Collateral Damage (11 page)

“Charity is your
sister
,” her father fired back, now folding his arms across his chest and glaring down at her, “and the only one you have left. Family is sacred, Honor, but you’ve defiled that and the good name we gave you with your selfishness. And then you agreed to marry that man and go against our wishes? How dare you? How dare
both
of you.” He divided a fulminating glare between her and Liam.

Honor didn’t know how to respond. Her family had made it abundantly clear they didn’t want her and Liam together when she’d first expressed her interest in him, which is why she’d kept their relationship quiet and had dreaded telling them about the engagement.

Her father’s eyes turned even colder. “And now that you’ve gotten what you wanted, you’ll have to answer to yourself and God for what you’ve done.” He pointed a finger down the hall. “Your sister is in there fighting for her life right now because of your selfishness.”

Honor swallowed a sob and glanced at her mother, who was crying as she stared at Honor. As though Honor had broken her heart by being with Liam, let alone agreeing to marry him.

Somehow she summoned the courage to face her father again and found her voice, shaky as it was. “That’s not fair.”

“It’s the consequence of your actions,” he snapped. “Now you’ll both have to live with what you’ve done.”

“That’s enough.” Liam pulled her back toward him and stepped between her and her father. “Honor doesn’t deserve this.”

“She deserves that and more,” her father snarled, “and so do you.”

“No, she doesn’t. Charity is sick. Maybe you don’t want to face it, but it’s the hard truth. And she’s sicker than you’re willing to admit, if you can stand there and blame Honor for this. Bottom line is, this was Charity’s doing and no one else’s. No one forced those pills down her throat. It was her choice.” He glanced between him and her mother. “You really can’t see that? Or is it that you don’t want to?”

The words hung in the air between them like a taunt, an axe ready to fall. Before it could, a middle-aged doctor came through a door at the end of the hall and strode toward them. “Mr. and Mrs. Girard?”

Her father whipped his head around. “Yes.”

They all moved with him toward the doctor, meeting him in the middle, and he motioned for them to follow him into a private room down another hall. Wishing they’d had this kind of privacy for the past ten minutes, Honor stood in the room behind her parents, Liam at her back with his hand on her waist. She gripped his fingers tight in her own, grateful for his presence even though it had escalated things.

The doctor smiled at them, oblivious to the drama. “Your daughter has been stabilized. We were able to pump a large portion of the drugs and alcohol out of her stomach and we’ve given her medicine and fluids to help flush the rest out of her system. Her vitals look good. We won’t know for sure until she regains consciousness but I’m confident there won’t be any long-term effects. I don’t see any reason why she shouldn’t make a full recovery in a few days.”

Her mother gave a soft cry of relief and went limp in her husband’s arms. “Thank you,” her father told the doctor, his voice rough. “When can we see her?”

“Just as soon as she’s awake. We’ll do a few tests to verify everything’s okay, then we’ll let you in to see her. It might be best to limit her visitors for a while, until she’s more emotionally stable. You can discuss everything with the social worker who’s coming to see you shortly, and Charity’s psychiatrist will be in to see her in the morning. She’ll want to speak to you as well.”

When he left and the door shut behind him, a heavy silence filled the room.

“You need to leave now,” her father said without looking at her.

His cold dismissal sent a flare of panic through her. “I want to see her first.”

He rounded on her so fast she instinctively reared back and bumped her head against Liam’s chest. “You’re the last person on earth she’d want to see, and the last person I’ll allow into her room. Except maybe
him
.” He spat the word like an epithet, his accusing gaze flicking to Liam.

Slowly, her muscles so taut she feared they’d snap, Honor shook her head. “I don’t want to go.”

“I don’t care what you want, you’re not wanted here! Get out!” her father exploded, flinging his arms outward. “Just get out and leave us the hell alone,
both
of you.” He shot her a venomous glare that sliced her to ribbons inside, then whirled away, giving her his back.

