A VOLCANO OF fury rumbled inside Drew. He followed Ria into her kitchen, Navy at his side. “You had a miscarriage? And you just now told the girls not to tell me?”
And what really burned was that they’d agreed without question, as if he were a child who had to be protected from the truth. How did Ria portray him to the girls when he wasn’t around?
“Drew. I never meant for you to overhear—”
The volcano inside him exploded. “What else haven’t you told me?” He shouted the words, louder than he’d ever yelled at Ria. “You’ve taught them disrespect. For their father. Not to mention your disrespect for your husband!”
The yelling felt good, familiar. This was how his dad had kept them all in line. This was the sound of a family.
No, it’s the sound of someone who doesn’t know how to be in a family, someone who isn’t classy enough for the likes of Ria.
The nagging voice inside made him even angrier. He didn’t want to think about his inadequacies. “You’ve never respected me. Never thought I was good enough. But this, this lying...getting our girls in on the lies... You’re worse than I thought.”
Ria didn’t answer. She was banging pans. An aroma of coffee and toast and melted butter pervaded the room.
He walked closer, maddened by the scent of her, furious that she seemed to be doing dishes, ignoring him. “You lost our baby and you didn’t tell me?”
The banging pans went silent.
“Why not? You didn’t get rid—”
“No. Of course not.” But there was something in her voice. “Sit down, Drew. I’m not going to talk about it while you’re looming over me like that.”
No class. Bad at relationships.
He might lack class, but he knew better than to physically threaten a woman. Stomach churning, neck hot, he made his way to a chair and sat down.
“Coffee?”
“No,” he snapped, even though he wanted some. Beside him, Navy flopped down to the floor and let out a sigh. “Tell me. The whole story.”
He heard her pouring coffee, opening the refrigerator, adding cream. A chair scraped across from him, and then she nudged his hand and he felt a warm cup. She’d gotten him coffee even though he’d said no.
She cleared her throat. “I didn’t want the baby.”
Her words crushed him, stifled whatever he’d opened his mouth to say. Even with Sophia, when she’d been surprised by an unplanned pregnancy, she’d wanted the child right away. How could she have changed so much?
How could she not want his child? It was the ultimate rejection.
Grief struck him then, a knife in his gut. They could have had another child. It would be, what, two by now? He pictured Sophia at that age, Kaitlyn. Toddling, learning to walk, starting to run and say no. Starting to become the people they were now. His throat went tight.
“I feel awful about it now, but put yourself in my shoes. We’d just split up. I had to support the girls, raise them mostly alone. I couldn’t add—”
He heard accusation in her voice, more reinforcement for what was wrong with him. “Raising them alone was your choice. I offered joint custody. You chose to move here instead.”
“Right, because you worked all the time, and odd hours. You couldn’t have had the girls at your place half the week, like you suggested, unless you wanted them to be alone for long stretches of time. Teenagers need more supervision than little kids, in a way, not less. And there wasn’t money to support two full residences, anyway.”
Blood pounded in his head. “Like you’ve done such a fantastic job of supervision. One suicidal and one pregnant.”
He heard her suck in a breath. Navy whined and walked over to her side of the table, tags jingling.
The silence went on, and as his pounding pulse slowed, he reviewed what he’d said. Blaming her for the girls’ problems had been a low blow. He raised a hand. “I take equal blame, if not more. I disappeared on them.”
She was still silent.
“But why didn’t you tell me about the baby? Don’t you think I deserved to know? I was the father!” Again, grief pushed at him. He’d always wanted another child.
“Yes, of course. I should have told you. But...” She trailed off.
“But what?”
Outside the house, traffic was starting to pick up, people headed for work, parents driving their younger kids to school. A cold breeze hit him, and he realized that he, or the girls, must have left the door open.
“Two things,” she said finally. “One, I didn’t tell you because I felt awful about it. Terrible, terrible guilt. I’d been working night and day on the motel, getting it ready to reopen. Physical work. Not moving things—I knew better than that—but scrubbing floors and walls, cleaning carpets, carrying out trash. Morning to night. And plus, I kept thinking about how I couldn’t manage a baby, not right then.” She paused. “I think that’s why God took him away from me,” she said finally, her voice choked.
Drew’s breath caught. “It was a boy?”
“Yeah. They do a test on the...” He heard her swallow. “On the remains, to see if there was a genetic reason for the miscarriage.”
“Was there?”
“No. Nothing they could determine.”
