I’ve always believed it was a function of our absentee parents that Blaire and I were forced to grow up too fast. Maybe because of our lost youth, she’s always had a sadness about her that’s bordered on depression at times. Like after Caiden went to jail. I’ve never seen her more...empty, for lack of a better word. She seemed to withdraw into herself. I thought it was because of what Caiden did to her, but the longer I’ve had to reflect, the more I think it had to do with Nate. I’ve never dared ask Blaire, though. I know I’m being a coward, but if he did something to her, I don’t think I could handle it.
“There’s something I need to talk to you about,” Blaire says, scrunching herself into a ball in the corner of the couch.
“That’s never how anything I want to hear starts,” I say warily.
The skin around her eyes tightens. “I really came with Caiden because I needed to talk to you.” She lowers her gaze to her lap. “It took me a long time to come to terms with everything that happened with Nate the summer Caiden was in jail,” she says, and a chill fingers up my spine. “I didn’t even tell Caiden until a few months ago.”
Everything inside me seizes, because in this instant, I know every suspicion I had about Nate was right. I brace myself for the truth. “Tell Caiden what?”
Her gaze finds mine again. We both have Mom’s whiskey-colored eyes, and we’ve always been able to see deeper into each other than anyone else, as if we’re staring into a mirror.
“He raped me graduation night,” she says, holding my gaze. “I couldn’t even admit it to myself at first…that he would do that to me. And then I convinced myself he didn’t mean it.” She lets out a wounded laugh. “My therapist says the mind will do all kinds of things to protect itself from trauma. She says my coping mechanism was unusual, but not unheard of.”
My heart is pounding and my palms are slick with cold sweat as I struggle to process everything she’s saying. “He raped you before you started dating?”
Her face collapses into a cringe as she nods.
There’s a second that time freezes and all I can do is stare at my sister. When the room starts spinning, I realize I’m not breathing and force air into my lungs.
“He raped you,” I repeat, trying to process what I’m hearing.
I’ve always known there was more to what happened with them than she told me. I knew he’d gotten into her head somehow, because she wasn’t herself during the time they were together.
“Why did you stay with him?” I ask, all the frustration and helplessness I felt then rising to the surface again. “Why didn’t you come to me?”
She shakes her head as a tear courses down her face. “You were the one person I couldn’t go to.”
Blood boils under my skin at the thought. We were all each other had for so long, but I was so angry about Caiden that I distanced myself from her when she needed me most. She was afraid to come to me. So she turned to Nate, even after he raped her.
“Jesus,” I say, dropping my face into my palms.
She presses her shoulder against mine. “I never even would have been able to talk about it like this if it weren’t for Caiden finding me help. He found a rape crisis support group that we went to together for a few months, and I just started with the therapist in July. I can’t change any of it now, but Detective Diaz says the statute of limitations isn’t up on what he did to me. I’ve reported him. She says it might be hard to prove anything at this point, unless they can establish a pattern, but she said she’ll investigate.”
I pull my face out of my hands and wrap her in a hug, pulling her close. I’ve never wanted to rip a person apart with my bare hands before, but if I ever see Nate again, I swear I will. “You’ve always been the most important person in my life, and I feel like I’ve let you down in so many ways.”
“We all do the best we can, Marcus. Everyone’s going to screw up sometimes. All we can do when that happens is support each other.”
I let her go and lean back. “I’ll try to do a better job of that, sis. Starting with maybe not hating on your husband quite so hard.”
There’s a knock on the door, and then it opens and Caiden steps through. His eyes connect with Blaire’s and he gives her a lopsided smile.
They’re telepathic, I decide, when Blaire seems to understand it’s good news before he even says anything. She leaps off the couch and throws herself into his arms. “I knew it!”
I stand and Caiden’s gaze finds me over his bride’s shoulder. He peels a hand off my sister and holds it out to me. “Good to see you, Marcus.”
I take it and shake. “Congrats.”
He nods as Blaire unwraps herself from him, but they keep an arm around each other. “I honestly didn’t think it would go my way.”
“You’ve paid your debt to society,” Blaire says, her words laced with acid. “They’re not the morality police, they’re college professors. It’s not their place to deny you a degree you’ve earned.”
“That’s pretty much what they said,” Caiden says, twirling a finger into the ends of my sister’s shoulder-length espresso hair out of habit. I doubt he realizes he’s doing it. “I think they were a little afraid I’d sue if they said no.”
“So what happens now?” I ask.