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Lily
At the bottom of the page is a phone number. Shit. The wine and crisps churn around my stomach and I feel sick. Is it time to tell Dylan what’s happening? I screw the letter into a ball and throw the paper in the bin.
* * *
I don’t call Lily.Dealing with the Tara situation takes all my energy. I don’t tell Dylan either. Each time I talk to him, he sounds more despondent—this can wait until he comes home. I bet she expected me to pick the phone up and beg her not to do anything once I read her veiled threat about making him ‘accountable’. No. Dylan is innocent, she can’t touch him.
My naivety in this situation doesn’t prepare me for Lily’s next step. I’m at the hospital, in the gift shop looking at the meagre choice of chocolate, and the grey-haired proprietor is unpacking new magazines and placing them onto the shelves next to me. Over her shoulder, a celebrity magazine catches my eye. Not because Dylan’s picture is on the cover, but because of the headline.
Exclusive: Dylan Morgan Rape Scandal
I drop the chocolate, and when the elderly woman frowns at me, I realise I’ve just used a string of colourful words. Grabbing the magazine, I leave payment on the shop counter and dash out. Weaving around the slow moving visitors, and out of the stifling hospital, I find a wooden bench and sit.
The cold air hits my face, and I shiver in the February weather as I leaf through to the article. The double-spread article is headed:Silence Broken: The Night Dylan Morgan Raped Mein huge letters. A picture of Lily on a bench under a tree barren of leaves is in the centre of the article, back to the camera to conceal her identity. The world around lurches as I skim read the article. She isn’t named, and a story similar to the one Dylan and Jem told me outlined, but Dylan’s role talked up. The explanation for her silence is fear, and her decision to come forward now is justice for others like her. I rub my head, unsure of my next move. One thing I can guarantee is the press will be looking for me.
The article ends with a one-line statement from the police that they have received her complaint and are currently ‘looking into the allegations’.
Without thinking about Tara in hospital, I shove the magazine into my bag and head for the bus, wishing I’d accepted Dylan’s offer to lend me a car. Sometimes independence and stubbornness are too close. Calling Dylan is pointless—I’m not waking him in the night with this news. I want to get home, retrieve Lily’s number and call her. What is she hoping to achieve?
What happens next?
* * *
“Hello?”Lily’s voice is small and tired.
“It’s Sky,” I say icily.
“Oh. Now you decide to talk to me?”
The fucking nerve of the woman.
“Why are you doing this?” I shoot back.
“Because he deserves everything he gets.”
I inhale, torn between solidarity to a woman claiming a sex crime and my love and trust of Dylan. “What you’re accusing Dylan of isn’t true.”
“Isn’t it?”
“He told me what happened. How he used you and hurt you. But he didn’t rape you—why do this?”
“He did,” she whispers. “I have proof.”
“Proof? Or the hope they’ll believe you over him? You once said that you don’t want to take on the Blue Phoenix lawyers. Be sensible.”
“Are you threatening me?” Her low tone is the voice of someone who thinks they hold all the cards.
“No! I don’t believe you and I can’t understand why you’re doing this to him.”
“Because he deserves it,” she repeats. “Dylan doesn’t deserve to be happy.”
Silence fills the gulf between us. Myf said Lily’s actions were revenge, but why after all this time? That’s crazy. Myf. Should I call her?
“I hope you like press attention,” I snap at Lily.
“They don’t know who I am yet.”
She hasn’t thought this through at all. “You went to a top selling gossip magazine with the story a member of Blue Phoenix assaulted you? They’ll find you. Quickly. Someone will leak who you are—I suggest you prepare yourself because press attention is bloody hard.”
