Winning her back

12. When the past catches up

"Oh, and you're suddenly an angel", she fired back. "Why'd you invite me to this party Ben?"

"Isn't it obvious", I said hovering over her. "I like you. The real you, not the one trying to impress her friends."

She looked at me with a puzzled face, before tilting her head and furrowing her eyebrows. "You don't even know me Ben".

"That's not true", I said with a smirk, "I know that you love a strawberry meringue".

"Where'd you get that from?", she asked with curiosity written all over her face.

"You walk past my house on the way to church every Sunday, with a strawberry meringue in your hands", I started. "Then somehow, you return with two".

"That's only because Father Ray gives us the leftovers" , she blurted out at little to quickly.

Her quirkiness made me smile.

"Tell you what", I started. "Next time I invite you over, you'll teach me how to make one".

"You're making a strawberry meringue, that's a little cliche", Lisa said as she walked down the stairs, bringing me back to the present.

"You look better", I said diverting my gaze towards her. She really did. Her face took a rose-peach color and her hair was neatly tied into a ponytail. She reverted back to tight fitting clothing rather than the buggy ones I had lent her.

"I feel fine". She crossed her chest and leaned on the kitchen table, giving me an uneasy gaze.

"What's wrong?", I asked trying to keep my focus on her face and not her bra-free chest.

"I feel fine enough to look after myself", she said with a sigh. "I can take care of myself now, I don't need you or anyone anymore". Irritation was evident in her voice.

"Well", I started, "As far as I'm concerned, Dr Rowland is the only person I should be hearing those words from".

"Jesus Christ", she said swinging her arms. "You're doing this for your own benefit, definitely not mine. This isn't fun Ben, you can't keep me in this God damn house forever".

"Fun", I screeched. "You think this is fun for me? Right, cause sleeping on the couch is fun, and waking up to screaming is great". I was fuming at this point. "Oh, and your constant nagging and lack of appreciation is absolutely ecstatic".

"Lack of appreciation?", she scoffed. "Yeah, I really appreciate you finding an opportunity to ease your way back into my life by kissing me. Let's get this straight, me and you are done. Your old tricks may have fooled me before, but they won't work now".

Explaining the energy around us as negative was an understatement. She was right, of course, which only added to my long-standing guilt. I took her in, yes, I obviously wanted her back but more importantly I wanted to take care of her, I wanted to make her feel safe, I vowed I would. Seeing her like this made me realize whether all of it was really worth it, it wasn't going to heal my pain, it was only going to accumulate it. It wasn't healthy for me, for us. She was right. There was no us anymore. There was just me and dirty conscience.

Fortunately, the door bell rang, cutting the tension in the air. With one final glance at Lisa, I made my way to the door, not anticipating what was about to come.

"Lisa", I started, completely forgetting about the argument we just had. "The police officers are here. They want to talk to you", I said whilst giving way to the two gentlemen before me.

"Lisa Martinez?", they questioned.

"Dunn actually", she replied crossing her arms. Worry was evident on her face, and hell, it was on mine too.

"We're sorry to bother you at this time". The officers looked around, trying to signal for me to leave. I wasn't going anywhere.

"What's this about?", she asked.

"You may need to sit down", he scoffed and looked at couch. "We may all need to sit down".

With that, we all made our way to the couch and patiently waited for one of the officers to start explaining what the hell was going on.

"Mrs Dunn ... I mean Miss Dunn, my name is officer Rogers and this is my longtime partner Dave. We're the ones investigating your case".

"My case", she replied. "There's nothing to investigate, it was clearly rape".

The officers looked between themselves, clearly uncomfortable.

"We know that", officer Dave begun. "Miss Dunn, there's no easy way to say this". He said as he began fumbling with his fingers.

The pause between each sentence was only increasing the tension in the room. What was about to be said was something nobody could have anticipated.

"Miss Dunn, we have reason to believe that this was an intentional attack with an ulterior motive which could have had a different end result, therefore, as of now, we're considering this to be a potential homicide case".