it felt like an eternity until Damien finally came back.

He sat beside me on the couch, and I bit my lip which I seemed to do a lot lately.

“Any news on your brother?”, I asked carefully, and he shook his head, sighing.

“No, not yet. His bodyguards are looking for him but there is not much they can do. Graham is an adult, and he makes his own choices.

But if he isn’t back by tomorrow morning, we are going to contact the police.”

I nodded in silence trying to think of something to say that would make him feel better but there wasn’t anything I could do, so I just changed the subject.

“Do you think sending him to kindergarten so soon is a good idea? He is still so small. I am worried about how the other children might treat him…”, I admitted, and he grabbed my hand.

“He will be alright. Maybe he isn’t as big as some of the other kids, but he is ten times as smart. And also, he is taking after me, what could possibly go wrong?”, he grinned, and I slapped his arm again.

“I thought violence wasn’t the key?”, he asked amused and I rolled my eyes again.

“I am praying that he isn’t taking after you. Because if he were, he would be arrogant and annoying as you are.”

“You are forgetting that he would also be utterly handsome, charming, and smart.”

I laughed a little.

“Whatever you say, jerk. But is this kindergarten really the right place for him? I don’t want him to grow up in a place where they will spoil him and hand him everything on a silver platter.”

“St Lennox isn’t just a place for rich kids. There are a lot of children from Brooklyn or the Bronx and almost half the children are there on scholarships that are drawn lots for every year, and St Lennox offers excellent education, and they teach children how to interact with each other properly.”

“You are the perfect example for that not always working.”, I snorted but I could barely hide my smile. He didn’t seem faced by my insult one bit.

“My manners are perfectly agreeable. You are the first person to ever complain about them.”

“You mean besides your family? Maybe that is because you usually only talk to people that are interested in your money and are therefore more than willing to kiss your ass.”

He grinned.

“That could be part of the reason.”

“And are you also trying to convince me that you weren’t one of the children that would make fun of the smaller and weaker ones?”, I asked ironically.

“How could you think that?”, he asked offended but the sparkling in his eyes told me that he was secretly just making fun of me.

“The only kid we ever teased was this boy named Franklin. He had red hair and it looked absolutely awful with his school uniform. He always told everyone that he would be a doctor when he was older. It was literally all he ever talked about, so we started calling him Dr med. Redhead… You know… Because it rhymes. It was hilarious.”

“No, it isn’t.”, I scoffed.

“It wasn’t my idea.”

“That doesn’t matter.”, I replied trying to hide my amusement over this dullness of kindergarten-humor and Damien sighed.

“My point is, that St Lennox really isn’t a bad place. It will be great for Charlie to be around other children again. I know how you feel about this. You want to protect him at all costs, and so do I, but he is going to grow up eventually. You can’t change that.”

This time it was me who sighed, and I leaned against Damien’s shoulder.

“You are right. It is just so hard after everything that happened and with Malcolm still out there I don’t want to let him out of my sight.”

I felt his body tensing and he wrapped his arms around me.

“They will find him and then he will pay for everything he did. I won’t let him hurt either of you ever again.”

His voice sounded bitter.

“What happened in Pittsburgh wasn’t your fault, it was mine, you know that, right?”, I asked lifting my head up to see his face.

“I could have helped you. You knew he was in there. Why didn’t you say anything?”, he argued, and I closed my eyes. Almost immediately the picture of Malcolm’s truck in front of our house reappeared again in my mind, and then Malcolm’s face and how he had creeped up behind me, and then the rest.

“I thought you hated me. I had no reason to believe you would want to help me and I also wanted to prove to myself that I could handle everything alone.

Ever since Charlie’s diagnosis I felt like I lost every single bit of control over my life and a lot of that was because of Malcolm. I felt like it would only be fair if I would take the control back myself. I was too proud to ask for help.”

The last half year was filled with so many painful memories that it was hard to recall anything good about it.

“Why did you stay with him for so long? Because of the money?”, he asked after a few seconds and I took a deep breath. I regretted a lot of things, but staying with Malcolm for so long, was at the very top of the list.

