“Fuck you, dad!” I spat, my blood pressure boiling.
“What is he talking about?” Weston asked, his head bobbing in every direction, like he was trying to figure out the puzzle. He finally stopped his gaze on me. I opened and then shut my mouth, struggling to find the right words. They were on the tip of my tongue, but refusing to spew out.
My dad’s lips screwed into a crooked smile, and I knew Weston was going to get his answer whether I told him or not. My body began to overheat, and I lost Weston’s hold as I stumbled back against the wall for support. He was going to get me home no matter what the stakes were. He looked at Mickey. “I think it’s time for honest hour, you know, since it looks like your son is screwing my daughter.”
Wait. What? No, there was no way a guy as great as Weston could be the spawn of that monster. I couldn’t keep track of the endless emotions hammering through my heart and speeding up to my brain. This was my breaking point. This revelation is what would ruin me. I’d never, never, open up and trust somebody again. There was no going back after this.
Weston’s eyes flashed to me and I watched his face twist with anguish. “Both of you, get the hell out of my apartment,” he demanded. “I don’t give a shit what you have to say, or who you are, get out!”
My dad crossed his arms across his chest and shook his head violently. “I’ll leave when you tell my daughter everything.”
“Dad, leave!” I screamed, stomping my foot. I pushed off of the wall, rushing to him, but was pulled back when Weston’s arms wrapped around my waist.
My dad snorted. “This family is poisonous, baby girl. The entire family,” he said, bowing his head Weston’s way. “Don’t let him fool you, sweetheart.”
“You need to handle your family matters in your own home, Parks,” Mickey shouted, his upper lip curling before he bared his teeth. He looked like he was ready to tackle my father and take a stake to his chest.
“Don’t you try to leave, Mickey, or I’ll make it sound so much worse without your presence,” my dad snarled.
“No,” I cried out. I didn’t want him to say it. I didn’t want to relive what had happened to me.
“Fuck you! We have a contract,” Mickey hissed.
My dad chuckled. “You think I give a shit about a contract we made nearly a decade ago?” He turned to me. “You recognize this man, don’t you?”
“No, please, please don’t do this,” I begged. I’d suddenly turned into the sobbing thirteen-year-old girl I’d been that day.
“Would you like me to refresh your memory?” My dad asked.
“Somebody, please tell me what in the hell is going on!” Weston screamed.
“Answer the question, do you or do you not recognize this man?” My dad asked me.
“You know I do,” I seethed.
CHAPTER TWENTY- EIGHT
ELISE
“Parks, don’t do this,” Mickey begged, scrambling for words as he held his hands up in the air. He was begging, but in his face was clear defeat. He already knew it was over. He knew he was going to be exposed. He’d crossed my father and he wouldn’t win.
Weston tightened his hold on me, bringing my shaking body to his side and squeezed me tight. “You get your goddamned hands off my daughter,” my dad instructed.
“Don’t take this out on my son,” Mickey demanded. “He had nothing to do with this. This is about your out-of-control daughter who wants to ruin my life and my family.” He looked at Weston. “Don’t try to save your brother through her.” His eyes went to me. “And you, he had no idea.”
“I had no idea what?” Weston asked, roughly. “Dad, what did you do?” He caught on. He knew what had happened and the part his father had played.
My dad pushed Mickey forward and he fell to his knees. “I’m so sorry. I was young, and I didn’t know what I was doing,” he cried out.
“Dad … please tell me it’s not what I think it is,” Weston said, scrubbing a hand up and down his face.
“Fuck you!” I screamed, pulling out of Weston’s hold to march up to Mickey. “You were a grown man! You know exactly what you were doing, you piece of shit!”
His head bowed down, his chin lowering to his chest. The asshole still couldn’t look at me. I took a deep breath. I was finally facing the man whose face had been haunting me for years. This man was the first guy to fuck me. He was the first man who’d raped me. He was the one who’d craved to pop my cherry. I hadn’t seen him since that day, but all of those memories, those painful memories, were coming back in flashes. He was winning again. He was making me lose myself. And he couldn’t even look at me.
