Not Broken: The Happily Ever After(116)

“I’ve spent a lot of hours staring at her. Talking to her. Hoping she held some magical answer.”

I placed my hands on her shoulders, and massaged them briefly before wrapping my arms around her and pulling her back against me.

“I sat here on the floor working on my second bottle of wine…”

I tightened my arms around her. “Baby, that’s in the past. What’s important is that no matter how low you felt in that moment, you found a reason to not go through with it.”

She reached up, and rested her hands on my arms. “What do you see when you look at her?”

“Look at who?”

“My lady on the cliff.”

I looked up at the picture. Studying it for the first time. Normally, I’d only give it a passing glance. It was an unsettling image, and I often wondered why she left it up after that bastard was gone.

Ginger started talking again before I answered her question. “She called to me the first time I saw her. I’ve never been into art. You’d hear in movies people talking about deep meaning of pictures, and I never understood it. Until her. There was something serene about that moment. I imagined that whatever brought her to that point, she stood there right at the edge and had a moment of clarity. Whether she stepped off, or turned back, it didn’t matter. What mattered was that moment right before the decision. That breath. That moment of freedom knowing that the next choice was hers and hers alone.”

My gaze remained on the painting. Seeing it as Ginger saw it. Not as some morbid picture depicting a woman about to plunge to her death. Instead, I saw Ginger. A woman teetering on the edge but holding on just enough to not go over.

“Precipice.” Her words spoken in a whisper.

“What?”

“That’s the name of the painting.” Ginger pulled away and walked over to turn the gas off to the fireplace. The flames died out almost instantly. “Seth gave me a lot of things, but the two most important are that painting and Shawn. Both saved my life. Shawn did so twice.”

I looked up at the painting again, before stepping closer to examine it. Checking to see how it was secured to the wall, I lifted it, surprised by the weight.

“What are you doing?”

Making sure I was careful not to drop it, I slowly lowered Precipice to the floor. “This is important to you. It holds special meaning, so I’m taking it with us.”

“But you don’t like it.”

I walked over and pulled her into an embrace. “Let’s just say I have a new appreciation for it.”

We spent the next few hours packing up the things she wanted to take now, knowing we still had a ways to go. She had a house full of furniture that needed to be dealt with, but it could wait.

I headed home, and Ginger went to her parents’ house to get Shawn. During the drive, I tried in vain to not think about that letter and the fact that at one point she was ready to end it all. Even in death, that bastard nearly took her life.

My hands squeezed the steering wheel. I should really consider taking up poker because my game face had improved greatly. Once she’d been found, I thought the threat had been removed. Ginger was safe and away from that bastard; all she’d needed to do was heal. It’s what we’d all thought. Her biggest threat in many ways had always been herself. Taking the weight of the world onto her shoulders. Empathy for others, was a strength, but also a weakness. Her biggest weakness.

I pounded my fist against the wheel. She’d apologized. She’d apologized for him, for what he’d done to her. For what he’d done to Macy. It pissed me off that she took on the blame for every despicable act that man had done, as if she’d had any control over them. It wasn’t her fault. None of it was within her control, yet the guilt he’d left her with had nearly consumed her. But she was here.

Fuck! Those old shoulda, coulda, woulda thoughts came back. If only I’d not let Macy dictate things before, I could have saved Ginger from going through all of the pain and suffering. If she’d gone through with it, I would have never forgiven myself for holding back for so long.

Just when I’d thought the worst had come out and been dealt with, there was still more. But she was here. It was one night. A moment of weakness, but she’d only thought about it. She’d not actually attempted to end her life. No matter how much he’d tried to break her, she’d won. No matter how much she thought he’d broken her, she’d won.

No matter what was to come, she was still here. We were getting through everything together. She’d let me in. She’d opened up. She loved me. That last thought brought a smile to my face. The last couple of years had been hell, but that was behind us now.

The rest of the evening was relaxing. Dinner, and a little TV before Shawn decided he was in the mood to game. He now had his very own controller, thanks to a combination of one too many hits on the floor and him managing to get the lid off his juice cup, which resulted in water spilling all over it.

“You are really turning him into your mini me, aren’t you?”

I looked over and gave a quick shrug. “I need someone to game with. He’s already better than you, and he’s not even really playing.”

“Then how does that make him better than me?”

“Because he wants to play. You could always take his place.”

Ginger reached over to move hair out of his face. “You are looking just like daddy, aren’t you?”