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The whistling tea kettle wouldn’t stop shrieking.
Skylar was once again helpless, once again entirely out of control, once again powerless.
Shriek.
There was no avoiding it.
Shriek.
She reached for the envelope with her name on it.
Shriek.
They were always doomed to explode.
Shriek.
She opened the envelope. Saw the police report. The photos. The results of the rape kit. And then she saw the date.
Weeks ago. He’d had this weeks ago. Before he’d made her come. Before they’d said goodbye. Before their interlude with Rex, who’d told him she’d been raped.
Before, before, before.
The tears started falling then. He’d known. He’d known before Rex blurted it out that night. He’d known everything.
And he’d been planning to write a story.
A story abouther.
* * *
Julian steppedout of the shower and grabbed a towel. Halfway through drying off, he heard a noise. At first, he thought it was the wind moaning, but then the sound came again, and he knew that was no wind.
He wrapped the towel around his hips and went to the living room. Skylar was sitting on the floor, leaning up against his couch, tears streaming down her face, clutching something in her arms. His heart thudded in his chest. “Skylar? What is it?”
She looked up at him then. Worked her jaw. Swallowed. Wiped away the tears. And then said in a dark, deadly voice, “You asshole.”
He shook his head, confused. “Mind telling me what this is all about?”
“I found this.” She pulled out what she’d been cradling to her. One by one, she pulled documents out of the envelope and placed them where he could see them.
“Your snake of an investigator even got the hospitalrecords and the order for a rape kit. But no pictures. Or do you have those hidden somewhere else?”
Fear and guilt almost made him stumble. He shook his head and held up his hands. “I never opened that envelope, Skylar.”
She snorted. “Right.”
“I know it will be difficult for you to believe, but I didn’t. I asked for a report on you before we became us.”
“Is that what you’re going to use as a headline.‘Before we became us’? I must admit, it has a nice ring to it.”
“I’m not writing a story about you, Skylar. I never was. I just wanted more information to understand you.”
“You should have just asked,” she snapped.
“I did ask. I asked lots of questions,” he said. “You evaded all of them.”
She shot to her feet. “That was my choice!”
