Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 81718 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 409(@200wpm)___ 327(@250wpm)___ 272(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81718 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 409(@200wpm)___ 327(@250wpm)___ 272(@300wpm)
I don’t speak, letting her collect her thoughts. I don’t want to push her, but she invited me out here, so that tells me she wants to talk. She’s just not ready.
Tilting my head back, I stare up at the night sky. It’s a full moon, and the stars are shining brightly. It’s the perfect night for a bonfire, and a few years ago, that’s exactly how me and the guys would have spent this night. However, as with everything, life changes. Roman and Legend each have a wife and a family. Well, Legend has one on the way. We’re still close, but we’re not all we have anymore.
“I don’t know who their dad is.”
Briar’s voice is raspy as she drops that truth bomb in my lap. What do I say to that? What does she mean, she doesn’t know who their dad is?
“Let me get through this. Please.”
“Okay,” I croak. My voice is gravelly as my mind races, and I try to understand what she just said.
“It was the summer after graduation. Brogan and I got invited to a party. It was a college party. We were excited to be invited. We were eating at a restaurant in downtown Nashville when a group of guys came in. Their table was next to ours. They flirted. We flirted back. They invited us to the party, and we accepted.”
I can already tell I don’t like where this is going.
“We didn’t tell our dad where we were going. Just that we were hanging out with friends. We showed up at the party and didn’t know anyone there. That didn’t stop us, though. We had each other. We grabbed drinks from the keg. We watched the pour, and I even insisted on looking inside the cup before they poured. The guy was annoyed with me, but he let me do it. I don’t know how it happened, Forrest. We were so careful.”
Her voice cracks on a sob, and it’s killing me not to pull her into my arms and comfort her, but she asked me to let her get through this, so I sit here with my heart tearing to shreds as I listen to her story. Not just her story, but her truth.
“I don’t remember any of it. Nothing. I woke up the next morning with a pounding headache, my pants around my ankles, and an ache between my thighs. There was blood on the sheets.”
My hands ball into fists.
“They took that from me. My first time. My innocence. Brogan, she woke up alone. Her clothes were intact and no sign of—that. Of rape. Not like me.”
Motherfucker.
She sucks in a ragged breath, trying to get a handle on her emotions. “I didn’t know what to do. I got dressed. My movements were sluggish. I found Brogan in the living room screaming the place down, demanding to know where I was. As soon as she saw me, we bolted. I didn’t tell her until we got home. I didn’t tell anyone other than Brogan. I just wanted to forget it ever happened. I couldn’t remember it, so I pretended as if it had never happened.”
“Briar—” I try, but she shakes her head, holding her hand up to stop me.
“Brogan stuck by my side. We stopped going out with friends and spent a lot of time at home. When it was time for me to get my period, and it never came, I knew. In my gut, I knew. My sister, she went and bought one of every brand of pregnancy test, and I took them all. They were all positive.”
She’s breathing hard, tears coating her cheeks. I know because I’m staring at this beautiful woman in the glow of the moonlight as she tears open old wounds to let me into her life, and I hope like hell into her heart.
“I was so scared. Brogan, she was my rock, the only solid piece of my crumbling foundation. She was with me when I told our dad. I was so worried that he was going to be disappointed in me. He was angry on my behalf, but it was too late. Any evidence was long gone, and I had no way of knowing who… violated me that night. My dad he… he was the best dad. He told me it was my choice. The three of us went to my first OB appointment, where the doctor listened to my story and reviewed my options. At the time, I thought it was one baby.”
Her breath shudders, but she keeps pushing through while my fists are so tight, I fear my skin might break open.
“I took two weeks to think about it. I read everything I could about each option, but at the end of the day, the baby was a part of me. The only option I could consider was keeping it.”