“I have never been more sure of anything in my life.”
Later that night after I called my uncle to share the news, I was getting ready for bed. A knock sounded at my door. I pulled it open to see Bastian.
“Can I come in for a minute?”
“Like you need to ask.”
He smiled as he stepped into the room, and I noticed he seemed nervous. I was about to ask him what was wrong when he turned to me with a small black box in his hands.
“I bought this right after you moved in with me and I've been carrying it around ever since. I knew, from the very beginning, that you were the one.”
He lifted the lid to reveal the most beautiful emerald ring: an Asscher-cut emerald, my guess three carats, flanked by diamond baguettes in a platinum band.
“I thought about getting you a diamond, but with eyes like yours I couldn't look at anything but emeralds.”
My eyes found his. “It's too much.”
His patience reflected back at me and again he uttered the sentiment he had when he gave me my car, “It's not nearly enough.”
I couldn't imagine how much it had cost him, but I loved it. I lifted my hand and he didn't hesitate to take the ring from its satin nest to slip onto my finger.
Chapter Fourteen
News spread quickly about our engagement and at school girls weren't shy about wanting to see my ring. I found myself looking at it almost as much as they all did. I couldn't believe I was engaged. Yes, we were young and, yes, we agreed with the Wrights about waiting, but to have taken that step with him felt perfectly right.
On an unpleasant note, Brad had been released on his own recognizance. He wasn't allowed to come to school, but he was home and not behind bars. As Mica had predicted, other girls did step forward. I didn't believe it at first. I couldn't believe the same boy who had joked with Bastian and me during my time as Victory was actually a serial rapist. There were six others, and two of them had not been lucky enough to escape Brad’s unwanted full attention. They, like all of us, had been at a party and there had been drinking. When he raped them, they were too afraid and ashamed to say anything. They expressed the same self-doubt I had felt: the worry that they somehow had encouraged him. But with the added element of the alcohol, they feared people would say it hadn't been rape, just guilt after the fact.
There was a positive to the ordeal and that was the knowledge that each of us had people in our lives who were standing behind us and helping us through it. I couldn't imagine going through such a horrific experience and having to deal with it on my own. Or even worse having someone like my aunt, filling my head with bullshit and doubt. How badly would someone spiral out of control if they had no one to turn to, no one to tell them that it wasn't their fault? I couldn't help but think about my mom and what could have likely caused her downward spiral.
The upside of Brad being released was that his trial approached. I overheard the Wrights talking one night and Mr. Wright believed there was someone with a lot of influence pushing for the trial since it was unusual for Brad's case to already be on the docket. Mr. Wright didn't volunteer who he thought this person was, but I knew what it was he wasn't saying, he thought it was my father again. I didn't understand why the man was making himself visible in my life now when he had stayed safe in the shadows for the past eighteen years. His name wasn't even on my birth certificate, which I always assumed was because my mom hadn't known which one of her many gentlemen callers was my father. The whole situation pissed me off.
***
Winter was quickly giving way to spring, which meant I was going to be leaving soon for Maine, but first I needed to take my exams. Studying filled up most of my afternoons and evenings and after one particularly difficult study session, I needed a break. Bastian was outside cutting up a tree that had fallen during one of the ice storms. I never thought watching someone using a chainsaw would be sexy, but with the way Bastian's muscles bunch and corded from his efforts, I was wrong.
He must have sensed me because he shut off the saw and turned in my direction. “Hey. How's the studying going?”
“My brain's fried. I need a break.” I couldn't help running my fingers over his arms and when I felt how tight his muscles were from the work he'd been doing, that pleasant feeling stirred in my gut. “How'd you do it?”
Clearly he was distracted because his focus was on my hand. I liked that my touch did to him what his did to me. His teal eyes shifted to mine. “Don't start something you can't finish.”
You guessed it, my knees went weak. He looked smug, probably because he turned the scales and knocked me off-balance. “How did I do what?” Yep, definitely smug.
“Take your exams so early with minimal studying and ace them?”
Cockiness replaced smugness. “Cause I'm the man.”
“Oh my God, you're such a dork.”
My feet were no longer touching the ground as I found myself up and over his shoulder. “I'll show you dork.”
Despite the fact that it was a threat, my body started to burn. He walked us into the woods that surrounded the Wrights property before he dropped me to my feet and pressed me back against a tree. I was so ready to taste him, to have his mouth covering mine, so I was bit surprised when his expression turned serious.
“I would really like to go with you to Maine.”
My first reaction was yes, but would I focus as well as I should if he was there?
“I'm not sure that's a great idea. Besides, what about your apprenticeship?”
“I'll come to help you get settled, and then I'll leave for Concord. We don't know these people, and I'm sure it's all good, but this requirement of you having to move up there is a bit left of center. I spoke to the Wrights about it, and they agree with me. If for no one else, do it for us and our peace of mind so we aren't wondering what you're walking into when you get there.”
“Okay. I'll send an email to Logan Dupree and let him know you'll be with me in the beginning.”
He exhaled in relief and I realized if I had said no, despite his words, he would have honored that. The pleasant feeling in my gut spread through my entire body. “What will you do during those weeks?” I asked.
“Grabbing a chair and spending every day looking at you isn't an option?”
“You'd grow bored.”
“Never, but I suppose I could look into work, something temporary.” And then his expression turned playful. “Now, about calling me a dork.” By the time he stopped kissing me, I made a mental note to call him a dork at least six times a day.
***
As predicted by Mr. Wright, Brad's case was brought to trial mere weeks after he was released. All eight of us were scheduled to testify. I followed the proceedings and seeing Brad looking so normal and harmless, knowing that the heart of a predator beat in his chest, terrified me. I had always believed I was a good judge of character, but I had to reconsider that now. What was even scarier was that his father seemed angrier at the fact that his son had been caught than the actual crime he was being tried for. My conversation with my uncle flashed into my head. Brad's father had been abusive and it was more than likely that whatever molded his father's views had been trained into the son. I felt sorry for Brad. It seemed to me if anyone deserved to be standing trial, it should be Bradley Senior since Junior never stood a chance.
The day I was scheduled to testify, I was a nervous wreck. I had never been in a courtroom, so I didn't know what to expect even though the lawyers had been really great with preparing me for the experience.
It looked like the countless courtrooms I'd seen on television: a rather large room with wood paneling along the Judge's bench and the witness stand, the small wooden swing-door that separated the judge and counselors from those who had come to watch the proceedings and behind the judge a brass emblem hung depicting the scales of justice.