Chapter 2 - BENEATH THE SLEEVE
I stared at him.
“You’re sick.”
“Maya, listen to me.”
“You accuse my husband of trying to kill me after he rejected you?”
“That isn’t what happened.”
“Get out.”
Eli did not move.
“You can hate me after tonight,” he said. “You can never speak to me again. But you cannot drive that car tomorrow.”
I grabbed his arm.
He flinched so violently that I almost released him.
Instead, I dragged him toward the front door.
“Get out of my home!”
“Maya, stop.”
He resisted just enough to keep his balance. His hoodie cuff caught against my bracelet and slid toward his elbow.
I froze.
Dark bruises covered his forearm.
Several shallow cuts crossed his skin. Finger-shaped marks circled his wrist. One side of his arm was swollen beneath the bruising.
Eli quickly pulled at his sleeve.
I caught the fabric before he could cover himself.
“What happened to you?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
I pushed the sleeve higher.
The injuries continued above his elbow.
Some bruises had begun to yellow. Others were dark and fresh. These were not wounds from a single fall.
Someone had repeatedly hurt my brother.
Eli would not look at me.
“Who did this?”
He remained silent.
“Was it Grant?”
His eyes closed.
That was my answer.
The photograph in the parking garage returned to my mind.
Eli’s fist in Grant’s shirt no longer looked intimate.
It looked desperate.
My hand fell away from his arm.
“Why would Grant do this to you?”
Eli reached slowly into his hoodie pocket.
I stepped back, suddenly afraid of what he might produce.
May you like
He removed a phone with a cracked screen.
“He caught me recording him.”
