Making Chase: Chase Brothers 4 by Lauren Dane

Author:Lauren Dane
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: Contemporary
ISBN: 1599985055
Publisher: Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
Published: 2007-12-05T13:00:00+00:00

Tate looked up to see Cassie Chase come in. Deep, bone-deep exhaustion settled into her. She wanted to be that cultured, that beautiful and graceful, and that wasn’t going to ever be. She’d never be tall and beautiful like Cassie.

“Hi, Tate, how are you feeling?” Cassie sat in the chair next to the bed and kicked off her shoes.

“Been better.” She smiled weakly.

“Yeah, worse too, haven’t you?”

Tate stilled as Cassie looked at her through alarmingly perceptive eyes. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Yes you do. Takes one to know one, Tate. I’ve been there in a hospital bed after a man gave me a concussion. More than once as a matter of fact. I know the bitterness of shame in my gut, too. I know what it is to hide it and think people will judge. Do you know my story?”

Tate shook her head. “I know someone tried to hurt you a few years ago.”

“My ex-husband. Tried to kill me actually. For the second time.” Cassie told her the story of her years of abuse and of how her ex skipped out on his sentencing and then came to Petal to try and finish the job he nearly succeeded in before.

Cassie held up her right hand, the middle finger was bent at an odd angle. “This is what he did with the hammer. I’ll never be a surgeon again. Funny how life works. Still, it drove me here to Petal, which brought Shane into my life and I realized what happened to me wasn’t my fault. Wasn’t my shame to bear and it’s not yours either, Tate.”

“I can’t…how did you know?”

“I saw how you reacted after dinner the other night. I saw myself in your eyes. Heard more from your family just now.”

Tate felt the heat of her blush, replaced by the familiar coldness of the shame. “They told you? All of you? They told you all of it?”

Cassie reached out and took Tate’s hand. “I’m sure there’s more. Years of shame. They told us enough that I know you were abused and still are. Enough that I know what an amazingly strong woman you are for stepping in with your younger siblings. You have a family with them. Your father tried to destroy it but you didn’t let him. You win, Tate. That’s what he hates so much. He can’t break you.”

Tears rolled down Tate’s face. The wall of shame, the barriers that’d kept it all back were gone and it rushed out in wave after wave of emotion. Cassie got in the bed next to Tate, putting her arms around her.

“You win, Tate Murphy. Don’t you see? You’re worthy of all the people who love you. And let me tell you, your brothers and sisters love and respect you so much it made me proud to know you. And Matt, he loves you, Tate. It’s not charity. It’s not pity. He loves you. All of you, flaws and alcoholic father, neglectful mother, everything. Let it go and stop letting him get to you.

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