She shakes her head. “I haven’t seen or talked to my family in eight years.”
I’m saddened to be reminded of how alone she’s been for all these years. Well, she’s not alone anymore. I want every detail of what happened to her, but asking for that now isn’t what she needs. So I sit with her, holding her hand and offering her sips of hot chocolate until a knock on the door announces the doctor’s arrival.
I’m relieved that Gabe’s cousin is a woman. I’m further relieved when she doesn’t make a thing of who I am. Rather, she focuses all her attention on Natalie.
“Hi there, I’m Doctor Janelle Richmond.” She shares dark hair, eyes, complexion and a general family resemblance with Gabe.
I get up to shake her hand. “Thanks so much for coming.”
Natalie glances at me, her trepidation palpable. “You called a doctor?”
“I thought it might help to get something so you can sleep.”
“Maybe I could have a moment alone with Natalie?” Janelle asks.
I don’t want to leave, but I defer to her. “Is it okay with you?” I ask Natalie.
She grasps handfuls of the down comforter on my bed. “I guess.”
“I’ll be right outside the door. Call if you need me.” I lean in to kiss her forehead before I leave the room, closing the door behind me.
Addie finds me in the hallway. “How is she?”
“A little better than she was.” I run my fingers through my hair repeatedly. “Can you call Emmett for me?”
“Sure.” She goes to the living room to get her phone and returns to my post outside the bedroom door. “Here you go.”
I take the phone from her. “Emmett.”
“What can I do, Flynn?” As the chief counsel for Quantum, Emmett Burke is a friend as well as a colleague. He’s also a member of Club Quantum, our secret BDSM club. “I can’t even imagine how upset you must be.”
“I’ve moved past upset straight to enraged. A lawyer named David Rogers in Lincoln, Nebraska, handled Natalie’s legal name change. She says he’s the only person on earth who knows her by both names. I want him buried.”
“I’m all over it.” After a pause, he says, “Flynn… I know you’ve been tending to Natalie, but what they’re reporting about what happened to her… You… um… You need to prepare yourself before you read it. It’s h-hard-core, man.”
In ten years in business together as well as a close personal friendship, I’ve never heard the supremely confident Emmett Burke stutter or stammer. That he is doing both now only adds to my anxiety. “Give me the highlights—or lowlights.” I brace myself for what I’m about to hear.
His deep sigh comes through the phone loud and clear, letting me know how difficult it is for him to tell me these things. “Her father was a top aide to former Nebraska governor Oren Stone. They were lifelong best friends. The families were close, and Natalie—or April, as she was known then—babysat Stone’s kids. She traveled with them on family vacations and spent many a night at the governor’s mansion.”
My stomach knots with tension as the story unfolds. Her name was April…
“Apparently, Stone arranged for Natalie to babysit for a weekend that his wife and kids were going to be out of town. He held her there all weekend, raped her repeatedly and threatened her family if she told anyone.”
I feel like I’ve been gut-punched. “Son of a fucking bitch.”
“She went straight to the cops.”
I close my eyes in awe of her strength and courage as a brutalized fifteen-year-old who had the guts to take that bastard down.
Then Emmett drops the next bomb. “Her parents sided with Stone.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
“I wish I was. The case made national news. Stone made a lot of enemies on his way up the ranks. A bunch of people stepped up to support her through the trial. She filed for and was granted emancipation from her parents. She testified against Stone, and her graphic, detailed testimony sealed his fate. He was sentenced to twenty-five years to life in prison. About four weeks after he went to jail, he was raped and murdered in the shower by another inmate.”
I experience a perverse feeling of pleasure at knowing he suffered even a fraction of what he’d inflicted on her.
“She disappeared after the trial. There’s no mention of her anywhere online after the day Stone was sentenced.”
“That must be when she changed her name.”
“Natalie Bryant made her debut a couple of years later as a freshman at the University of Nebraska. There’s no mention anywhere of how or where she spent the years between the trial and college. She graduated in four years and then moved to New York to take a position as a teacher at a charter school.”
“Tell me there’s something we can do about this Rogers guy.”
“Oh, there’s a lot we can do. I’ll be making a call to the Nebraska bar to start with and preparing a civil suit as well as demanding criminal charges be brought against him. He’s going to be very sorry he ever fucked with her—and you.”
“Whatever we do, we can’t make this any worse for her than it already is.”