Page 100 of For I Have Sinned

The words cause a slight nervousness to flow through me. “About?”

Please don’t say us.

“Some shit happened between Joanna and me when you were gone.”

“You told me you’d behave.” I give her a stern look.

“I did… sort of.” Her arms fold over her chest. “She slapped me.”

I stare down at her in shock. “She slapped you?”

She nods. “After breakfast one morning, Father Keaton followed me out into the hall. He said he wanted to check on me since I had left abruptly. Well, the conversation went… south. He was saying these things and looking at me in a way he shouldn’t⁠—”

“What?” I begin to see red.

“He was talking about how it would be nice for me to have a friend here. He suggested it be Joanna, and he wasn’t happy that I’d brought up being friends with Esther. But then he said he would tell you to back off from watching me, unless I like spending time with you.” Her eyes drop to her lap. “I swear, Alex, the way he said it, and the way he looked at me, it was insinuating he knew about us.”

I shake my head. “There is no way he knows.”

“That’s what I was hoping, but then I got confirmation the other night.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ll get to that in a second,” she reassures me. “But Joanna had followed Father Keaton when he left the dining hall. And when she saw us together, and how close he was standing in front of me, she thought something was going on between us. So she confronted me about it right after our lesson that day, and we got into it. Then I led on that I knew about the two of them, and she slapped me. Then, a couple of days later, she apologized at dinner, and I lied and accepted it. After that, Father Keaton wanted to see me in his office.”

I clench my teeth together. “What did he say?”

“Let’s see,” she hums. “I called him a piece of shit for brainwashing Joanna, and he called me a whore for spreading my legs for you. Said that if I told anyone about him and Joanna, he’d make it so I’d stay here forever.”

“He what?” I snap again, standing up and turning around to head down the aisle. “Where does he get the nerve to say that to you?”

“Alex.” She rushes after me, grabbing my arm to stop me.

I spin around to face her. “Celine, he doesn’t get to threaten you like that and get away with it. Calling you a whore? I swear to God I’ll fucking kill him.”

I go to back away, but her grip tightens on my wrist. “Alex, stop! You can’t barge into his bedroom and freak out on him.”

“Why not?” I yank myself free of her grasp, causing her to stumble back. “He fucking deserves it!”

“Because he threatened you, too!” she says with pain in her voice.

“What?” My body freezes at her words.

She runs her fingers through her hair as she begins to pace. “He knows that we both know of his relationship with Joanna. And he basically confirmed she wasn’t the only one. He said that if either of us tells anyone, we would regret it.”

“What did he say to threaten me?” Celine finds my gaze, her eyes glossing over, and she shakes her head. I’m so furious, but the sadness in her eyes has me dialing down on the anger. With a sigh, I go to her, cup her face in my hands. “Tell me.”

“He said it would be easy to plant drugs in your room.”

My heart skips a beat, the world tilting for a moment. Father Keaton is aware of the darkest part of my past. I even told him that if I ever went back to that lifestyle, I’d end up in prison.

A guy that I had been hanging around with was a dealer and one night, when we were all at his place, getting high, the police barged in through the front door. With drugs scattered across the coffee table, they arrested us all.

My mom, who was pissed and disappointed, had to dip into her savings to get me out. Because the police assumed I was a dealer along with my friend, no matter how many times I tried to tell them otherwise, they told me that if I got caught again, I’d be sent to prison.

I got lucky when she bailed me out, and found a lawyer to clean everything up. The other guys had to spend a few years behind bars. I stopped doing drugs after that incident. It scared me straight.

There is no way I can end up in prison.