Weston paced behind me, and I jumped at the sound of a picture smashing to the floor when his hand went through the drywall. “I’m trying everything, I’m trying everything in my power to not go over there and beat the shit out of you,” he told his father.
I looked back at him in shock. I’d never seen Weston like this. His eyes blazed with fury and he looked like he was ready to burn the entire building down.
“I’m sorry, son. I let you down,” Mickey muttered, his arms hanging at his sides as he stared down at his feet.
“Don’t fucking apologize to me!” He screamed. “It’s not me you need to be apologizing to.” He took the few steps towards me and stood by my side. “Look at her.”
Mickey didn’t look up.
“I said look at her!” His dad’s head trembled, inching up slightly. “Do you see her?” Tears pooled down my face and I tried to rid myself clean of each one with the swipe of my hand. Weston grabbed his dad’s chin and jerked it up. “You hurt this girl. Those tears running down her face are because of your actions! You hurt her! She deserves a whole lot more than an apology, but let’s start with that. I want to see you beg her for forgiveness.” His mouth went to my ear. “And I don’t want you to give that to him.”
A few tears slipped down Mickey’s cheek, but I felt nothing. I was happy he was hurting. It was his turn for his life to go down the drain.
“I said apologize!” Weston screamed. “Or I swear to God I will pick up that phone, call every person in our goddamned family and tell them what a pathetic, pedophilic scumbag you are.”
“I’m sorry!” Mickey yelled out. “I’m so sorry! I’ve regretted it for years. I didn’t think. I was having family problems and I wasn’t thinking clearly.”
Everyone waited for my reaction. “I need you to leave,” I breathed out. My nails dug into Weston’s hand. As good as it felt to see him grovel, his apology didn’t mean shit to me. It was half-assed, half-hearted, and too late.
Mickey scurried to his feet and looked at Weston. “Please, son, don’t tell your mother. It will tear our family apart.”
“She deserves to know,” Weston replied. “She needs to know what kind of monster you are.”
“But I apologized. You said …”
“I lied,” Weston yelled, cutting him off. “Just like you’ve been doing for years. You think that sad excuse for an apology makes you a better man? Do you think I’d want you around my mother? Around my sister? My niece?”
“Don’t act like you’re innocent in this,” he argued, and Weston’s hand tightened around mine.
Huh?
“What is he talking about?” I asked.
“Get out of my house,” Weston demanded, ignoring me.
He pointed a finger at Weston, his face turning cold. “You tell your mother, I will tell her. If you cause me to lose the woman I love, so will you.” His finger moved to me. “I will tell her everything.”
The door slammed shut behind him.
“How did you know I was here?” I finally asked my father, who was standing in the corner quietly. All of this was his fault, but I didn’t have the energy to scream or argue with him. As much as I wanted to know what Weston’s dad had been talking about, I’d question him about it later. I’d been hit with too many bombs today. I was going to turn myself around, wrap myself into the calmness of Weston’s sheets, and have him hold me until I forced m
yself to sleep.
“I have cameras outside the building, you know that. Did you really think I wasn’t going to find out where you were? I know you’ve been seeing him instead of Wendy. I’ve known for a week. I called his dad, told him what you were up to, but he didn’t believe me. He didn’t think his son was stupid enough to do that.” He looked at Weston, who standing a few inches away from me, completely frozen in place. “I know how she draws men in, I don’t blame you.”
“It’s time for you to go,” Weston told him, pointing to the door. “If she decides she wants to see you, she’ll call. Now get the fuck out of my house.”
My dad whistled loudly. “Not too fast, boy. We can’t just let out some of the secrets. I told you, it’s honesty hour.”
“What is he talking about?” I asked Weston again, hesitation clear in my voice.
