Page 93 of Fate Forever and Always

Nick put up his pointer finger, asking me to hold on for a minute, but I was in no mood. “Point that damn finger at me again, and I will fucking break it, Nicholas.”

He rolled his eyes and continued listening to the call. Sara grabbed my arm and pulled me down to sit again. “Give him a minute.”

Nick hung up the phone, walked over slowly, and bent in front of Sara, silently asking if it was okay to touch her face. I knew it was innocent, and he was probably just trying to make sure she was okay, but it still kicked up quite a bit of jealousy.

“Sara, I am so fucking sorry. This is all my fault.”

She placed her hand on his. “Nick, you couldn’t have known he was going to hurt me. You are probably so confused. You don’t even know what is happening.”

“Sara, don’t,” I blurted.

Nick sat back on his feet, still kneeling, and looked between the both of us. “Actually, I do.”

Nick

How the hell was I going to explain this to her? I wasn’t planning on telling her I knew everything until after Christmas was over. Now I have no choice.

Once I realized a full month had passed since Callie had not talked to me, I finally got sick of wondering why. I wasn’t proud to admit it, but I snooped on her phone one day when she was in the shower. I had to see if I could find something to help me make sense of everything. She was being so secretive. I just couldn't take it anymore.

When I grabbed her phone, I was momentarily grateful for her usual stubbornness. She didn't listen to me when I told her to use a different number for her passcode. She always used her birthday.

After taking a few minutes and searching all the conversations with the usual people who would know what was going on with her, I realized there was nothing out of the ordinary in any of them—until I saw a message with the notifications silenced. There was no name because it wasn't saved in her contacts. I immediately got jealous and sick to my stomach. My only thought was that she actuallywascheating on me.

I was weirdly relieved, then quickly disgusted with what I saw. Jake had been messaging her photos and videos that literally turned my stomach. I knew what it looked like when she was enjoying herself, and that wasn’t even close. There were videos of him taking her from every position possible. She was saying no to some things, but he was making her do it anyway. There was even a picture of what I can only assume is Callie after he was done with her, and she was crying or having to pleasure herself while he was watching.

When I saw Jake touchingmygirl, I wanted to find him and kill him. My blood was boiling. I don't think I had ever been filled with so much fucking rage in my life.

Only one thing kept me from going after him right then—her text messages with Sara, of all people. At first, I got angry that she wouldn’t ask me for help, but as I kept reading the X messages, I saw all the threats to her, her mom, her mom’s restaurant, Aubrey, and me.

From the quick look I got at the messages, it seemed like Sara and Callie were devising a plan to find Sara a place to live and ruin the files. Their biggest worry seemed to be that it would be done correctly and at the right time so no one would get hurt.

I wondered why she wouldn’t just go to the cops. The obvious reason, of course, is that the pictures and videos get out, but other than that, why did she not ask for help?

I began doing my own research to help and try to find out what type of recourse could be taken against him for what he was doing to her. When I looked up what happens with revenge porn cases, the results were disheartening. Basically, nothing happens the first time someone is caught doing it, maybe a restraining order and some community service in the more severe cases, but if they ever got caught doing it again, then the authorities would do something about it.

Knowing Callie and how impatient she always was, I understood why she was trying to handle it herself and be done with it. I wasn’t happy about it, but again, I understood.

After doing more research, I realized this wasn’t something I was going to be able to help her with on my own. In all my thinking, I remembered Elijah mentioning one of his bandmates being super tech-savvy, like he wasn’t allowed to own a computer because of his past crimes kinda savvy.

I messaged Elijah, trying to get a feel for whether his friend would be a creeper about the situation, but from everythingElijah told me, he wouldn't pry. I gave the vaguest reasons possible that I needed his friend's info, and luckily, Elijah being the go-with-the-flow guy I knew he would be, didn't even ask me why.

Once his bandmate, Beck, messaged me, I told him I needed help getting rid of some files without someone knowing. He, like Elijah, didn’t ask questions, and I was grateful. After a few hours of sleuthing, Beck was able to help walk me through a site that told us where the files originated, were saved to, and where they were sent. From what we could find, the files were only on Jake’s computer and his phone, which he wasn’t even backing up to any cloud or anything.

Beck explained that if we got rid of the files on the phone and computer, there would be nothing left unless Jake had made an external copy of them, and according to the messages I saw between the girls, they hadn’t found any yet.

I did my due diligence and had some luck moving the plan forward. I was just waiting to tell Callie and make sure Sara was safe from that fucker before Beck removed everything.

I wasn’t sure how I was going to tell Callie that I betrayed her trust and looked at her phone, but I also didn’t want Callie to deal with the situation any longer than she needed to.

I guess the time to tell her is now.

Chapter thirty-nine

Nick

Callie and Sara were both staring down at me. My heart started racing uncontrollably. I stood, pacing the floor a few times. I started rubbing the back of my neck, unsure of how to even start the conversation. When I finally turned back to face them, Callie looked up at me worried, almost defeated, like she just realized I did something wrong.

“How do you know what’s going on?” she asked calmly.

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