Honor absorbed it without reacting, already turning numb inside. She was still breathing in and out, but she wasn’t sure how. Her entire body felt like it was made of concrete, including her lungs.

She didn’t resist when Liam eased her back into his arms. He turned her to face him and cupped the back of her head in one hand, his eyes steady on hers as he wiped her tears away. “What do you want to do?”

I don’t know!
She wanted to yell the words. It was all too much, the shock, their anger and blame, the guilt writhing inside her. The ring in her pocket seemed to burn through the denim, branding her skin.
Had
she driven Charity to this? Had she known on some level that this would happen and just hadn’t cared?

She took a step toward the door.

“Honor, no.”

The plea in her mother’s voice stopped her. When she turned her head, Honor found her reaching for her.

“Come here.” Her mother forced a wobbly smile and nodded in encouragement, the hand she held out a tenuous lifeline back to them.

Honor looked from that hand to her mother’s beseeching expression, then to her father’s broad back. “Dad?”

“You’ve already made your bed when you chose him over your blood.” He didn’t bother looking at her. “Go.”

Family is sacred.

Those words and the meaning behind them had been drilled into her since she was a toddler. She knew exactly how strongly her father felt about them. Just as she knew if she walked out that door with Liam right now, she was as good as dead to him. And to her mother too, since she always sided with and backed him. A united, immovable force that had been a solid foundation to stand upon her entire life.

Now it was fractured beyond repair, crumbling rapidly beneath her feet.

Liam’s hand was warm and strong on her waist. He was her future, her chance at happiness. But at what cost? Could she really pay that price and live with herself now?

A cold, yawning pit opened up in Honor’s gut.

“I need to talk to Liam for a minute,” she managed past the tightness in her throat, and turned to leave.

Out in the hall, he stopped and took her face between his hands. In light of what she had to do, the concern on his handsome face killed her inside. “What do you need, baby? You want to stay a while, see if he cools down? Or you want to leave? I’ll drive you home if you—”

“No.”

He frowned. “No what?”

“I can’t leave.”

“Okay.” He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her tight to his body, pressing her cheek against the curve of his shoulder. “Then we’ll stay.”

Honor squeezed her eyes shut and held on tight. He was deploying to Afghanistan again in just a few days and even when she arrived at Bagram a month after that they wouldn’t see much of each other. They couldn’t, due to regulations.

Her head spun at the unbelievable turn of events. Mere hours ago she’d lain naked in his arms and stared at the way the light glinted off the aquamarine in the ring he’d chosen, filled with joy and excited about the future. Now that dream lay in ashes at her feet and it felt like she was being torn in two.

“Want to sit down?” he murmured.

She shook her head and didn’t let go, unable to tear herself away from him yet.

Liam rested his cheek against her hair and cradled her, surrounding her in the warmth and strength she needed so badly. “He shouldn’t have lashed out at you like that. Maybe he’ll come around once he sees Charity’s awake and things calm down.”

“He won’t.”

“He might.”

With a deep sigh, Honor pulled back. “No, he won’t.”

The finality in her tone must have registered with him because he stilled and stared down at her questioningly.

There was no easy way to say it. “If I leave with you, I’m no longer his daughter.”

He scoffed. “He’s just mad right now. He’d never do that.”

He didn’t believe that she was being literal. That her father was capable of such a thing. She knew better. And even if she could mend her bridges with her parents and they accepted her after this nightmare, they would
never
accept Liam. So how the hell could she marry him, knowing that?

“Yes, he would. I’ve seen him do it to his brother and one of my cousins. Some of his parishioners over the years, too.” Her family meant the world to her. They weren’t perfect, but no one was, and she had to at least patch things up with Charity or she’d never be able to live with herself.

He grunted. “Doesn’t sound very Christian to me.”

Maybe not, but that was beside the point because her father wasn’t going to change. He subscribed to the old school lessons in the Bible, and could cut the people he no longer cared to associate with out of his life without any trouble. “Oh, God, I don’t know what to do!”

He rubbed a soothing hand over her back. “So we stay for a while and see what happens.”

