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“Who could sleep with you on the first date. And since you were the hockey coach’s daughter, the stakes were a little more interesting.”
Oh my God, I was a rumor even before Slade's threat.
“How much money?” I ask, though I’m not sure if I want to know.
“A grand, paid out by six guys in the fraternity.”
I feel bile rise in my throat and I think I’m going to be sick.
I agreed to that date without any idea what Sean had planned. To him, I was just a payday.
To be honest, I wasn’t even that interested in the guy. It was obvious he bleached his hair, he was a little rude to people on campus, and he was really cocking with his pickup line. But I was new to school, and I figured one date wouldn’t hurt.
How stupid was that?
“How did Slade find out about this bet?” I ask.
“Slade was by far the richest kid in school… by a long stretch, and they knew he played hockey. They thought he might want to bet money on which jock he thought would win.”
“Like picking a racehorse? This was all for sport?” I ask.
I cross my arms over one another, gripping around my arms for comfort. This is not what I thought Toby was going to tell me.
“Shit, Penelope, I thought you knew all of this?”
“Did Slade bet?” I ask.
My heart racing at the thought that he would have put money on someone screwing the coach’s daughter. If he did, I’m definitely going to lose my lunch, knowing that I slept with Slade three times without knowing all of this information.
“After he found out, he hunted Sean down and threatened to end his career if he didn’t cancel your date. Then he went to the frat house and broke the nose of the guy who was running the betting pole on you.”
My eyes flare as I stare back at Toby.
“He did? I never heard about that.”
I can’t believe he did that.
“You didn’t because the kid wanted to press charges, but the Matthews family is a very powerful family with a lot of money and even more lawyers. The kid's dad pulled him out of school, and then the rumor got spread around that Slade was threatening any jock in school not to touch you to cover up what had happened so that they didn’t get expelled.”
I stand there, staring back at him, my jaw almost to the floor.
How could I not have known any of this? I went to the same school. Toby was states away and had all the details.
“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me this!” I say, my stomach starting to cramp with guilt that Slade spent four years paying for this. “Are you absolutely sure?”
“I have it on pretty good authority, yes. I saw the fraternity brother a couple of years ago at a charity event, and his nose looks like it got a lot of work done, but the plastic surgeon didn’t do a good enough job. It’s still crooked. Slade must have shattered it.”
Why didn't Slade tell my dad about this?
If this is true, he couldn’t have held that against Slade, and neither could I have. But if he had gotten ahead of the rumors, I could have maybe found a skating partner if I had told them the whole story and explained that Slade would not break anyone’s leg for skating with me.
What a complete mess this whole thing has become.
It doesn’t change the fact that he lied to me about Win, but it does change many other things that I thought I knew about him.
“Personally… and I never could confirm this, but I think the fraternity singled you out on purpose because someone knew that Slade had a thing for you.”
“Why would you think that?”