Drew sat trying to process it all.
Ria had gotten pregnant with a baby boy. It must have been the last time they’d made love, which he remembered as clearly as if it had happened yesterday. It was an unplanned, unprotected encounter, now that he thought about it, while he’d been packing his things to leave. Passionate, intense, for both of them. He’d thought maybe they’d patch things up.
But the next morning, they’d immediately started fighting again and he’d carried his boxes out to his car and left.
She must have found out that she was pregnant within the next couple of months. “I still don’t get why you didn’t tell me,” he said, pushing from his mind the thought of her, pregnant and alone, working day and night to start a new business, because she needed money to support their children.
“I didn’t tell you because you’d have blown up, just like you did today!” She sounded exasperated. “All the macho crap. Yelling and criticizing and blaming. I couldn’t deal with it.”
His blood rose in him again. “That macho crap is what a man is.”
“No, Drew,” she said, “that’s what you and your father think a man is, but it’s not true. Macho men are fragile. You have to keep the truth from them, because they can’t handle it.”
“I’m nothing like my father!”
There was a tap on the back door, and Navy let out one sharp bark. “Ria?” came a male voice. “Did you know your door’s standing open?”
Ted Taylor. For all the world as if he came here all the time. Did he? Did she spend time with him after the girls had left for school?
Iron bands tightened around his gut.
Ria’s chair scraped and he heard her walk across the room. “Hey, Ted,” she said, her voice easy, “it’s not a good time.”
“Can we meet later?” he heard Ted ask.
“Sure,” she said, sounding distracted. “I’ll give you a call.”
Wasn’t that nice and friendly? It sounded like they got together all the time. Drew stood, his chair banging back behind him, as she closed the door behind Ted and walked back into the room. “I thought there was a chance we could get back together,” he said, “but now I see there isn’t.”
“Drew—”
He waved a hand. “All this secrecy. Telling the girls to keep secrets from their father.”
“That was wrong,” she said quickly. “Both things. I should have told you.”
Now she said it—now that he’d already found out.
Now that she didn’t need him, because she had another boyfriend.
He’d gotten optimistic, thought he’d changed enough that they could fit together. But even if he had changed, she’d never see him that way. Whatever she said, whatever nice words she whispered to him, she still didn’t think him good enough for her. Her actions plainly showed that.
His hope of a reconciliation—his foolish hope—faded away, replaced by a churning mix of disappointment and jealousy and rage.
“You’re not who I thought you were,” he said. “Even after we split, I respected you. But now I see you’re nothing but a devious, disrespectful, cheating—”
“Cheating?” she broke in. “Drew, I’d never—”
“Was that baby even mine?” he interrupted, rewarded by her audible, choked gasp. His arrow had hit the mark.
“I’ll be here for the girls,” he said, putting ice into his voice, “but I want nothing to do with you. You hear that? Nothing.”
AS KAITLYN AND Sophia reached the school grounds, Sophia slowed down. “There he is,” she said in a low voice.
Kaitlyn glanced up at the small crowd of students hanging out in front of the school. It was cold, but still, most of them would rather stay outside than begin the cooped-up school day early.
Tyler and his two sidekicks, squirrelly little Kyle and take-off-your-sweater Chris, stood at the top of the steps beside the main entrance like a king and his courtiers, surveying the scene.
Kaitlyn looked at her always-confident sister. Now her shoulders were slumped, and she had swollen eyes and no makeup. No armor. It was completely obvious that something was wrong.
Stupid Tyler Pollackson had done this to her.
And Sophia had let him, for Kaitlyn’s sake.
Kaitlyn’s jaw clenched and her hands wanted to form themselves into fists. “Just don’t look at him,” she said to Sophia.
Sophia nodded and clutched her arm. “Walk in with me.”
Even though Kaitlyn would’ve normally veered off toward the school’s other entrance, she stuck with her sister. It was getting close to first period, and now there was a steady flow of students into the building.
Tyler, Chris and Kyle hadn’t moved. As Sophia and Kaitlyn got close, the three boys immediately started nudging one another.
“Keep walking,” Kaitlyn murmured to her sister. “We’re almost past them.”
At the last minute, Sophia slowed down. She looked up at Tyler, her face hurt and vulnerable, though she pressed her lips together, obviously trying to hide her feelings.
Kaitlyn winced as the significance of Sophia’s expression came clear to her. Sophia had slept with that jerk. She was pretty sure that Sophia had been a virgin before. Tyler was her first, and that had to mean something to Sophia.