No, there was no
we
about it, and he still wasn’t listening. “You can’t be here, Liam. You’ve seen how he is with you, you’ll just make everything worse.” And if Charity found out he was here, there was no telling how she’d react.

His jaw flexed and Honor realized how harsh that sounded. She opened her mouth to take it back or at least reword it, but he cut her off. “There’s no way I’m leaving you to face them and everything else alone, so forget it.”

Frustrated, she pulled away abruptly and ran a hand through her hair. “I appreciate your support and trying to help, but seriously, you need to leave.”

“Forget it.”

God, he was just as pig-headed as her father. She sucked in a deep breath and struggled for patience, feeling like she was about to explode. She loved that he’d come here and stood his ground beside her even in the face of her father’s wrath, but she couldn’t handle more drama right now and that’s absolutely what his presence would cause.

“Please, you need to go, and I need time to think about everything.”

At that he stiffened, his gaze turning wary. “What do you mean, everything? Us?”

She waved a hand helplessly. “No, I mean
everything
! God, I feel like I’m being torn in two—” She stopped talking when she noticed his gaze was riveted to her left hand. Her
bare
left hand. Her chest constricted.

“You took off the ring?”

The accusation in his eyes hit her square in the heart. She scrambled to explain. “In my pocket. I couldn’t come in here wearing it, it would have made things a thousand times worse,” she blurted. Not that things could really get much worse, but she desperately needed him to understand. He didn’t have contact with his father. He didn’t know what it was to have a family that expected things from him, couldn’t fathom what it was like to be in her position.

Her sister had just attempted suicide because of them getting engaged. What the hell would Charity do if they went through with it and got married?

Liam met her gaze once more, his expression so guarded it scared her. She had the awful premonition that she was on the brink of losing him too. One false step here on her part and he’d be gone. “Are you going to put it back on?”

His tone was even but she knew he was really asking if she’d changed her mind about the engagement. The honest answer was, maybe. At least for now. She couldn’t take any more pressure from either side tonight. “Please try to understand, I can’t wear it right now. Just—I need some time to sort everything out.” And figure out what decision she would be able to live with for the rest of her life.

Because she already knew that’s what it would come down to: Liam or her family, one or the other, no way around it and no hope of having both. Forever.

He acquiesced with a tight nod, clearly not liking the idea. “I’ll wait in my truck until you see Charity, then take you home after. I don’t want you driving right now. I’ll stay at your place tonight and we’ll talk this all out once you get some sleep. Things will look better in the morning, once everyone has a chance to cool off.”

It killed her that such a strong man was practically begging her to let him stay and help. She took his face between her hands and stood on tiptoe to kiss him. He seemed surprised by the move but before he could react she pulled away. “I don’t think that’s a good idea tonight.”

His expression hardened. He studied her for a long moment, his silence raking across her already raw nerves. “So what—you want me to walk away and wait for you to make up your mind if you still want to be with me or not?” He ran a hand through his hair in agitation. “Not three hours ago you promised to be my
wife
.”

She flinched at the hurt in his voice but before she could respond a woman appeared at the far end of the corridor, holding a binder. Honor stepped back from Liam as the woman smiled at her. “Are you family members of Charity Girard?”

“I am,” Honor said.

“Are your parents here as well?”

“Yes, inside.” She indicated the private room with a nod.

“Great. I’d like to talk to all of you if you have a few minutes.”

Honor glanced at Liam. The woman knocked once on the door and pushed it open. Her mother stood up and saw Honor there. Her face brightened with hope but she studiously ignored Liam standing next to her, as though he didn’t exist.

God, she couldn’t do this.

Taking Liam’s hand, Honor faced him and squeezed hard. Even though she was torn and this whole situation wasn’t fair, she was at least partly responsible for what Charity had done to herself. No matter what her faults, she loved her sister. Charity was the reason she had to stay here.

“I need to stay with them.” And at least try to work this out. Even though she already knew it would land her in the exact same position she was in now. In a no-win situation.