Unforgivably Broken (The Broken Series Book Two) (28 page)

Entering the Travis County Courthouse wasn’t nearly the circus I was afraid it would be. Of course, the media was there but with my hair dyed black and the tattoos and piercings, I looked nothing like the pictures they’d seen of Kylee Camden. That’s exactly what I’d hoped for when I originally changed my look. But, I knew once they figured it out, the walk in and out of the main entrance would be different.

We followed the directions toward the courtroom, waiting outside the door until the bailiff came out to lead us upstairs to the holding room. I recognized several of Hunter’s friends and his brothers as well as a few of the younger girls from the gym who were probably there to testify for Brooke. Hunter’s brothers, Thomas and Mason, stared at me as I walked to a chair in the corner of the room. In fact, pretty much everyone stared at me.

I drew my knees up, placing my heels against the edge of the seat in an attempt to hide. It was ridiculous but it surprisingly made me feel better. I turned my head toward Tish, noticing that he seemed torn. He placed his arm on the back of my chair lightly, going for comforting without touching me. I sighed.

When half the day had passed with nothing happening for us, they came in to release us for lunch. I hadn’t thought about my family coming to the trial until I spotted them when we passed the open doors to the courtroom. I looked at Tish, panicked.

I saw when my parents spotted me and I practically launched myself past Tish in my attempt to get away from them before they could speak to me. Tish guided me with a hand on my back toward the hallway.

“Stairs?”
he asked in a hushed voice and I nodded my agreement, following him quickly to the marked door. He started down but I shook my head.

“No. Up. Let’s go up one floor and just sit. Please?” I begged. Tish nodded his agreement and I kicked off my heels, snatching them quickly and running up the stairs. We passed a few jurors from other trials, identifiable by the JUROR tag on their shirts, as we exited onto the fifth floor of the building.

After rounding the corner, I spotted the restrooms and darted inside the women’s without a word to Tish. I needed a moment alone to try to process. I rushed into the large stall at the far end, slamming the lock closed before leaning back against it. I didn’t think I could do this. Just knowing my parents were in this building was enough to make me sick to my stomach; knowing Hunter was here too, my body trembled.

With shaking fingers, I fished in my wallet and pulled out the letter from Zane. It was folded normally now but I opened it and carefully read his words again, trying to remember that he saw strength in me, even when I couldn’t feel it.

It didn’t take long for raised voices outside the bathroom to start floating in. I recognized Tish’s voice as he told someone they couldn’t go into the bathroom. The voice that followed was indignant and I knew immediately it was my mother. I couldn’t let myself lose it now so instead, I pulled out my greatest weapon. Practiced indifference. I hid all my emotions, locking them away as I exited the bathroom and found myself behind the wall of Tish’s back as he blocked the door.

Carefully, I touched his arm to alert him of my presence before I stepped out beside him. Jefferson and Lydia Camden were exactly as I remembered them, as if my disappearance and even the current trial hadn’t aged them a bit. They didn’t seem relieved to see me
and they weren’t grabbing at me to pull me into their arms as Denni had, but I honestly hadn’t expected either response from them.

“What have you done to yourself, Kylee?”
my mother asked and I fought back the urge to scream expletives at her. After three years, those were the words she chose to say to me first?

“That’s not my name, Lydia,” I responded, mirroring her detached tone perfectly. I might’ve thought in this moment that I actually learned something from my mother, but I knew Lydia’s apathy wasn’t
fake. She wasn’t harnessing emotions behind a mask, she truly had none.

“You
—” my father began, but I turned away, heading straight back to the stairs, knowing Tish would follow. Hiding hadn’t worked, not from them. So ignoring them completely would be my next move.

I knew Lydia wouldn’t take the stairs but I wasn’t surprised that Kaitlyn and
Denni followed Tish and I down two flights. I stopped at the landing for the third floor, leaning against the wall as the trembling in my body started. Denni stepped forward but I shook my head frantically, holding up a hand to keep her back. I had to hold it together and I couldn’t do that if she hugged me right now.

I just had to make it through the day.

The second part of the day went much the same, but by the end, we were told the jury had been selected and the opening statements were prepared to begin the next morning. There were several other witnesses, both for Brooke as well as for Hunter, so I had no idea what day I might be called.

I wasn’t surprised by the reporters as we exited the
tunnel at the front of the courthouse but I was surprised at the hateful words I heard yelled from the other end of the small line of cameras. I saw Hunter’s family and didn’t bother to try to figure out which of his brothers had flung the slurs. It didn’t matter. I turned in the opposite direction, heading down one of the side routes Tish and I had mapped out to the motel.

My hands were shaking as I stabbed the button for the elevator while I stood in the small lobby. The place had two tiny elevators that seemed ridiculously slow, especially today.

“Sorry. They’re working on one of the elevators so the other is extra slow right now,” a voice said, drawing my attention to the front desk area. The girl working, Amberlynn, frowned when she looked me over. She’d been the one to check us in when we arrived and she was overly sweet, always saying hi when we came through the lobby.

“Thanks,” Tish said and I nodded toward
Amberlynn before following him back out into the hot afternoon and around the corner to the stairs. It was stuffy, without any airflow in the stairwell itself as we climbed to the third floor.