“He’s trying to get you to come home, he’ll say anything to keep you away from me,” Weston answered, avoiding eye contact, his hand gripping mine.
“Oh, you did that yourself, you outstanding doctor. Now, how did you two meet?” I looked away from him, refusing to answer, and stared at Weston. “It’s okay,” my dad went on. “You don’t have to tell me. We all know it was at Sun Gate. Weston was your therapist for a day, am I right?” Neither one of us said anything. “He was concerned about what you’d told him.”
“You did?” I asked, my voice cracking, my heart feeling some relief. He’d tried to fight for me.
Weston’s free hand scrubbed over his face, and then he pressed the edge of his knuckle against his lips.
“I told him it wasn’t true and he said he wanted to look into it,” my dad said.
He’d believed me. He’d fought for me. I loved this man.
“When I realized he wasn’t going to let it go,” my dad continued, “I offered him a check to keep his mouth shut and he took it. He made a deal to forget about your problems, and you for money.”
I suddenly felt pain everywhere; my chest, my throat, my heart, everywhere. I’d thought Weston being Mickey’s son had hurt, but that was nothing to finding out Weston had turned his back on me. Just like those other men, he was a coward to my father.
“Is that true?” I asked, dropping his hand and moving away from him.
“Elise, please, just let me explain,” Weston choked out, reaching for me.
“Let you explain?” I repeated, tortured. “All of your words, your promises, were shit. You’re a liar and a sell-out just like all of them.”
“I’m nothing like them,” he said, weakly. “I made a mistake.”
He reached out to catch me when I headed towards his bedroom. “Don’t you dare touch me,” I screeched, pushing him back. “You will never touch me again.” I shook my head in shame. “I should’ve known better. You’re all the fucking same.”
“Get your bags, sweetie. I’ll be waiting for you in the car and I’ll take you back to your apartment,” my dad said, still a spectator.
“Go fuck yourself,” I told him, walking away from them and slamming the bedroom door. I ran across the room and grabbed my bag. Throwing it down onto the unmade bed, I stared at the messy sheets that still smelled of sex and our sweat.
“What are you doing?” Weston asked, coming up from behind me while I shoved my things into the bag.
“I’m leaving! What the hell does it look like I’m doing?” I shouted, heading into the bathroom, grabbing all of my toiletries in one sweep and dropping them into the bag.
“You can’t leave me,” he insisted. “You can’t let us go.”
“Watch me.” I zipped up my bag. I pulled my shorts off, rammed a bare foot into the leg of my jeans, and swiftly pulled a dirty sweatshirt over my head.
“Where are you going to go? You can’t go back there.”
“I don’t know. I’ll figure it out,” I said, bumping into his side to get him out of my way.
“Stay, please stay. I don’t want you out there with nowhere to go.”
I shook my head. “I’m not staying here. I can’t even stand to look at you. You’re a coward just like your father.” I had to get out of there. I had to get away from him before I lost it.
He kicked the wall. “Don’t ever compare me to him.” He snatched my bag from me and set it away from me. “Stay, I’ll leave.”
I jerked my head back to look at him. I could hear my heartbeat thrumming through my ears. “What?”
“I’ll go stay with my sister or at a hotel until you find somewhere else. Stay here as long as you’d like. I’ll pack a bag right now and leave. I want you to be safe. You’re not going back there. Stay. I’ll leave.”
I looked up at him in shock. “You’d really do that?”
“I’ll do anything to keep you safe.”
I blew out a frustrated breath. “You can’t just leave your own house.”
Tears flowed down my cheeks and he grabbed my face gently in his hands. He caressed my skin with his tender hands and brushed away the tears. My savior was now a coward.
“If you want me to go, I will. I know what I did was wrong, but I had no idea. I thought you were lying. You mean more to me than any check or any job. You mean everything to me. Let me show you.”
I shook my head, but didn’t break our embrace. “I can’t.”
“Please, baby,” he begged.
