He could guess it didn't, and that she hadn't thought twice about her decision to keep looking after her family.
That was who she was. Kind, thoughtful, responsible, hardworking, and selfless.
Which made catching her cheating such a shocking blow. He had quite literally never seen it coming. Of all the people in the world who might cheat on a partner, Teresa Dash had seemed like the least likely.
“It’s amazing that you still take care of them.”
“They're my family and I love them,” she said simply.
“How is Simon doing these days?”
They were almost at the front door of the building, but Teresa froze, the color drained from her face, and pure terror danced across her features.
For a second, Micah thought she’d seen something, and his hand reached for his weapon as he scanned the area in search of whatever had scared Teresa. When he found nothing out of the ordinary, nothing he would consider a threat, he returned his gaze to her to find that fine tremors were wracking her body.
She swallowed audibly. “He’s out of prison, still on drugs, though,” she whispered.
Something in her voice had the hairs on the back of his neck standing up. He hadn't kept up with anything that she or her family had done over the last decade, and his focus the other night was finding out about Teresa, not her family. Within a week of catching her cheating on him, he’d quit college andenlisted, shipped out to basic training, so he had no idea what the fallout from his disappearance had been.
Had things with Simon spiraled over the intervening years?
Honestly, he wouldn't be surprised if they had. Simon Dash had already been on a path to ruining not just his own life but others as well. By the time he was in his early teens, he’d already progressed from petty theft to assault, and he was sure those crimes had continued to escalate, especially since Teresa said he hadn't gotten clean.
“I'm sorry,” he said, not exactly sure what he was apologizing for, but he hated that her brother’s criminal activity had obviously taken such a toll on Teresa.
“We don’t talk about him,” she said, her voice earnest now, her eyes pleading with him to understand, only he got the feeling he didn't really understand any of what she was trying to convey. “Please don’t bring him up in front of my mom or Arthur. Arthur, he … he doesn’t fully understand, but he gets enough to be upset. And my mom. What Simon did broke something inside her. So please, don’t mention him when we’re with them. Not at all.”
“Okay,” he quickly assured her, wanting to calm her growing panic. “I won't say anything,” he promised.
But he couldn’t promise that he wouldn't look more into Simon Dash as soon as he had the opportunity to, because the level of fear and desperation Teresa had just demonstrated was more than excessive. Something was going on that she hadn't told him, and he wanted to know what it was.
CHAPTER 6
April 30th
12:23 P.M.
“Sooooo.”Chelsea drew the word out, and when Teresa turned to look at her friend, she saw that Chelsea’s big gray eyes were wide, and she was watching her expectantly.
“So, what?” Teresa asked, returning her attention to her computer screen.
This morning had been weird, having Micah be so insistent on coming to see her mom and brother, even after abandoning her, had thrown her off-guard. Had he wanted to see them because he felt bad about what he’d done and was figuring out how to apologize to her?
There hadn't been an apology yet, but that didn't mean one wasn't coming.
And she couldn’t think of another reason why he would want to come and spend a bit of time with her mom and Arthur after she’d let him know that they knew he’d bailed on her after her assault.
At least he hadn't brought up Simon.
After Simon set her up to get gang raped, not just set her up, but actively pimped her out, her mom had basically had a breakdown. Knowing that one of her children, one of her little baby boys, had done something so horrific to one of her other children had left permanent scars on her soul.
They didn't talk about Simon.
Ever.
For any reason.
Even Arthur knew enough to understand that his big brother had done something bad, although he didn't have the capacity to grasp just how evil a thing Simon had done.