Obviously not to Tyler, though. Kaitlyn shot him the glare that Sophia owed him.
Tyler gave her a quick, reflexive sneer. Then he reached out a hand toward Sophia, a grin on his face.
“Leave her alone!” Kaitlyn stepped past her sister, positioning herself between Sophia and Tyler. “Come on. Let’s just get inside,” she said to Sophia.
But Tyler put out a meaty arm now, blocking them. The students behind them veered past into the building without even a complaint about the slowdown in traffic.
That was because you didn’t complain to or about Tyler Pollackson, not if you wanted to survive the day with your face, pride or reputation intact.
No boy should have that much power. Especially no boy as mean and egotistical as Tyler. Her own lip curled into a sneer.
He studied her and frowned, and she could tell he was thinking—not something he was especially known for. But after a minute, realization crossed his face.
Kaitlyn guessed what it was about, immediately.
He knows I know.
Was that good or bad for Sophia? She took a chance on it being good and lifted her chin. “That’s right. I know what you did, and if you don’t leave her alone, I’ll tell my dad.”
He raised an eyebrow and tilted his head. “Your blind dad?”
“Burn,” Kyle said, then glanced at Tyler and Chris as if to make sure he hadn’t stepped on their toes.
Chris laughed.
Kaitlyn’s pulse rate skyrocketed and her muscles quivered.
Now the rest of the students had gotten inside the school, except for a few smokers and vapers grabbing a last dose of nicotine.
Kaitlyn sucked in a deep breath. She’d find a way to get back at them, for disrespecting their father in addition to everything else. “He may be blind, but he’s smart. So is my mom.”
“You better not tell them anything,” he warned. “I know just how to get you in trouble, too.” He gave her a meaningful grin, reached out and plucked at her sweater.
Kaitlyn’s bravado leaked out of her and her stomach cramped. The video. She’d almost forgotten about it. She grabbed Sophia’s arm and marched inside on weak, quavering legs.
After she dropped Sophia off, she met Venus and Sunny at their usual spot, a bench near the school library. She filled them in on what Tyler had said and how obnoxious all the boys had acted.
“Can you tell your parents?” Sunny asked. “If you just tell them about the video, it’ll be over with, or at least out in the open, and they can help you.”
“No. No, I don’t think so. Dad’s better than he was, but I still think this will make him crazy.”
“He’ll get over it,” Venus said. “Until you come clean, Tyler, or whoever has that video, has power over you. And you don’t want a guy like that having power.”
The bell signaled that it was time to start class, so they all headed toward their lockers.
A text pinged into her phone. She looked at it.
You have until 12:30 to decide. Love, TomDickandHarry.
But who was he? Was he Tyler?
Or, as Sophia had thought, a combination—probably Tyler, Chris and Kyle?
Decide what? she typed.
Whether you take your sister’s place.
Kaitlyn sucked in a breath. TomDickandHarry had to be Tyler. And he wanted her to do the same thing Sophia had done.
“What’s wrong?” Venus grabbed her phone and studied it.
“Give that back!”
But Venus held the phone away from her. “Girl, you need help. Me and Sunny here are going to help you.” She studied the text again. Then she spoke to Sunny. “This dude TomDickandHarry wants her to do what her sister did.” She scrunched her face. “What did your sister do? Is it what I’m thinking?”
Kaitlyn blew out a breath and spread her hands. “It’s not mine to say.”
“It’s what you’re thinking, then,” Sunny said in a matter-of-fact tone.
“You’ve got to say no.” Venus put a hand on her shoulder. “You get that, right? You’ve got to say no.”
“Well, but...” Kaitlyn thought of what the guys had on her. What dirt he might have on Sophia. Oh, man, she hadn’t even thought of that. If the boys had videoed Kaitlyn taking off her shirt, what had they videoed of her sister?
“Give it to me,” she said, holding out her hand for the phone. “I have to stall him.”
“Stalling will never work with a jerk like that,” Sunny said. “You have to be forceful. That’s what I learned from my mom.” She grabbed the phone from Venus and typed in a message, and then, to Kaitlyn’s horror, she hit Send.
“No! What did you say?”
Sunny handed her the phone. NO WAY was the message she’d sent.
Venus looked over Kaitlyn’s shoulder and then high-fived Sunny.
“Don’t worry. We’ll stand by you,” Sunny said.
