“She is a disappointment?” he demanded. His body went rigid and I could feel the anger radiating off him in waves.

Mom lifted her chin. “I don’t know who you are, but this isn’t any of your business. You weren’t even invited to this party. Leave before I call security.”

The threat didn’t move him. He didn’t budge. “You’re the disappointment . . . the failure as a parent.”

I hurried to Shaw’s side and seized his arm with both my hands, looking around at the avid faces watching our little drama. It was an unpleasant sensation. I felt like a lamb surrounded by wolves. “Shaw, what are you doing?” I hissed, panic spreading through my chest.

He glanced at me with bright, furious eyes and then looked back at my mother. “You don’t deserve a daughter like her.”

“You’re right. I don’t,” Mom flung back. She lifted her chin and raised her voice an octave so it could be heard clearly. “My daughter is a very troubled young woman. She’s given me nothing but grief.” She looked around the room, addressing the onlookers now as much as Shaw.

His arm clenched under my fingers. “First off, Emerson is amazing and smart and kind . . . but I could see why anyone would be ‘troubled’ with a mother like you. Oh, and that piece of shit standing next to you who—”

“Shaw!” I shifted my weight anxiously, fear scratching the back of my throat at what he was about to say.

He turned on me in a flash, his dark eyes relentless as his hands seized me by the shoulders. “No! I know what this guy did to you.” His voice dropped to a hiss, for my ears alone. “Everyone should know exactly what he is.”

I shook my head. No, no, no! No one could know. Mom and Shaw were the only two people I had ever told. Not even my best friends knew. Not my father. This room full of people couldn’t know. The world couldn’t know.

Suddenly Shaw was wrenched away. Justin gripped him by the shoulder, motioning to two uniformed hotel employees. “See this trash to the door.”

Something snapped in me then. I saw red. Shaw was not trash. Shaw was good and noble. The exact opposite of Justin.

I came at Justin, tearing his hand from where he gripped Shaw’s shoulder. “How dare you! Never touch him. Never! You’re the . . .” Fury and indignation consumed me. “You tried to rape me.” I whirled on my mother. “And you did nothing about it when I told you. Nothing!” My voice tore into a strangled choke at this last part.

Sometime in the last few minutes the band had ceased to play.

My stomach dropped as my words echoed throughout the room and I thought I was going to be sick. My words reverberated on the air. Jarring and awful. The sound of them seemed to run on forever, echoing through the room, bleeding into my soul.

I had never said them before either. Not those words. Not to my mother when I told her. Not to Shaw. Not even to myself. But that’s what had happened. I’d used other words.

He had bothered me. Or messed with me. Gentle euphemisms.

He tried to rape me.

I felt everyone’s eyes on me, exposing me, pulling me apart, revealing everything inside.

I staggered back several steps, suddenly feeling lighter. As if those five little words had been anchors on my soul and now they were gone.

Justin jabbed a finger in my direction. “You f**king little liar!”

I winced.

There were no more words after that. One moment Shaw was standing still and then he was a blur, going after Justin. His arm pulled back, fist connecting with Justin’s face with a sickening smack of bone on bone.

“Shaw, no!”

He ignored me and struck him again, shaking off the hands of the hotel employees as they grabbed for him.

“Stop it! Stop it!” I clutched my face, covering my ears as if I could drown out the sound of Shaw’s knuckles connecting with Justin’s face.

Justin went down. Mom screamed. The crowd parted wide. Shaw stepped over him, his feet splayed wide on either side of his prostrate body. Shaw reached for Justin, pulling him back up to his feet for more, but I was done. Justin’s ugly words, Mom’s disgusted glare. I felt like I was fifteen all over again.

I’d had enough. Shaking and wrecked, I could feel only those stares. Everyone gawking at me like I was something dirty. No way was I sticking around to watch him beat my stepbrother to a bloody pulp. That would be just the cherry on top of a craptastic night.

Turning, I fled the ballroom, barely stopping to grab my coat. My heels clicked on the outside sidewalk in a flurry as I hurried toward the parking lot. My shaking fingers fumbled over the front buttons of my coat.

“Emerson!”

A quick glance behind revealed Shaw running down the sidewalk.

Shaking my head, I turned and ran. I didn’t care how undignified I looked.

“Emerson!”

The sound of his voice was close behind me, and I choked on the realization that I wasn’t going to outrun him.

His hand fell on my arm. Emotion scalded my throat, bursting free as he spun me around.

“How dare you?” I whispered, wrenching my arm wide. “You shouldn’t have come! I didn’t want to announce to a roomful of strangers what they did to me!” Because it had always been what they did to me. Not just Justin. But Mom, too. Mom’s betrayal had been maybe the worst of all. It still was. “And I didn’t need you beating up Justin and causing a scene! What did that prove? You shouldn’t even have come here. I could have handled this on my own. I didn’t need you! I don’t need you!”

“But I need you, damnit,” he growled, his dark eyes searching, digging deep and threatening to take hold of me if I let him. I shook my head and slid a step back, as if distance would protect me. He followed. “And I want you to need me.” He took my face in his hands, hauling me against him, dropping his forehead to mine, muttering against my lips, “I couldn’t let him talk to you like that. You might be okay with them treating you that way, but I couldn’t let them—”

“Don’t! This wasn’t about you!” I fought the urge to sneak my arms around his neck. “What are you even doing here?”

“You think once I figured out you were here that I would just wait at home . . . do nothing while you’re in the same room with some guy who tried to rape you—”

“Stop saying that!” I wedged my arms between us and shoved him away with a grunt.