I laugh, but there’s no humor in it. “You’re my rapist’s mother.” The words spill out before I can stop them, venom coating every syllable. “Pretty sure it wouldn’t beprudentto talk to you about anything.”
Her lips press together in a thin line, but she doesn’t flinch. “There are no charges of rape being brought against Austin,” she reminds me coolly, her tone clipped.
“Right. My bad.” My voice cracks with sarcasm.“It’s attempted murder this time around. I sometimes get all of the times your son has attacked me a little muddled. You know, since there are so many.”
She huffs out a breath as I fight to keep hold of my temper. The anger at least helps keep the panic at bay.
"I understand you have a tumultuous relationship with my son," she says, her voice as cold as the room around us.
I snort. Tumultuous? The word grates on my nerves like nails on a chalkboard. "Austin hurt me," I say flatly, my voice cutting through the air like glass. "He held me down while his friends drugged and assaulted me. He laughed while they did it and then he raped me himself,” I grind the words out through gritted teeth. Then, when I told the University what happened, you and your husband stepped in and defended him. You threw your weight and money around and made it all go away. He didn’t even get a slap on the wrist. No suspension. Nothing.”
Jaymin’s expression remains blank, unbothered. Her gaze stays steady, cool and collected, like none of this is affecting her in the slightest.
My eyes screw shut as angry tears burn the backs of my eyelids.
“I’m—”
“No,” I grit my teeth, the anger bubbling up again, white-hot and suffocating. I need her to understand everything her son has done to me and that she’s played a role in it. “You didn’t just protect him—you enabled him. You made him invulnerable. Whatever worries or doubts Austin might have had, whatever consequences he may have braced himself for, it all went away. You showed him he could hurt people and get away with it. That being called out for his crimes was nothing more than a minor inconvenience that money could easily sweep away. So, of course, he didn’t stop there.”
Tearing my gaze from the window, I turn to face her, my anger and frustration mounting. Does she see her own complicity in all of this? “After he got away with it, he taunted me. He took every opportunity to throw his actions in my face and told anyone who would listen how much of a slut I am. He said I retaliated with lies after being stung by his rejection. He made people hate me. My own friends turned their backs on me.” I pause just long enough to catch my breath. “Austintook everything from me. Every shred of my dignity. And it still wasn’t enough.”
The silence in the room is deafening. My heart is pounding in my chest, my pulse so loud in my ears that I can barely hear myself think. I want to scream, to throw something, but I know it won’t make a difference. Jaymin won’t crack.
“Your son took pleasure in my discomfort. In my pain. When I didn’t give him the reaction he wanted, he picked and poked and prodded some more. He threatened to silence me for good and slammed my head into a brick wall on campus when he thought I told one of his teammates what he did to me. Spoiler alert, I didn’t,” I bite out. “And then he tried to drown me in a fucking swimming pool after his own actions got him kicked off the team.”
Adrenaline floods my veins just thinking about that day. I didn’t think I was going to make it. He held me down for so long …
I watch her face closely, waiting—hoping—for some sign of guilt, some flicker of regret in her cold eyes, but there’s nothing. Her expression is like stone.
“Tumultuous is putting it mildly, but no, I have no relationship with your son. He is my attacker, and I, his unwilling victim. Nothing more.”
“I sympathize with what you’ve been through.”
I snort. Sure, she does.
Jaymin’s lips press into a thin line, her gaze dropping for a split second before returning to mine. "I didn’t come here to fight with you," she says, her voice calm but firm. "I came here to prepare you. You deserve to know what’s going to happen next.”
I blink, the confusion cutting through my rage like ice water. "Prepare me? For what?"
CHAPTER 75
CECILIA
“My son won’t be tried for rape,” she tells me.
My jaw tightens. “I’m aware,” I tell her. He and the others already got away with what they did to me. Assuming anyone bothered to believe me now, there’s no evidence. I never got a rape kit. I didn’t save the clothes. It’s been almost a year now since the assault, and at this point, it’s just my word against his. I already know how that goes.
“But he did try to kill me, and he was stupid enough to do it on campus where the surveillance cameras caught him.”
She sighs and settles back into her seat. “Yes. I’m aware.”
“He’s going to prison.” There’s no way Austin can talk his way out of it. Not this time.
A muscle in her jaw ticks. “That’s what I wanted to discuss with you.”
“No.”
“Excuse me?”
