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“Stella, what happened to Viv?” Sabrina asks.
I take a breath. “Viv would often sneak out to hang out with her friends. She had this boyfriend who was in college— NYU. He was an exchange student from South Africa. She was still in high school at the time. He took her to one high-class party that he’d somehow got tickets to attend. A Greenhouse party, she called it.”
Brooke looks up sharply. “That was Xavier’s society, college frat thingie too.”
“Yeah, the Greenhouse was the ‘it’ thing then, made up of the high and mighty, according to Vivian”
“So what happened to your sister?” Sabrina prompts when the silence stretches.
Brooke takes my hand in hers as if she expects this part to be difficult. She’s right. I accept her comfort gratefully.
“I returned from work the following morning to find Tyrique—her boyfriend—pacing our small apartment, and Vivian scrubbing herself raw in my shower. Her skin was red and wrinkled, and she had huge welts and scratches from where she’d taken the sponge to her skin. Her eyes were haunted, bloodshot, and almost swollen shut with tears.”
Bonnie’s grip tightens almost to the point of pain. She’s heard some of this story before yet she seems to hit her afresh. “Are you okay Bonnie?” I ask.
She nods tightly. “Go on Stella.”
Okay. “Anyway, I dragged her out of the shower and wrapped her in a towel. She wouldn’t say anything, so I got the story out of Tyrique. They’d gone into one of the rooms in the Greenhouse, got high on some sort of aphrodisiac, had sex, then got into a fight. Tyrique had left in anger but went back for her in the morning. She was in the same spot he left her. Only, she was still out cold, her lip was split, her face bruised, and she wouldn’t speak to him.”
I can still see Vivian. Distraught, scared and confused.
“Jesus, what happened to her?” Sabrina’s voice sounds faraway but draws me back to the room.
I continue with a deep sigh. “After Tyrique left it took a good two hours to get Viv’s version of events out of her. She couldn’t recall much but swears someone else, not Tyrique, had slept with her that night.”
Brooke who had been silent before now, gasps, “She was sure it wasn’t her boyfriend?”
I shake my head, feeling chills race down my arms again. “She swears this man was much bigger and blond. He’d hit her a lot, then tied her, face down to the bed.”
I pull Bonnie into a hug, because I need the comfort and I can see that she does too. But I need to finish this. Talking about it feels like a cathartic release. Painful but also relieving.
“Viv couldn’t remember the man’s face but there was one thing she couldn’t forget.”
“What was that Stella?” Sabrina asks.
“He wore a ring. A large tri-stone ring on his index finger. She recalled the ring in startling detail. It’s no surprise, since she felt its impact a few times and it was all she could stare at as the man took her.”
“Did you find the bastard? Bonnie grits out.
I shake my head. “Sadly no. The police checked all the CCTV feeds, asked around, but there was no such man. All they found was she and Tyrique getting hot and heavy in the common room before taking things to one of the bedrooms there. No one was seen entering or leaving the room. Also, their argument was caught on camera, how her boyfriend left and how she tripped and fell on her face shortly after. Evidence that Tyrique was right and Vivian was likely hallucinating from all the alcohol and drugs she took.”
“What happened then? Was that the end of the investigation?” Bonnie presses
“Yes, they closed the case and she Viv even got booked for underage drinking. The next few weeks, Vivian withdrew into her shell, and all she did was sketch and paint obsessively.”
“What was she sketching?” Sabrina asks.
“The ring. I was concerned about the drugs’ lasting impact on her. They made her see things. I begged her to get professional help but she flatly refused. Six weeks later, Viv turned out pregnant.”
I hear their collective gasps of pain. Their sympathetic looks and although it was difficult, I know I did the right thing speaking up.
“Tyrique swore they never had sex without protection, but come on, it fails, right? Besides, they were stoned. Anyway, he had really strong views on abortion and insisted she keep the baby even though Viv didn’t want to. They got engaged at his insistence too. I thought Tyrique was a bit over the top, but he was such a massive support system for Viv I just let them be. I even encouraged her to keep the baby too. Before long, she stopped the obsessive sketching.”
I shut my eyes, my heart bleeding all over again. “I thought everything was going to be alright from there on out. But I couldn’t be more wrong.”
“I’m so sorry you lost her, Stella,” Brooke whispers.
“I got the shock of my life when Viv’s baby came out blonde and blue-eyed. The doctors weren’t obliged to explain, but I tried to figure it out. It happens, right? Maybe there was some Caucasian in Tyrique’s lineage. Viv had taken one look at Harriet and told me I should have believed her. Harriet wasn’t Tyrique’s. She belonged to the man with the ring. And I didn’t believe her.”
