I walked across the room and curled into his lap. Joel just held me while stroking my back. I appreciated his understanding my fear. It meant a lot to me. As we sat there watching the fire I thought about how important Joel had become to me. The silence was comforting for now and that seemed like a conversation for another day.

The beginning of the next week felt like the last part of the week before, but soon it was Wednesday and I got to go to work. I drifted into my enormous closet to pick out something business casual that covered Joel's bite mark and Shawna's bruises. There...