Page 27 of Wickedly Betrayed

Mac lifts his head from my lap and I avert my eyes from his. I don’t want to see the emotions there.

“Please say something, Mia.”

Without looking at him, I ask him something I’m pretty sure I already know the answer to, but need to hear him confirm.

“You were drugged?”

“Yes. I knew I had been given something. I had only had a couple beers, and the way I felt was much more than that. They found Rohypnol.”

I nod and pull away from him, not wanting him to touch me right now. I have too much to process. I get up off the couch and walk to the window. I’m still shocked. I have no idea what to say to him. We were both tricked and deceived. And there were more players than just Tessa. I want to rant and throw a tantrum. How could he not realize it wasn’t me? Tessa and I are nothing alike. The rational part of my brain knows he was easily swayed because of the drugs and the similarities Tessa made sure were there. But the part that connects to my heart still hurts. It’s hard to believe Icould ever mistake Mac for someone else, but I’ve never been under the influence of the date rape drug. I’ve heard horror stories of women being given the drug and not even realizing she was being raped.

I turn around and face him with my arms wrapped around my waist. He’s back to sitting on the couch with his elbows resting on his knees. His head is lowered, and his hands are clenching his hair. When I speak, he lifts his head and stares at me with tortured eyes.

“She was wearing a wig, wasn’t she?” That’s the only explanation there is. She’s always had blonde hair.

“Yes. That’s why it felt different. It must have fallen off during—”

I hold up a hand to stop him. “I get it.”

He just nods and stares at me.

“After telling me this, what are you expecting, Mac?” I ask him because I really want to know. Does he expect me to just jump in his arms? It may explain a lot of what happened that night, but the fact remains, those awful visions will always be with me.

“I don’t expect anything, Pix. Would I be opposed to you giving us another try? Fuck no. I would jump for fucking joy to have you again. But I don’t expect it. Even though the rational part of me knows it wasn’t my fault, that there was nothing I could do, the part of me that hurts,” he grabs my hand and puts it over his heart, “feels like I should have done something to stop it. I just didn’t want you to continue to think I did it because I didn’t love you enough. You were my entire world back then. I lived and breathed to make you happy. You were my reason for being. I would have given anything to keep that pain from you.”

His words don’t bring me comfort. They just make the pain worse because I believe them with all my heart. The way he treated me, like I was a rare treasure, is something I’ll never have again. What we had was special and precious, not something you get every day. It was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of love that many people never experience.

“Can I ask you a question?” he asks.

“Yes.”

“Why did you come looking for me upstairs?”

And that was where the other players came into play.

“I had been downstairs talking to Andrew and some friends when I realized you had been gone for a while. I looked for you all over downstairs and even outside. When I came back inside, I ran into Stacey. She told me you had given her a message for me to meet you upstairs.”

I should have known right away that something wasn’t adding up. Stacey and Tessa were close friends. Neither Mac nor I ever associated with her. I should have realized Mac would have never gone to her to give me a message.

“That’s what I thought. And now that you mention the name, I think it was Stacey that told me you were upstairs.”

That doesn’t surprise me. Stacey was always stuck up Tessa’s ass. Two peas in a pod, those two were. Stacey wasn’t quite as bad as Tessa, but damn near.

“Dad?” Trent says from the hallway. I swing my body in his direction. I completely forgot he was here.

“Yeah, T?” Mac asks, getting up from the couch and facing his son.

“When are we having dinner?”

“In just a bit. How does pizza sound?”

“That’s cool,” he mumbles. I noticed he does that a lot.

Mac turns to me and asks, “Want to join us?”

His question takes me by surprise. I stand there like an idiot with my mouth hanging open. I notice Trent also standing there watching me, waiting for my answer. I’m not sure, but it looks like he doesn’t want me sticking around. Not to stoop to Tessa’s level, but I bet not too many kind words have left Tessa’s mouth regarding me, if she’s said anything at all.

As I stand there, undecided if I should stay or not, Mac comes to stand in front of me.

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