She stared down at her hot chocolate, stirring it with a spoon.
I knew it wasn’t easy for her to open up, and I wished I could’ve given her time, but we simply didn’t have it. “If we’re going to do this, we have to be honest with each other. That’s the only way we’ll pull it off.”
“You’re right.” Anna lifted her chin, meeting my gaze, but her grip on the handle of the mug was iron. “My father hit Justin a few weeks before they came here.”
My back teeth ground together as I did my best to keep the anger from my face. The fury. A grown man laying hands on an eleven-year-old boy. Justin. A kid who had the best heart. He always looked out for the little ones at camp, making sure they never felt left out. He stayed late to help the volunteers pick up. And he always kept a protective eye on his sister.
“Did your sister file a report?” If she had, that would be a point in our column when we made it to court.
“Justin didn’t tell her. That’s the thing about my parents. They have an uncanny ability to make you think that no one will believe you.”
So many abusers had that skill. They stole every ounce of power their victim had until they believed that their current circumstances were normal. That their life would be like that forever. “Do you think he’ll be able to tell Walker or a social worker now?”
Anna stirred her drink. “I think so. He knows what’s at stake. Mason, I can’t let them have Justin and Lyla. I don’t care what it takes, I’ll run if I have to.”
I sucked in a sharp breath, the air almost burning. The vision that filled my mind of Anna on her own with those two kids, trying to hide from everyone, was a sucker punch to the gut. “We’re going to make it so you don’t have to do that.”
She looked me dead in the eyes. “Do you honestly think this will work?”
“Yes.” Because I would use every resource at my disposal. And I had more than a few of them. The references I could pull would make any judge think twice about taking the kids away from us.
“You sound sure.”
I released my hold on my mug, flexing my fingers. “I’ve got some strings I can pull.” Anna’s eyes narrowed on me. “Nothing illegal. But I know people in positions of power who will be happy to write letters of reference to any judge. We’ve already got one of the best lawyers in the state on the case. Now, we just have to get married.”
A laugh bubbled out of Anna, and she clamped her lips together. “Sorry. You just sounded so matter-of-fact about it.”
“Not exactly how I imagined my first proposal going, but…”
“I swore I’d never get married.”
That shocked me. I’d always thought Anna would be one for a husband and a whole horde of kids. “Why not?”
She froze for a moment before answering, seeming to choose her words carefully. “The one person I thought was my forever stole everything from me. I promised myself I’d never put myself in that position again.”
Her tone was so unemotional that it twisted the phantom knife in my gut deeper. Trust would be a long, winding road for us. But better I knew that now. I met her gaze and didn’t look away. “I promise I’ll always be honest with you, even if the truth is inconvenient. If there’s ever anything you want to know, you only have to ask.”
Anna cleared her throat and looked away. “Thank you.” She took a sip of the hot chocolate, and her eyes widened. “This is amazing.”
“It’s from a little shop near my old condo. Best I’ve ever had.”
“Me, too.”
We sat in silence for a few minutes before Anna spoke again. “So, when should we do this? And where? I don’t know what we need.”
“We’ll have to file for a marriage license, and then we can do the ceremony at the courthouse. Unless you want something in a church.” I realized I had no idea if Anna was religious or a million other things I’d thought I would know about my wife-to-be.
“Courthouse is fine.”
“We should dress up. Have someone take pictures in case the courts get suspicious.”
“That’s smart. I can find a dress tomorrow.” She took another sip of her drink. “Our friends are going to suspect something.”
“They’ll know what we’re doing. But all we need to do is give them a plausible story. They’ll go along for the ride.” They weren’t stupid, but if they had an excuse to give the world, none of that mattered.
“And what story is that?”
I grinned. “We’ve been keeping our relationship under wraps for months. You didn’t want to have things get awkward since I’m a volunteer at Hope House. But losing your sister put things into perspective. We didn’t want to waste another day without each other.”