Smack
The slap reverberated throughout the room, and it turned deathly silent.
Elaine gasped, her hands slapping her mouth and it on autopilot.l
Jackson stared unblinking at the daughter he raised for twenty years.
She dared slap him! She raised her hands to him.
"Rebecca... how dare—"
Rebecca raised her hands, causing him to flinch.
"Don't!" She warned, her voice as steel. "You have no right to speak to me."
Then her expression softened as she turned to Lydia who had her eyes widened.
She crouched close to Lydia, as ran her hand through the other lady's hair.
"You don't have to worry," she whispered into her ears, "he won't hurt you anymore."
Lydia looked up, her lips trembling, her eyes filled with unshed tears. When was the last time someone... assured her?
She had never even been assured by someone.
Something in Rebecca's assurance brought a distraught smile to her lips.
"Thank you," she whispered, holding tightly to the hand which Rebecca had extended.
