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“Bennett,” Trey murmurs. “He’s your brother, so I don’t think that’s a fair ask.”
Seb looks over at him curiously, and I sigh and start my story again.
For some reason, every time I tell it, it gets a little easier, as if it happened to someone else, and I wonder if it’s my body’s way of protecting itself.
Seb takes it about as well as I expect, his face flushing red with anger as he stands from his chair so quickly it topples to the tiled floor with a clatter.
“I’m going tokillthat fucker!” he roars, and I glance at Link and Trey, who give me an I-told-you-so look.
“I’m okay, Seb. Really. But I have to ask—Matt said seemed to know about Mom’s affair. He called her a slut and said you knew something about that night. Do you know what he was talking about?”
Seb’s face drains of color, and his eyes drop to the counter, where he clutches the edge with white knuckles.
“Seb, what’s he talking about?” I repeat.
He gives me a pleading look. “He wasn’t talking about your mom’s affair. It’s about the night he cheated on you,” Seb chokes out.
“I mean, I know you saw it, too. You went in after me.”
“But I know who it was with.”
I stiffen, my eyes widening in shock. Seb’s eyes are glassy and red, like he’s on the verge of tears.
“Who?” I whisper.
“It was…your mom.”
My legs go weak, but Trey catches my elbow. “But my mom was in love with Link’s dad. She wouldn’t have done that.”
Seb glances between me and Link in confusion and frowns. “What’re you talking about?”
“My dad was the one having an affair with Charlie’s mom,” Link says, his deep voice carefully neutral, and I appreciate the effort he makes, considering the resentment he still feels toward my mom.
Seb’s eyebrows disappear beneath the sweep of dark hair over his forehead.
“It’s just…” My voice sounds strangled. “I knew my mom was a cheater—we all did—but I thought it was because she was in love with John. Why would she sleep with Matt? My…my boyfriend? That’s so wrong.”
“I don’t think it was like that,” Seb says quietly. “When I confronted him, your mom was on the bed crying. I don’t think it was consensual.”
My mouth explodes with saliva as bile crawls up my throat, and I lunge for the hallway bathroom, the door slamming against the wall as I enter. My knees hit the cold floor painfully as I fall in front of the toilet just in time to vomit. I flush and sit there with my head in my hands, sweating and shaking. A light hand on my back makes me flinch.
“Okay, baby?” Trey asks gently. He kneels next to me, tracing gentle patterns on my back.
I nod, giving him a tight smile, and take his hand to stand. I stumble to the sink and rinse out my mouth, then walk back into the kitchen. Seb and Link abruptly stop talking.
“I’m sorry,” Seb says. “I should have told you…” He takes a deep breath. “After you ran out that night, I went into your room. Matt was finishing up, and your mom was on the bed trying to cover herself with a sheet. I…I just stood there in complete shock. The guy was my best friend since grade school.”
Empathy tears at my chest as I listen, and I realize Seb probably felt the same keen sense of betrayal I did that night.
He swallows. “Then I hit him. I was so angry at what he did to you and what it looked like with your mom. We got into it, throwing punches, and then he was just lying on the floor, gasping and laughing like a maniac. He said he had to do it because my dad deserved to be punished for ruining his life.” He frowns in disgust. “I think he raped your mom out of some sick sense of vengeance. You were just his collateral damage.”
I feel Link stiffen next to me, and I place a reassuring hand on his thigh. But at the same time, my mind is reeling. “He blamed my stepdad for the failed business deal, so he raped my mom,” I mumble. “He’s been crazy all along.” My head drops into my hands. Then I look up. “Did you talk to my mom about it? Why didn’t she go to the police?”
Seb smiles sadly. “I tried to get her to report him, but she refused. She was scared.” He frowns at the memory. “I went to his house the next day, and I confronted Matt’s dad, hoping that the guy had some shred of decency, but he threatened me and our family—said Matt had video evidence that would play his word against hers, and he was seventeen when it happened, so he’d saysherapedhim.”
“He was seventeen?” Link asks incredulously, and he and Trey look over at me in confusion.
I swallow heavily. “He was younger than me by almost a year and half because he skipped a grade in middle school. He was sort of a genius. His birthday fell in the fall, so, yeah, he wasn’t eighteen during that party.”
