Page 51 of Apple of My Eye

I kept my voice even and watched his chest rise and fall.

"Dad yelled at him. Said the day he let a Brewster marry his daughter, he might as well be—be dead." The words clogged in my throat. "Trevor said... that can be arranged."

"Oh, God." Knox came back to me, hands on my arms. "No."

"I burst in. I don't know what I was thinking. I told Trevor I'd do it — that if it cleared the family debt, I would marry him. I was willing to sacrifice myself to that man to save my family." The tears had started and I didn't stop them. "Dad threw him off the property. Told me I was never to agree to something like that again. That we'd find another way. But Trevor didn't let up, and it wasn't long after that —"

I broke.

Knox pulled me in.

"That your parents had the accident?" he murmured against my hair.

I could only nod against his chest, and I stayed there until the worst of the sobs slowed down enough for me to breathe.

"To this day I carry guilt,” I finally said. "Wondering if their accident was really an accident. Did Trevor run them off the road? Did I play a part in it? But there was never any evidence of foul play that the deputies couldfind." I exhaled slowly. "I should have gone to the sheriff and told him everything about Trevor, but our world turned upside down overnight. I was numb, and I had to be strong for my sisters."

“It’s understandable. No one could fault you for trying to deal with it all,” he urged.

"After we lost them, the life insurance money didn't go far. Ivy ran away with Seth. All the while Trevor was breathing down my neck. His threats had escalated. He'd hurt my sisters if I didn't comply with his marriage plan.”

"Fucking asshole," Knox seethed.

"I had to do something, but marrying him was not it." I pulled back enough to look at him. "What Trevor didn't know was that I'd been keeping a diary the same way Dad kept his journals. Every incident. Every note. Photographs of Trevor leaving them on my car. Dates, times, everything. I went to the congressman's office and showed Bruce Brewster enough of it to make it clear what I had. I made sure he understood there was more, and that if anything ever happened to me or my sisters, the proof would find its way to the authorities. His son would be exposed for the monster he was.” I shook my head. “I told him to control his son."

"Whether Bruce knew the extent of his son's obsession before that day or not, he understood leverage. He understood what it would cost him. So the truce held. Trevor backed off. The congressman kept him on a short leash and away from Forest Grove." I exhaled slowly. "I got to where I could stop looking over my shoulder. Until now. This election keeps bringing Trevor back to town, and I don't like it."

"Neither do I." Knox leaned against the counter and crossed his arms..

"It wasn't long after I visited the congressman that ChrisMagnus came to town, looking for property for the ODRR. The bank told him about our place. We met, and I couldn't help but like him and what he was building. He made an offer to buy most of the property, leaving us the house and the orchard. I didn't hesitate. I honestly think Dad was watching from Heaven and somehow sent Chris to us when we needed saving."

I swiped more tears away. He pulled me in against his chest again, one hand at the back of my head, and held on.

"You've carried all of this by yourself," he said. "All these years."

I nodded. My face buried in his shoulder and, at last, I cried in the way I hadn't allowed myself to cry in a very long time, from somewhere deep and old that had been waiting longer than I'd known.

He held me through all of it.

When it slowed, I stayed where I was, his hand moving in long, slow passes across my back.

"Now you don't have to," he said. "I'll carry it with you."

His thumb moved carefully across my cheekbones, clearing the trail of tears. He gazed upon me with the expression of a man who had been handed something he understood the full weight of and intended to hold it right.

"You're not carrying one more day of this alone anymore.” He tucked me under his chin, but there was more I needed to say.

"The whole town read about us today. That damn Gossip Gal,” I said.

"I know. Sage filled me in."

"Knox. I need to ask you something and I need you not to make it into a bigger conversation than it has to be right now."

He waited.

"Can we keep this quiet, whatever we're doing, our being together? I know how that sounds, but I’m not ready for the whole town to have an opinion about my life. What Trevor did, it turned me into someone who doesn't always like being exposed. I prefer my privacy. And with everything going on, not knowing who to trust.” I stopped short. Tried again. "I trustyou.Please, until things settle. Keep us private."

He studied me with the full weight of his attention, which was considerable. "Now you want to set rules after we've already started."