It was pushing midnight by the time Trey, Landon, and Karen got back to the house. Trey shepherded Karen off to sleep in his own bed while he and Landon sat on the sofa.
“I want to thank you for being the calm and rational one in all this,” said Trey.
Landon took a breath before he answered. “I’ve had some experience.”
“With domestic abuse?”
“Yes, when I was undercover.”
“Did the guy get arrested?”
“No,” said Landon. “I have a confession. You’re probably not going to like this, but you need to understand what I did.”
“If you tell me you were the one who did the abusing…” Trey’s expression darkened.
“No, not me. That’s a line I’ve never crossed. I fathered a child to try and stop a bad situation.”
“What?”
Landon began to tell Trey about Nina. The friendship, the abuse, the despera
