Gunner tensed as he saw the bruising on her hand. She had hurt herself without meaning to and that was his fault. He tried to imagine another way to have dealt with this but he did not see a way out of it. It felt like he was stuck between a rock and a hard place and neither was of his choosing or his making.
He sighed, inwardly steeling his resolve to make this right. She did not deserve to feel the way that she did right now for his stupidity. She had nothing to do with this, he told himself. She was innocent in all of this and he was the one that deserved what he got.
Ella did not know what to say to him right now and the fact that he was trying was beyond her. She felt out of place. She was dressed in his wife's clothes. His deceased wife. The one that looked like her.