Once safely inside the room, I rushed into the bathroom,
slamming the French doors behind me and turning the shower on full blast before I retched. There wasn’t anything in my stomach but my body obviously wasn’t handling the stress well.

I grabbed my purse when I’d finished, surprised when I looked at my phone and saw I hadn’t missed any texts from Zane today. I really
thought he would send something but I knew he was going to an appointment with his doctor and hoping for at least a partial release to return to work. I sent him one, letting him know we were safely in the room for the night. If Tish wanted food later, he would either have to go alone or he would deal with pizza. There was no way I could face anyone tonight. Just as I was stripping out of my clothes to step into the water, my phone buzzed against the tile counter.

I’m sorry. Conner has been down today so I’m taking him out tonight. Hopefully I can cheer him up. I’ll try to call you once he’s asleep.

I frowned at the words, hating that Conner was having a rough time. We knew between the move and not seeing Lizzie, he might start struggling. Add to that the pain of his still healing bones and he was bound to have bad days. I knew Zane could handle it, he always had, but I hated that he was doing it alone after my whole speech about how it wasn’t just him now.

As if a feather landed on top of the pile of crap I was trying to carry, I finally broke. The guilt was too much with all of the other emotions
churning inside. I climbed under the stream of water. The weight of it all made my legs unsteady and I lowered myself, curling my knees up to my chest as I cried into my hands. I tried to let it all go, forcing myself to release the emotions and rebuild my protective wall, one brick at a time. Once I felt more in control, I stepped out, grabbed a towel, and wrapped it around my torso. It was then I saw the flashing light on my phone. After drying my hands, I checked the missed alert. It was another text from Zane. I opened it, expecting the ‘I love you’ he hadn’t sent in the last one.

Are you staying tonight? Conner and I have a surprise for you when you get here. Call when you head this way, baby.

I read the words a second time. Then a third. I checked the time and the message was sent less than five minutes after the previous. I read each word again before my fingers fumbled and I dropped the phone. It landed with a clatter against the counter and I snatched it up, pressing and holding the button on the top to power it off. It felt somewhat symbolic as I locked down my emotions.

I opened the bathroom door, ready to head to my bag to grab some clothes
, but Tish had laid some right outside. I slowly pulled them on, my brain running through scenarios as I tried to justify what I’d read. I tried to understand and make sense of the few sentences that, by all accounts, could bring me to my knees if I let them.

I wouldn’t let them.

Stepping out, my hair in a loose bun and dripping on the towel wrapped around my shoulders, I dropped into the chair wedged in beside the desk where Tish was seated. I immediately had his attention and I knew my face must have been giving away my emotions. Too bad I had no idea what those emotions were.

“Have you talked to Zane?” My voice was firm, strong, and I was almost proud of how I wasn’t breaking down over this. Tish’s brow
furrowed, his confusion obvious.

“Yeah.”

“Has he seen Lizzie since we left?” I questioned, not willing to give away what I already knew. I wasn’t sure if Tish was aware I’d overheard their conversation about the ultrasound or not but I needed to verify what he would say. Tish had never lied to me.

He looked only resigned as he ran his hand over the back of his neck.
“Yeah. Lizzie asked to start seeing Conner and the lawyer told Zane he needed to let her or it would look bad.”

I nodded, rising from the chair and turning my back to Tish. I didn’t
speak, I just stared at the phone in my hand and then, without a conscious thought to do so, threw it with all my strength against the door of the room. Tish flinched back as the pieces of the device shattered and rained down to the floor.

“What the fuck?”
he asked, his eyes wide as he stared back at me.

“If he calls you, if he texts, I don’t
wanna hear about it.” Tish started to speak but I continued. “If that’s a problem, feel free to leave.”

I slammed the bathroom door
s again as I seethed. I turned on the water, not bothering to actually climb under the stream or even undress this time, just using it to mask the sounds as I slid to hard, faux wood floor and let go again.

I wasn’t sure how long I’d been in the bathroom but when I finally came out, Tish was still there, staring at the sketchpad in front of him. He watched me silently as I climbed under the covers of my bed. I turned my back to him, facing the wall as I continued to fume.

“Are you going to at least tell me what the fuck that was all about?” Tish asked, his voice hard. I hated hearing him talk to me that way but I’d flown off the handle. And honestly, the last time Tish and I had disagreed this way, I’d disappeared on all of them. He was obviously trying to keep his cool this time but his attitude insinuated that he thought I was acting childish again.

Probably because I was.

He deserved to at least know why I didn’t want to hear from Zane. Hell, he probably assumed I was just being a bitch about the fact that he was letting Conner see her. Honestly, that didn’t bother me. It was the lying and hiding it from me that would’ve upset me more. But now, it was the complete betrayal.

Sighing, I rolled over to face Tish. I wished I hadn’t destroyed my phone. It would be so much easier to show him rather than actually say the words out loud. I felt my wall cracking ever so slightly but I couldn’t decide if the pain or
the anger was the correct response, so I forced the emotions back again.

“He told me Conner was having a bad day so he was taking him out and he would be busy tonight. Then he sent a text to me that was for someone else asking if someone was staying the night tonight.” I took a deep breath. “It ended with ‘call when you head this way, baby.’”

Tish’s expression flew through several emotions before landing on anger.