Beholden (The Belonging Duet, #2)(19)

“How?” I ask quickly. What evidence does she have?

“You had some pretty nasty bruises. Ashton took photos and sent them to me. Do you want to retain me as your legal counsel?” Gretchen asks.

“Of course. I wanted to tell you, but everything happened so fast and I-I just …” I trail off not really knowing what else to say at this point.

“I know. I’m going to handle this. You don’t need to worry yet. But you may want to forewarn Jackson. Also I think we have a good shot at getting Neil to back down if we can show him our proof. And it’s civil at this point, but I’m concerned he’ll go towards criminal for the assault if we can’t get him to withdraw. Seriously, though,” she pauses, “I’m very good at being scary.” I can almost hear her smile at the last sentence.

I laugh, “I know all too well.”

“I think you need a refresher.”

“Have mercy on me. It’s been a rough couple weeks.”

“Fine, I’ll give you this one. Go be with that sexy man of yours. I love you.”

“Love you too, Gretch. We’ll talk soon,” I reply.

“You bet. Don’t worry about a thing. I’ll handle the garbage.” She giggles and disconnects the call.

All of this over what? Money? A ring? When did he really become so shallow? Sure, the ring is not small, but he makes a good salary. We both do, which is why things were never difficult. It wasn’t like one of us was coming into the marriage making a lot more than the other. I made a little more since my last promotion, but his company started him off higher than I did.

I shake my head and head back into the room.

“How’s Gretchen?” Jackson asks, rubbing his eyes.

“Good. Sorry I woke you.”

He smiles and holds his arm out, inviting me back to where I was before. “You didn’t, I just noticed you weren’t here,” he says earnestly.

“Awww, you missed me, huh?” I tease him.

“I miss you even when you’re here.”

I smile and climb into his embrace again. “You really need to stop being so damn perfect.”

Jackson chuckles as I turn to look at him. “I’m far from perfect.” He leans down and presses a tender kiss on my lips.

The feel of his lips on mine causes my heart to flutter. I never want this to end. I could kiss him all day. His lips turn up in a smile, effectively breaking my small moment of happiness as the kiss breaks.

Looking into his turquoise eyes, the joy I see stops my breath. Unable to control my reactions, I grin.

“So what did Gretchen say?” Jackson asks.

The smile fades as I think about what she said and the thought of Neil does nothing to halt my mood change. My immediate thought is to keep this from him, to protect him while he’s healing, or protect myself. However, I’m not going to do that again. He asked me to trust him, to give him my heart, and I have. I love him and need to have faith in our relationship.

I groan, “Neil is apparently trying to file a lawsuit. Gretchen is obviously well-known and her friends alerted her that he’s calling around.”

His entire body clenches and he lets out a snarl through gritted teeth. I shoot up looking at where he’s in pain but his hand is in a fist and his eyes are closed.

“Jackson.” My voice is small, but I know he hears me.

“I f*cking hate him, Catherine.” Jackson’s eyes latch on to mine and you can see the anger rolling through him. “I’ll call my legal team. I’m going to bury that piece of shit one way or another.” His voice is cold as ice.

“He’s not worth it. Gretchen has photos and doesn’t think it’ll come to that. She’s pretty sure with the proof she has, it’ll be dropped.”

“What f*cking proof do you have?” Jackson asks clearly still angry.

He doesn’t know about the bruises. I threw him out that night, and well, we didn’t really talk much about anything that happened in the few days we spent apart. Which reminds me about the conversation I had with Piper as well.

“I had bruises on my arms.” I see his hand once again ball into a fist. “Before you hurt yourself getting worked up, let me get through this, okay?”

I pause staring at him waiting for some sign he’s going to allow me to tell him the story without ripping his stitches or trying to get out of bed. We both glare at each other until he finally lets out the breath he’s been holding and nods.

“Like I said, I had bruises on both my arms from where he grabbed me. I’m not completely surprised since I bruise fairly easy, but Ashton took pictures on her phone. Apparently, she sent them to Gretchen to hold on to. I explained Neil’s threat to Ash as well.”

Jackson goes from anger to hurt. “I should’ve been there. I shouldn’t have left you when you asked me to.”

“I needed you to go. You leaving me showed me everything I was trying to ignore. I shut you out because I was so afraid. So you don’t get to play the martyr. We both f*cked up,” I say, sounding much stronger than I feel at the moment.

I’m not afraid he’s going to leave since he can’t move, but the last time we began this talk a lot of things happened. None of which I’d like to relive any time soon.

I look up at him before he can say anything else. “But that’s not all.”