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A lump formed in my throat, and my voice wobbled. “What do you mean?”
I knew what he meant, didn’t I?
But admitting it would mean that I didn’t know my father at all.
“Come on. You’re a college graduate. A smart businesswoman. Do you really think there’s a situation where a father can go and get a restraining order for his adult daughter, where she doesn’t have to tell the police what happened? Where she doesn’t sign anything? A restraining order that’s sealed and kept private? What fucking good would that do? The whole point of a restraining order is to make sure everyone knows that the fucker needs to stay away. Why would it be a secret?”
His words were swirling in my head. None of it had made sense to me, but I trusted my father. Of course, I did.
I’d found the whole thing to be odd. He’d asked me to keep my mother out of it.
A restraining order that I’d never seen.
And now, hearing what had happened to Romeo and River…
That my father had been behind it. Slade was a kid. He couldn’t have pulled this off by himself.
“Did you end up staying there for six months, and River for a year?”
His hands settled on each side of my face, his thumbs swiping the liquid falling from my eyes. “No. My mother went to anyone who would listen. She found someone to look at our case pro bono, and he got us out of there sooner. We never knew exactly what happened, but I served three months, and River served eight months.”
“I’m so sorry,” I croaked, my words barely audible. “You must have been so scared.”
“Listen, Demi.” His voice was calm and even, and he waited for me to meet his gaze. “I’m not going to sugarcoat it. It sucked. There was some dark shit going on in that place, but we survived it. River went on to become a lawyer because of it. And I became an even better fighter. I learned at a young age to defend myself, and my three months in that hellhole made me tougher.”
I lunged forward, my arms wrapping around his neck. I hugged him so tight it took the air from my lungs. All these feelings, all these emotions.
“I’m sorry that happened to you. I’m sorry that my family did this. They robbed you of your childhood,” I said, still trying to wrap my head around it.
He pulled back so he could look at me. “No. No one took shit from either one of us. We made it out of there in one piece, and we’re stronger for it. And your brother got into that boating accident a few months later, and they covered that shit up, too.”
I could feel my head spinning. “What do you mean? He lost control of the boat. It was an accident.”
“Everyone in town knows that he was drunk and high, Demi. Boomer Wilkes was hospitalized for a month after that accident. But he, too, was silenced by your father back then, or at least that’s the story. There were four people on that boat, and none of them spoke about it again. They were most likely threatened or bribed. I don’t know what it was, but they were scared and didn’t say anything. I’m guessing your brother wasn’t hanging out with those friends after the accident, was he? Because they knew the truth.”
I rubbed my temples as I processed his words. I remembered the accident. The hysteria in my house when the call came late at night. I was in middle school then, and I just remember a lot of crying and panic.
“They said the boat malfunctioned,” I whispered. “And Slade was hurt, too, and that’s when he was prescribed opioids.”
“Your brother was an addict before that boating accident, Demi. Maybe it wasn’t that bad before the accident, but he was partying hard, and everyone knew it. They just covered everything up because they had the money to do it, and everyone around him was just collateral damage.”
“Do you think my mother knew about this?” I shook my head rapidly. “My mom is such a good person, Romeo. She would never be okay with this.”
But I thought the same thing about my father and my brother.
My head was spinning with thoughts.
“I don’t know. I know that your father went to see Walt at the hospital, and that’s when everything turned in our direction.”
“You believe that I didn’t know anything about this, right? I need to know that you don’t think I’d ever be okay with any of this.”
His forehead rested against mine. “I know who you are, Demi Crawford. And that’s why I didn’t want to go here with you. But I can’t seem to stay the fuck away from you, no matter how hard I try.”
“Why wouldn’t you want to go here with me? Because you think I’d blame you for what my family did to you?”
“At first, I thought you’d side with them. Hell, the guys and I never knew if you were aware of it before now—before I got to know you. I figured out pretty quickly that you didn’t know anything about it.”
“How?”
