“I’m sorry.”
She shrugs and turns toward me.“It is what it is.Or, as Thomas says, ‘It do be what it do be.’”
I snort at the teenage slang, but my smile dies almost immediately when I see the hurt reflected in her eyes.“You deserved better.You both did.”
She swallows hard and nods.“I’ve always known that Thomas did, but it took me a long time to realize that I did, too.”
My chest aches with the pressure of all I’m holding in.
“I knew better than to stay, though.But I did because I was afraid.”
“Of him?”
“That,” she nods.“And of what others would think of me.”
“What do you mean?”
We start walking again, and Katelyn falls silent.Instead of pushing for more or changing the subject, I simply keep cadence beside her, grateful for her company.
“I didn’t—” She stops and turns toward me.“I’ve only ever told one person this before.”
“Your secrets are safe with me, Katelyn, but if you don’t want to talk, that’s okay, too.”
“I don’t remember the night that I—” She closes her eyes.“That Thomas was conceived.”
Anger, hot and fast, flashes through me at the implications of what she’s saying.Was she raped?I bite back the questions and shove my free hand into my pocket so she can’t see how white my knuckles are.
“I don’t drink.My grandfather was an alcoholic, so it was just not something I ever wanted to touch.My college roommate had gone to this party, but I’d stayed in to study.She called me about one in the morning and asked to be picked up, so I went.”Katelyn’s eyes shimmer with tears.“When I got there, she was laughing and talking to this guy I’d seen around but never met.He was a football player, I was a nerd, so our paths just didn’t cross.”
Even as I can see where this story is going, I seriously hope I’m wrong.
“Anyway, we got to talking, and he seemed sweet.Charming.Brought me a soda when I told him I didn’t drink.That’s all I remember until the next morning.I woke up, naked, in a bed I didn’t recognize.”
That anger turns to blinding fury, and it’s all I can do not to lose it right here on the beach.The desire to hunt him down—dead or not—is so strong I literally dig my toes further into the sand, hoping it will hold me here.
“The guy—Victor—was lying beside me, still passed out.Before I could leave, the door opened, and his older brother came in.He accused me of being a tramp and threw my clothes at me.”She closes her eyes, and tears stream down her cheeks.“I still don’t know how I managed to get dressed—I was shaking so bad.”
I force my hand out of my pocket and gently brush the tears from her cheek.
“I told my roommate.She apologized profusely for making me go and told me that I needed to report it.So that afternoon, I went to do just that.Before I got the chance, though, I found out she’d been killed on her way to work.A car accident.The next morning, Victor’s brother showed up with him and told me that we needed to talk.”
“You never got the chance to get help?”
“I could have,” she says, eyes full of tears.“But after our “talk,” I was so afraid.Who was going to believe me?There were no witnesses, and Victor’s family was very well known.It would have been a massive media firestorm, and I would have been caught in the middle.My family would have found out what—” She trails off.“My silence is something I’ve had to live with.”
“Katelyn, you didn’t do anything wrong.”
She nods, jaw tight.“I know that now.Victor told me he didn’t remember what happened either.That he didn’t slip me anything.His brother showed me a lab report showing high levels of some drug—I can’t remember the name of it now—in Victor’s bloodstream.He said we’d both been drugged, and then one thing led to another.He convinced me it was one horrible turn of events that we’d both been caught in.A way to derail Victor’s budding career.I should have known better, but?—”
“You were grieving the loss of your friend.And reeling over being assaulted.”My tone is sharp, anger barely leashed beneath the surface.
“I should have known better,” she repeats.“And by the time I realized what was happening, our engagement had been announced in the papers, and there was nowhere for me to run.”
She’d been bullied into a marriage to the man who raped her.
Who took what wasn’t his to take.
Who spent the time they were together, causing her nothing but pain.