Breaking Perfect

“You helped me, Sean. You got it out. The bad pain went away.” She shut her eyes and more tears slid past her lashes. “That’s never happened to me before. I’ve never felt so free, liberated to the point that nothing else mattered. Please believe me. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

Mason frowned and crossed his arms over his chest. What had he missed?

“I look at my hands and I feel shame,” Liberty softly confessed as she bowed her head and cradled her hands in her lap. “What I felt in there with you had nothing to do with shame. It was surrender to a force I chose, not one that forced me into a choice. I found control in surrender. All of my life I’ve tried to combat those difficult moments and never once have I won. It was always stronger. But you helped me beat it, Sean. You.” Her palm pressed into the door again and she stood. Without looking at Mason she whispered, “Please don’t leave me.” Then she walked past him as if he were a ghost.

He flinched at the sound of their bedroom door.

After a few moments he finally snapped out of it and pounded on Sean’s door. “Open the goddamn door, Sean. I want to know what the hell is going on.”

He listened for a moment. He could hear Sean moving, the sound of drawers opening and closing. He stepped back and leaned against the opposing wall and waited. He was torn between going after Liberty and finding out what the fuck really happened. He was beginning to suspect he’d missed something momentous and his guts were in knots.

After about fifteen minutes the door finally opened. Sean held a large duffle bag in his hand and a pillowcase filled with what looked like toiletries and additional clothes. He froze when he noticed Mason standing there. His eye was black and blue and Mason noticed the remnants of tears on his cheeks.

“Just let me get my stuff out of the study and I’m gone.”

He was so torn. Part of him wanted him to go. Part of him needed, selfishly wanted, him to stay. Part of him was terrified he alone wasn’t enough to make Liberty stay after Sean left. And part of him broke at the thought of seeing him leave. Of watching his family break apart. Sean dropped his bag by the steps and began to head toward the study.

“Wait.”

Sean paused, but didn’t turn around.

“Tell me what I missed. I don’t understand,” Mason pleaded.

“It doesn’t matter. If you actually think I would ever lay a hand on her in anger then none of it matters.”

Guilt lanced through his gut. SO many of Sean’s issues stemmed from his fear that he would one day turn into an abusive monster like his father. If he’d wrongly accused him of being just that, he’d never forgive himself. But what he had seen…

“I fucking well can’t imagine you hurting her! I trusted you! That’s why I snapped when I saw her collapse beneath you, your handprint all over her delicate skin.”

“What did Liberty say?” Sean asked, his back tense.

“She isn’t speaking to me.”

He turned and faced him. The black eye was turning into quite a shiner. Mason fought the contradicting urge to go over to Sean and soothe the bruise versus giving him another one.

“KarLyn called.”

“What?” Of all the things Mason expected Sean to say, that absolutely was not one of them.

“KarLyn called. She called and it upset Liberty pretty bad. Libby told me she would tell you when you got home, but not to worry you while you were at work. I was scared she would hurt herself. I could tell she was upset, but then, after we ate lunch together and some time passed, she said she was fine. I didn’t really believe her at first, but she was really convincing and kept reassuring me I had nothing to worry about. Eventually I had to run out of the room for something. I wasn’t real keen on leaving her so I was as fast as I could be. I literally was only gone for a minute or two. When I came back she was at the sink.”

Mason swallowed, fear filling his stomach. “Did she hurt herself?” he rasped.

“Barely. I got there just in time. I interfered before she could do any real damage. I watched her…she fell apart, man. I never saw her like that. I was so scared and I wanted you to be here to make it all better. I don’t know enough about what she needs to know what to do in situations like that. I held her and she cried for a long time. Stupid asshole that I am, didn’t realize she was sitting right there in my arms hurting herself. She scraped the skin off her hands, leaving long gashes that’ll probably scar, and sort of lost it again when I forced her to stop. Worse than before.