I Craved Crawfish, but He Fed It All to My Sister Chapter 10

I Craved Crawfish, but He Fed It All to My Sister Chapter 10

After Derek went to prison, he had his lawyer deliver a letter.

On the envelope was a single line: [Sloane, I spent ten years repaying a debt that didn’t exist, and lost the only

person who ever really saved me.]

I didn’t open it.

The letter went into the case file, unread.

After Maren went to prison, my parents came looking for me.

My mother cried. “Maren knows she was wrong.”

“She’s always been frail. You’re her older sister. Give her one more chance.”

I looked at her. “Did my baby ever get a chance?”

My mother’s crying stopped.

“You always made me give things up. By the end, she thought my life was just another thing she could take.”

I closed the door.

I never went back to that house again.

Three years later, I was still living in the small beach town.

The trauma didn’t disappear with the verdicts.

I still don’t eat crawfish.

The sound of zip ties tightening still makes me flinch.

On stormy nights, the frostbite scars on my legs still ache.

Evan was there for two years while I put myself back together.

After the case closed, he voluntarily handed my ongoing legal matters to another attorney and kept his

distance for a long time.

He’d seen me wake from nightmares at three in the morning.

He’d seen me hyperventilate because of a crawfish tank in a restaurant.

He never once said, “It’s all behind you now.”

Whenever I pulled back, he stayed where he was.

Then one day, we were walking along the shore.

He asked if I wanted to go back.

I didn’t answer. I just reached out and took his hand.

No one rushed me.

No one made decisions for me.

The year after we got married, I got pregnant again.

On the day of my first prenatal checkup, Evan walked me to the exam room door, then stopped.

He asked first, “Do you want me in there with you?”

I stared at the door in front of me.

I thought of the fetal heartbeat printout Derek had crushed years ago.

I thought of the paramedic asking, “Is there family?”

And the words I’d said in response.

This time, I wasn’t afraid.

I took Evan’s hand. “Come in with me.”

The steady sound of a heartbeat soon filled the room..

One beat. Then another.

Evan’s eyes went red, but he didn’t grab me or pull me close on his own.

He just held my hand gently and waited for me to speak first.

I touched the small swell of my belly. “I hear it.”

Outside the window, sunlight stretched across the ocean.

The love had been real. So was the damage.

Loving him once didn’t mean I had to go back to the person who broke me.

This time, my life was mine. I held Evan’s hand and walked toward the future I’d chosen for myself.