“Of course,” my mom said. “You were in bed for weeks. I still think we should’ve taken you to the hospital.”
I swallowed the bile in my throat. “It wasn’t a bike accident.”
Dad’s gaze turned alert. “Then what the hell was it?”
“I got jumped. Didn’t see who they were. It was late in the day, already getting dark. They got me from behind. Thought I was the one who’d helped kill all those people.”
It hurt to say the words. Nearly burned me alive to set them free. And it was then that I knew just how much this had weighed on me. The price I’d paid all these years. How it had made me retreat further and further until I’d almost ceased to exist.
“What?” Mom whispered.
“I didn’t want you to know.” My voice was a husk of a rasp.
“Roan,” she choked. “You were black and blue from head to toe. You had a concussion and broken ribs. Someone did that to you?”
“Who?” Dad demanded. “You must have seen something.”
“I didn’t,” I said, trying to find that calm again. “I have no clue who they were, and I don’t want to know.”
“Why the hell not?” Nash demanded. “They need to pay for what they did. They could’ve killed you.”
I let out a stuttered breath. My feelings on what had happened had changed since I’d met Aspen and come to know her light. I wasn’t constantly wondering who’d stuck the knife in my back; I simply felt sorry for them. “I don’t want to put a face to that hate. Don’t want to know who in my community could’ve been cold enough to do that. But what I do know is that they have to live with it. With the fact that they attacked someone innocent. It likely tortures them. That’s enough.”
“It’s not enough,” Grae choked out, tears filling her eyes. “You changed. I thought it was just being a suspect, but it was this.”
I couldn’t lie to her and say I hadn’t. Because I had.
“But it made him the amazing man he is today,” Aspen said softly, her voice breaking through the crackling energy in the room. She looked around, meeting everyone’s eyes. “It made him kinder than anyone I know. More empathetic. It made him want to care for creatures who need our love and protection. It made him fiercely protective of every single person he cares about. What he went through was horrible. But Roan turned all that ugliness into the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
Grae cried harder. She slid off Caden’s lap and crossed to me, pulling me up. Then she threw her arms around my middle. Grae had always been tiny but fierce. And her grip now was that of someone four times her size. “I love you. More than you’ll ever know.”
“I love you, too, G,” I whispered. “I’m okay. I promise.”
Her gaze flicked to Aspen. “Because she helped you heal.”
I couldn’t lie. That was a huge part of it. Aspen showed me how our worst moments could become our greatest strengths.
As Grae released me, Holt stepped in. So much swirled in those familiar blue eyes. He hauled me into a hug. “I’m so sorry. I was so lost in what I was going through. I couldn’t see that you were hurting.”
“Holt,” I choked out. “You nearly lost the person you love most in this world. You didn’t need to be worried about me.”
“You’re my brother.” There were tears in his voice. “You never should’ve dealt with it alone.”
Wren had tears tracking down her face as she squeezed my arm. “We should’ve done more to protect you. I tried to tell them you didn’t have anything to do with it. I should’ve tried harder.”
“Wren…” I pulled her into a hug. “You were healing from being shot. It’s a miracle you had it in you to tell them what you did.”
Each member of my family hugged me in a way they hadn’t in years. And for the first time, I really let them. We all needed it. I knew that much.
Lawson stepped into my space, his gaze hard. “You should’ve told me.”
“I didn’t want anyone to know.”
“I was a damned cop,” he growled.
I took his shoulders, squeezing hard. “Not everything is your responsibility.”
“I could’ve done something. Got camera footage. Found witnesses,” he argued.
“Law. I’m okay.”
His dark eyes blazed. “I’ve seen you battling something these past weeks, so on edge with everything happening to Aspen. It was more than just being worried for her. It was terror.”