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I sit back, trying to digest the fact that Tori just repeated what Bianca told me at the ranch. Before her father said she was a liar. Before Adam told me she was crazy. Before everyone interfered and twisted me up so much, I didn’t know what the fucking truth was.
“That isn’t even the worst of it.” Tori glances down at the table in shame. “There was something else. Something I’ve never told anyone.”
“What is it?” A heavy feeling settles over me as I consider that there could be more.
“When I was with Adam, he used stimulants to help him stay on top of everything,” she tells me. “But then he started doing other shit. I honestly don’t even know what half of it was. All I know is it made him even more of a nightmare.”
This isn’t as much of a shock, given the state I saw him in when I got out of the military. But Tori isn’t close to being finished with her revelations.
“The thing is, Bianca bruised his ego, and he didn’t like that. When she wouldn’t give herself to him freely, he started banging all the girls she knew, flaunting those escapades in her face. But that didn’t get him the result he wanted, so he hit her where it really hurt by taking up with Ada.”
“Ada?” I echo her name as I recall her death.
“Yes, Ada,” Tori confirms. “The same girl they pulled out of that lake after I left. And I’m telling you right now, Madden, that was no accident.”
I try to let that sink in, but I don’t know that it really does. Tori seems to sense my ambiguity, so she continues.
“Ada realized pretty quickly that Adam was using her, and she didn’t want to play his games. I’d seen them arguing about it a few times, and things were getting tense between them. But I think the tipping point was when she stumbled into the house and caught him beating me that night.”
“She was the one who interrupted him?” I ask.
“Yes,” Tori answers. “And we were both liabilities at that point. He needed to get rid of us, and he found a way. I had to leave town, and she ended up at the bottom of a lake with enough drugs in her system to kill a horse. You do the math.”
I recall the day of Ada’s funeral when I sat with Bianca in her car. She’d asked me if I thought it was strange how Ada died because she hadn’t ever been known to take drugs. At the time, I chalked it up to Ada keeping secrets from Bianca. But then she told me about the rumors I was with Ada that night. She said she was scared for me and that I needed to leave town. And now, I can’t help but question if she suspected Adam too. Was that what she was trying to tell me?
“I have a feeling he tried to get rid of Bianca in the end too.” Tori breaks the silence. “But I always wonder if maybe she was the one who got away. She could still be out there somewhere, probably too terrified to face the consequences. And I don’t blame her. Because who’s going to believe that she killed him in self-defense when he portrayed himself to be the best goddamn boyfriend on the planet?”
My stomach revolts as I consider that Bianca may have been abused by Adam too. That she didn’t trust me enough to tell me, or maybe she didn’t think I could do anything to save her. Either way, she didn’t come to me because she didn’t think she could, and that realization tears me up inside.
The longer I sit with my thoughts, the more it occurs to me how many things never made sense. The rifle incident with Stefan. The way Bianca tried to keep me away from Adam at any cost. Every vague response she ever gave me about looking so ill. The misery on her face when I saw her. The pain in her eyes I could never understand. The burner phone, the lies, and the way she begged me to take her away the last night I saw her. It was all because of him.
“Why didn’t she tell me?” I choke out. “I would have stopped it.”
“What could you have done?” Tori asks. “Nothing. There’s nothing anyone could have done. Adam had a way of ensuring that. He had connections with the local police. He had money. Power. And when those options failed him, he had violence and intimidation. I’m sure she was ashamed and defeated. Broken, probably, in the end, just like me. If she knew what Adam was capable of, then she’d know there wasn’t a soul who could save her. And God forbid he found out she had feelings for you. I’m sure she would have done everything in her power to protect you. I know because that’s the choice I had to make.”
