“Give us until tomorrow,” he said gently. “We’ll have a meeting. You may bring an advocate. A trusted adult. But if that still doesn’t satisfy, you’re absolutely within your rights to go to the police. No one here will stop you.”
No one will stop me.
I could read Sterling well enough to know he was praying I’d keep this an internal matter. But I didn’t want to go to the cops either. I didn’t want to drag Orion’s name into something loud and public. I didn’t want to sit alone in a cold police station and explain to a row of men how I’d been hunted and touched and threatened—only to betold itwasn’t that bad.
His word against mine.
“I just want to make him stop,” I whispered, hating how small my voice sounded.
Dr. Sterling smiled. “We’ll get to the bottom of this. I promise.”
***
The next morning, I met Ezra Wolfe outside his office door.
“Are you sure?” he said. “About me, I mean. ‘Trusted’ is a new one for me.” He tapped a black-nailed finger to his chin. “So is ‘adult,’ now that I think about it.”
I glanced up at him, big, tall, imposing all in black. But also one of the best people I knew. “I can’t think of anyone else I want with me for this.”
His teasing smile faded. “I can’t say enough how sorry I am, Harper.”
Yesterday afternoon, after leaving Sterling’s office, I’d gone straight to Ezra to ask him to be my advocate. It was humiliating, having to tell him the whole sordid story, but I thought telling it again might make it easier.
I was wrong.
He heaved a breath. “Ready?”
“No. But…yes.”
We began the trek through the Academy to Sterling’s office.
“If it helps at all, I haven’t had a drink since we last spoke,” he said. “Since you gave me a good talking-to all those months back.”
“Really? That’s wonderful.”
“It’s been less wonderful and more awful, terrible, and very bad. But thank you.” He shook his head. “And that you can find it in your heart to be glad for me at a time like this speaks volumes about you, my dear. How is your mother?”
“Not as well as you,” I said. “But one crisis at a time, if you please. I onlylooklike I have my shit together right now.”
Because on the inside, my stomach roiled, my heart clanged,and every time I let my thoughts wander, the memory of Langford’s touch or his body caging me in came roaring back, and I flinched as if someone had shocked me.
We passed through the Arts Wing to the STEM Wing, where I noticed the students talking in clusters. Every single one of them stopped to stare at me as we passed, whispering to each other, most with snide looks on their faces.
“Now what?” I said to Ezra as two students gave me the stink eye, and one muttered “Fucking Bender” as we passed.
“I haven’t the faintest,” Ezra said. “But it certainly brings back schoolyard memories when I was the only boy in my class who wore eyeliner and the occasional skirt.”
Tessa Carlyle hurriedly fell into step next to me. “Oh my God, Harper, what is happening?”
I glanced around and then at her, a ball of dread dropping into my gut. “You…you heard?”
She nodded. “It’s bullshit. It has to be right?”
“Bullshit? Wait, what are you talking about?”
“Langford,” Tessa hissed. “There’s a rumor going around that you lost the NoSci and freaked out in the auditorium. That you threatened to make up an assault unless he gave you the win. When he refused, you filed a false complaint.”
I felt faint. “Oh my God…”