“In the beginning he was so sweet. We didn’t actually start dating until a month before he started to… change. He became so obsessive and he threatened with not helping out with the money anymore if I didn’t do as he said. Before we started dating he was always so understanding but then, when we started dating he got more and more paranoid about me seeing other guys. He always suspected I was cheating on him whenever he wasn’t home…-which I didn’t of course! I just ignored it at first. I was so obsessed with the idea of having a normal life, and a normal boyfriend that I was willing to ignore all the red flags. But of course, it was the money too… I wouldn’t have been able to pay for the treatment as long as I did if it hadn’t been for him.”

For a while Damien didn’t reply and I was afraid he would be mad at me for being so ignorant and idiotic but instead he pulled me closer to his chest.

“I am going to find and kill that guy. Even thinking about him still being out there, drives me insane.”, he grumbled between gritted teeth and I gave him a weak smile.

“He isn’t worth going to prison for.”

“We will see about that.”

“Who is that?”, he frowned, and I flinched. “No one.”, I said quickly. A little too quickly. Malcolm growled loudly and grabbed my arm. I wanted to pull back, but he was to strong. He pulled me into the back of the room where the kitchen was and where Damien couldn’t see us anymore. Okay, this was not good. At all.

“I am going to ask you one last time. Who the hell is that guy outside the house?”

I was scared to death but this time I wouldn’t let him speak to me like that.

“None of your business.”, I said and pulled my eyebrows together fiercely but before I had even seen him raise his hand, he had already slapped me in the face. I yelped in pain. He let go of me and I stumbled back against the fridge. “Who is he?”, he asked again, and all humanity seemed to have left him.

“He is a friend.”, I finally said between gritted teeth and he punched me in the stomach. I gasped loudly while all the air got pressed out of my lungs. Pain exploded and I could have sworn I heard my ribcage cracking. “Don’t lie to me! You are sleeping with him, admit it! You are such a whore!”, he screamed and punched me again.

My legs gave out beneath me and I sank down to the floor, holding my arms above my head, trying to protect myself, but it was useless. He kicked me in the side and again I wasn’t able to breathe for a few seconds and I choked. “Look at me!”, he yelled, and I slowly looked up to him, tears streaming down my face. I was gasping for air.

“Please, I swear I am not sleeping with him, he is just a friend.”, I tried again and for a second I thought he might listen to me but then he grabbed my hair and pulled me up. I screamed and it felt like my entire scalp was on fire while he dragged me through the kitchen. “Stop, Malcolm, please!”, I cried out, but he ignored me. “You don’t deserve me. But you are mine. Mine! Do you understand?”

I jerked up, groaning in pain at the sudden movement my ribcage started aching again. It was almost pitch black and my breathing was heavy and erratic. Next to me someone grabbed my hand and I immediately tried to pull back, still half dreaming.

“Ally? It’s just me. Relax.”, Damien’s rough voice said next to me and forced myself to exhale. I hadn’t even realized that I had been holding my breath. My eyes burned with hot tears.

“Are you okay?”, he asked and wanted to answer but my mouth was too dry, and my body felt numb and drained.

“I am fine. I am sorry for waking you up.”, I croaked after a few seconds and Damien grabbed my hand again, this time very carefully.

“Don’t worry about it. What happened?”, he asked concerned and I was glad he could see me blush. How embarrassing.

And where was I anyways? I had to have fallen asleep on the couch yesterday evening.

“It was just… a nightmare. It is no big deal. Just go back to sleep.”

He didn’t seem convinced and sat up beside me. My eyes were adjusting to the dark light and I could roughly see his silhouette.

“Was it Malcolm?”

My silence seemed to be answer enough and he scooted closer, wrapping his arms around me carefully but I could almost feel his resentment.

“Do your ribs still hurt? And what about the concussion?”, he asked after a while and I sighed.

“It is getting much better.”, I responded, and it was true.

I rarely felt the headache returning and all the lost memories had been restored by now, even though I wished some of them hadn’t.

We fell in silence again, but it wasn’t awkward. He seemed lost in his thoughts and I just enjoyed his warm embrace. He made me feel safe.

“You should get some more rest, Princess.”, he finally said, and I nodded slightly. “Yes, probably. Just… Don’t leave.”

I didn’t care how desperate and ridiculous I sounded.

“I won’t, I promise.”