No One But You (Silver Springs #2)(53)

“Part of me wanted to. But Sly didn’t want me to leave, and we were so in love. I didn’t see any reason to put off getting married. He’d already joined the police force, so he had a good job and...and I thought we’d have the perfect life together. We did have a perfect life together—at first,” she added.

“Was the way he treated Jayden part of what came between you?”

She moved so that she could gaze out at the highway herself. “Definitely.”

“The boy’s only five, and he seems like a good kid. What could possibly be the problem?”

She was now close enough to Dawson that she could smell his cologne. That scent stood out because he didn’t normally wear cologne. At least, she’d never noticed it before, and it made sense. Why would he put on cologne to go out and work in the fields?

But tonight, he’d gone to the bar.

Had he been hoping to find a woman?

With his looks, she couldn’t imagine he’d have any trouble, despite his reputation.

“Sadie?”

She blinked at him. “Hmm?”

“What was the problem between Sly and Jayden?”

She’d been staring at him, imagining him at the bar dancing with...who knows who, and it made her feel...what? A trickle of envy? “Sorry, I’m tired,” she said as she dragged her gaze back to what lay beyond the window. “Maybe you haven’t noticed, but Jayden’s sort of...sensitive. He likes art and dance, but he’s not too big on sports.”

“He’s young yet,” he responded.

She liked that he didn’t put Jayden down for his interests, didn’t seem to think it was the end of the world that a boy might not like what were traditionally considered “boy” things. Being different didn’t make Jayden any less than other little kids, and she got the impression Dawson agreed with that kind of thinking. “Yes, but...I doubt he’ll ever change. Sly keeps blaming me for making Jayden ‘soft.’”

“Making him soft?” Dawson repeated.

“Yeah. He’s always telling me to stop babying him. But I don’t think I’m the reason Jayden doesn’t like what Sly wants him to like. He just came to us that way.”

Although she wasn’t looking back at him, Sadie could feel the weight of Dawson’s stare.

“He’s going to have to accept his son for what he is at some point,” he said. “It’d be smart not to screw the kid up too badly before that happens.”

“I agree. But Sly doesn’t get that. He thinks he can ‘toughen him up.’”

“And how does he do that?”

She scrubbed a hand over her face. “By saying hurtful things that make Jayden feel inadequate. ‘Come on, you don’t want to be a dancer! Dancers are pussies.’ That sort of thing. I hate the constant put-downs. If not for that, I’d probably still be with Sly. I was so beaten down, so convinced I could never unravel the mistake of marrying him—especially given that I had a child to care for and no education—that I wouldn’t have left for only myself. To me, ‘for better or for worse’ meant exactly that. But the need to protect Jayden forced the issue. I hate knowing Sly’s embarrassed of his own son, that he wants him to be anything other than what he is. It’s so...damaging and hurtful—to both of us.”

“If Sly’s that hard on Jayden, how is it that he has partial custody?”

“Sly hasn’t been physically abusive.” At least to Jayden. What he’d done to her—pressing her to have sex with him when she didn’t even want him to touch her—definitely crossed that line. But she was too embarrassed to tell anyone about that. She felt as if most people wouldn’t think it was a big deal, considering she’d slept with him for so many years before.

“Did you tell the judge about the put-downs?”

“I tried to, but he cut me off. The nuances I’ve shared with you...they weren’t enough to get him to take action against Sly. This judge thinks of Sly as a fine officer of the law.”

“Wow.” Dawson rubbed his jaw. “As if I didn’t hate your ex before we had this conversation.”

“He’s emotionally toxic,” she said. “There isn’t a better way to describe him.”

Dawson didn’t get the chance to respond. A pair of headlights swung into the yard, drawing his attention back to the window.

“He’s here,” he said.





14


Sly wasn’t alone. Dawson watched as the police chief got out of the patrol car, too. Dawson hadn’t had a lot of direct contact with Chief Thomas, but he was leery of the entire Silver Springs police force. When his parents were murdered, they’d focused on him right away, wouldn’t believe a single thing he said. He’d never been treated worse, especially at such a terrible time.

Why did you kill them? What kind of a man takes a hatchet to his own parents? They didn’t have to take in your worthless ass, you know. They did it out of the kindness of their hearts, and this is how you repay them? The detective who’d been given the case had kept him shut up in a cold, uncomfortable interrogation room, drilling him with those questions, as well as many others, for twelve hours—until he’d grown so weary of trying to fend off each new attempt to trick him into incriminating himself that he’d asked for an attorney. He’d made that choice not long before dinnertime the day after his parents were killed. He’d been at the station the whole day, had had no sleep, but it didn’t matter that he’d tried to work with them for so long. In their eyes, asking for representation only confirmed his guilt. And all of this had been going on while the real culprit got away.