“That’s right. We got your back,” Venus added. And then Sunny split off to go to her regular class while Venus and Kaitlyn went into their classroom.
Kaitlyn sneaked glances at her phone all morning, but there was no more activity. So maybe Sunny had been right. Being firm had been the answer. Still, she had a sick feeling in her gut, a feeling that kept her mind from focusing on her studies. Erica scolded her twice for daydreaming.
If only this were just a daydream, not a nightmare. Twelve thirty couldn’t come and go fast enough.
Her throat was so dry, her stomach churning so hard, that she couldn’t eat anything. After lunch, they headed into their activity period. That was good, because Kaitlyn didn’t feel like she could focus on science or math. Maybe it would be something interesting, something to distract her from her fears.
The activity period took place in the gym, with various groups clustered around, most kids sitting on the floor, a few of the athletes shooting hoops. Kaitlyn sat down with the film club Sunny and Venus had talked her into joining and relished the solid feeling of her friends beside her. It felt good to be flanked by Sunny on one side and Venus on the other.
She craned her neck, trying to see Sophia, but she was nowhere in sight.
“...start with some previews,” Sissy, the girl in charge of the movie club, said.
The bell rang. Kait glanced reflexively at the clock. Twelve thirty.
TomDickandHarry had said she had until twelve thirty.
And her group, of at least thirty students, was going to watch previews. Cold prickles rose on the back of her neck, and she jumped to her feet. “I need to talk to Sissy,” she said, trying to squeeze out past Venus.
“Girl, what’s wrong?” Venus grabbed her hand and looked up into her face.
“I gotta check on what Sissy’s showing,” Kaitlyn said and twisted away.
But it was too late. The video started. As if in slow motion, Kaitlyn looked at the TV screen to see a familiar green sweater. Hers. Then the camera flashed up to her smile, shy and idiotic, now displayed before the whole film club. She watched it like you’d watch a train wreck, saw her hands reach to the bottom of her sweater and start to pull it off.
“Wait a minute,” Sissy said. “This isn’t the video I meant to show.”
“Leave it on,” said a couple of the boys, nudging each other. The group’s laughter and hooting drew the attention of kids from nearby groups.
The video went on, because Sissy was having trouble locating the phone she was casting from.
Of course she was. Because someone tech savvy—Kyle?—had switched up the signals.
Kaitlyn should have looked for an off button, should have tried to find where the screen was plugged in, but her arms felt made of rubber. There was nothing she could do about it. Her worst nightmare was playing out, right here, right now.
Kaitlyn sank down onto the floor at the edge of the group and let her face fall into her hands while the sound of laughter and catcalls washed over her like sickening waves.
Beneath it, she heard the voices of a couple of supervising teachers, the click of heels walking toward them. Kaitlyn looked up just as the video disappeared.
As the teachers reached them, an innocuous movie preview started to play on the screen.
The boys were too slick to get caught. She buried her face in her hands again.
Around her, everyone continued talking and laughing, paying no attention to the screen now.
“Kaitlyn. Are you all right?” Erica knelt beside her and put a gentle hand on her arm. “What’s wrong?”
She looked up to see Sunny and Venus approaching, looking concerned, and suddenly she was terrified that they’d tell Erica what was going on. That would only make things worse.
“I’m fine,” she said, forcing a smile. Then she looked at Sunny and Venus and gave a minuscule shake of her head.
“If you’re sure,” Erica said doubtfully. She went over to a group of giggling kids, knelt down and started talking to them.
“Girl, you should tell her,” Venus said. “Mrs. Harrison’s cool. She’d figure out what to do.”
“No way.” Kaitlyn shook her head. “I’m not getting any adults involved. They’d just make everything worse.”
“Okay, then,” Sunny said. “We’ve got to find out who’s doing this ourselves. And then...” She looked from Kaitlyn to Venus and back again.
“And then what?” Venus asked.
Kaitlyn’s upset and rage morphed into determination. “And then we stop them.”
“I’m with you,” Sunny said, “but how?”
“I don’t know yet,” Kaitlyn admitted. “But between the three of us, we’ll figure it out. They’ll be sorry they ever messed with me and Sophia.”
“And with us.” Sunny put out a hand to pull Kaitlyn up from the floor. “Come on, girlfriend. We’ve got work to do.”
The sick feeling in Kaitlyn’s stomach intensified. They had to do something. Because if they didn’t, Mom and Dad would find out, and her fate in her family as well as at school would be sealed.