She swallowed audibly. “I don’t want to lose any of that. I don’t want to lose Justin and Lyla. And Derek might try to make trouble just to spite me.”
“He might try, but he won’t succeed,” I vowed.
“Mase is right,” Walker agreed. “Raymond has too long a record for any judge to take his word. Especially when you haven’t had a single brush with the law since they released you from juvie. I’ve got a call in to Detective Markum. I think it might be worth talking to your lawyer about having him as a character witness. He can speak to what he saw of your parents, as well.”
Anna untwisted the two little strings she had a death grip on. “I don’t want to get him involved in this.”
Walker looked her straight in the eyes. “Trust me. He’ll be happy to help.”
“How do you know that?”
He shrugged. “Markum sounds like a really good cop. It burns when we know justice hasn’t been served, and there’s nothing we can do about it. This might let him right a few wrongs.”
Anna released her hold on the strings. “I’ll text Keisha.”
“Good. Now, why don’t you get out of here and relax for the rest of the night?” Walker said. “I’ll send a copy of Raymond’s mug shot to all of my officers so they can keep an eye out.”
“Thank you.” I rose and reached out a hand to clasp Walker’s in a half-shake, half-grasp.
“Anytime.”
Anna barely said anything as we walked out of the station. Then her steps faltered. “I forgot about the pizza.”
“I’ll have them make us fresh ones. We can wait.”
“Okay.” She started towards the pizza parlor, but I stopped her. Anna looked up at me, her gaze turning wary.
“Is that everything?” I did my best to keep my voice even.
“What do you mean?”
“You can’t keep hiding huge things like this.”
She stiffened, her spine going ramrod straight. “I wasn’thidingit.”
“Feels like something pretty big to conveniently forget about.”
“Just because we’ve started something doesn’t mean I owe you every detail of my life.”
Her words cut. Because I wanted every detail. I wanted to know every single joy and sorrow of her twenty-eight years. But Anna didn’t want to share them with me. She was content to have her walls sky-high. “You know all of my stuff.”
I thought we’d shared everything in those late nights talking in the dark. Me sharing what it was like to practically raise Jules. Her telling me what it had been like living in Hope House for so long. But shadows and secrets were everywhere.
“I’m sure I don’t know everything.”
“Maybe not, but I’m not consciously hiding things from you.”
“I’m not either,” she argued.
I raised a brow. “You don’t think this was something you might have shared when Derek’s statement first came up? That doesn’t feel a little wrong to you?”
Some of the fire went out of Anna with that question. “I don’t like thinking about it. It was the hardest time in my life. Even worse than juvie. Because at least juvie was predictable. Once I knew the spoken and unspoken rules, I knew how to survive. When I got out, anything could happen. That was scarier, somehow.”
I pulled Anna into my arms, and she went willingly. I held her close, resting my chin on the top of her head. “I just don’t want you to lock me out.”
“I’m not trying to. It’s habit.”
“Okay.” I rubbed a hand up and down her back. “It’s a habit you can try to break.”
