Page 71 of Mace

“You’re staying here tonight,” he says. “It’ll give you the time to explain how things are, and you can tell them the good news.” He backs away as he gives me a grin that makes my stomach plummet to the floor. “I’ll be back for you in the morning, baby,” he says to Ivy.

I watch him leave, and as soon as he’s out the flat, I rush to lock the door behind him. There is no way in hell I’m letting her go with him in the morning.

I turn to my sister as Toby tells the operator we no longer need help.

“You’re not going with him,” I say to her.

Her eyes don’t meet mine as her arms wrap around herself. The difference in her since I last saw her is stark. I can see the pieces of her that he’s chipped away.

“You can’t stop him.”

Can’t stop ‘him’, not ‘me’.

I roam my gaze over her, checking for any injuries, but there isn’t a mark on her. None that I can see, anyway.

“I know what he’s doing to you.”

Tears brim in her eyes. “You don’t know anything.”

“What’s he doing to her?” Toby asks.

My eyes don’t leave my sister, and without waiting forher invitation, I pull her into my arms and hug her like she’s my everything.

For a moment, she freezes, stiffening against me, but then she softens into my touch and sobs against my shoulder.

“There’s nothing you can do. You have to let me go.”

Cold seeps into my bones. The matter-of-fact way she sees this situation is upsetting. This isn’t over just because he says it is.

I pull back from her but hold her biceps, afraid she might slip away from me if I let go.

“No. Fuck no. I’m never doing that, Ivy. And fuck him. He doesn’t get to keep you. He doesn’t get to hurt you. Who the fuck is he?” I grip her tight, and I’m relieved when she doesn’t pull back. “You don’t have to put up with whatever he’s doing to you. He’s just a man. A bully, but just a man, and I haven’t taken care of you all these years, given you the best I could, for him to come in and destroy all of that. I promise, I will protect you from him, Ivy, but you have to allow me to do it.”

Her eyes slide shut as tears roll down her cheeks. “I’m so scared, Maylie.” An ugly sob rips from her body, and my stomach twists into a knot. “I don’t know what’s right or wrong anymore. Everything he says makes me doubt myself, doubt who I am.”

I grab her face between my hands, forcing her to look at me. “I know exactly who you are, Ivy Fernsby.”

“Me too,” Toby adds.

Her eyes swim again. “He’ll hurt you. He’ll kill you. You don’t have any idea how dangerous he is.”

I do. I’d seen enough to know exactly how deadly this man is, but I don’t care. “When did he start hitting you?”

Ivy’s eyes never leave mine, and I see the shame and fear colliding with a hundred other unreadable emotions. “It didn’t happen right away. At first, he was perfect. Everything was perfect. I can’t even remember why it happened. After… I was so sure I drove him to it, and he was sorry. He cried and said he’d never do it again.”

I’d read all about the tricks these kinds of abusers use to wear down a person. Ivy is a perfect case study.

“He’s never going to do it again,” I tell her. “I won’t allow it.”

She shakes her head. “I have to go with him tomorrow, Maylie. If I don’t do what he demands… he doesn’t like my defiance. It’ll just make things worse. He’ll hurt you and Toby. I’m not going to let that happen.”

My heart shatters at her willingness to protect us from something she needs protecting from.

“What makes you think we’re going to let him hurt you to keep us safe?” Toby asks.

Ivy sniffles. “I can handle it. I’ve been handling it.”

Oh, boy, I want to kill him. “That’s not happening, Ivy,” I tell her.