“I can’t.”
He nodded and I whimpered at the loss of his touch. He opened up the closet and began packing a bag. “You know where everything is. If you need anything, call me.”
I sniffled. “I’m not calling you.”
“I understand,” he said, his voice cracking. “I’ll leave you my sister’s number on the counter. Call her.”
“No,” I said, coming to my senses. “I need to go.”
“Where?” His arms fell limp against his sides. “Tell me where you are going to go.”
“A hotel.”
“With what money? There’s no way you have enough cash to be on your own right now.”
“I’ll figure it out.”
He maneuvered around my body, grabbed my bag, and held it upside down as all of the contents fell onto the bed. He tossed the bag across the room. “Quit it!” I scrambled trying to pick up everything.
“You’ll be safe here. I’ll be gone.” He grabbed my face. “You call if you need anything. If he shows up here, you call me, or 911. Don’t let him in.”
“Fuck you,” I seethed. “You’re just like him.”
“I’m nothing like him.”
“But you are.”
“I’ll prove it to you.”
He grabbed his bag and I watched him leave, taking every piece of him with me and leaving me with nothing.
CHAPTER TWENTY- NINE
THREE YEARS AGO
WESTON
I hesitated a moment before knocking on the open door. “Hey Bob,” I said, slowly tapping my knuckles against the wood. “Do you have a sec?” I looked in to find him sitting at his desk with a pile of paperwork in front of him.
Bob was the residential director at Sun Gate, and the man who’d given me a job. He was also the one who’d given me the background information on Elise.
He waved his inside. “Sure, Weston.” I moved into the room, closed the door behind us, and slowly sunk down into a chair. He shut the folder in front of him, folded his hands together and rested them onto the desk. “How are you liking it here so far?”
I nodded a few times. “It’s great. All of my patients seem to be progressing successfully and the staff is very helpful.”
“That’s great. It sounds like you’re getting off to a good start. It only gets better from here.” He clapped his hands together. “Is there something you wanted to talk about?”
I crossed my legs. “Yeah, Elise Parks.”
He flinched at the mention of her name, the mood in the room shifting into uneasiness. “Ah, our little trouble maker around here. What is she rambling off about now?”
I’d spent the rest of the da
y going over the pros and cons of talking to him and telling him what she’d told me. I didn’t know if Elise was telling the truth or trying to get me on the bad side of Bob to get fired. I didn’t believe this entire facility would hide that information. It didn’t make sense, but my conscience told me to check it out. If it were true, then I’d do everything in my power to help her heal. If it was a lie, I wasn’t going to trust anything else this girl had to say.
“She told me something troubling.”
He nodded his head and his face lit up. “Let me guess, she told you she was raped?”
“She did.”
He rubbed his balding head. “The girl is lying, just like she’s lying about other therapists having sexual relations with her.” He shook his head. “This happens with each new counselor, but most of them have the experience to know when someone is lying.”
Fuck, I shouldn’t have come to him. I opened my mouth, ready to reason with him and apologize, but he didn’t give me the chance. “That’s not a insult towards you. Others have come to me, I’ve looked into it and it’s never true. It’s malicious slander. I understand you want to help her, that’s your job and the reason why she’s here, but I’m telling you it’s a lie.”
“Are you sure? She seemed pretty sure of it.”
“She’s a habitual liar. Do you think I’d allow something that devastating go unnoticed to a patient of mine?” He asked, his voice patronizing and growing hard.
Shit, I didn’t need to get fired. “I understand. I just wanted to double check, you know and do my job. She also said that she … has had sex with other therapists here.”
He laughed, shaking his head. “Shock factor, my friend. I told you, the girl lies. She likes attention.”
I brought myself up from the chair. “Okay, thank you.” I moved towards the door to get the hell out of there before he changed his mind.
“Oh, and Weston,” I looked back at Bob. “I think I’m going to have Elise moved over to Stella, she seems to do better with females.”
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