Page 530 of Savage Bosses

“How did you find out what happened to you?”

Ambrose props his elbows on the table and rests his chin on his clutched fists.

“She later told me she’d poured the liquid contents from a vial she carried into my drink. In the vial, she’d dissolved a cocktail of pills which included Viagra. That’s what gained and maintained my erection. I was confused after drinking it and felt sick. My head started hurting, and all I wanted to do was lie down.

“Lyndsey said I must be coming down with something or ate something bad. She promised to help me to my room, and I trusted her. Didn’t have a reason not to. When we got upstairs, I recall her helping me undress. I don’t recall climbing into bed. I do remember one point that she…”

He drops his head to his clutched fists and rocks back and forth. Reaching out, I rub his forearm to ease his mind, but it encourages him to continue.

“She kept telling me to relax. I was confused as fuck not sure if it was a dream or reality. I remember calling her name several times and asking her to help me. She kept saying I needed to relax and that everything was okay. Things were hazy, and I wondered if it was a dream.

“The next afternoon, I woke up hungover and sick. She was laying in my arms, rubbing my chest, and smiling up at me. Regret hit me like a Mack truck. I didn’t remember anything, but she kept telling me how great it was. I felt bad and didn’t want to tell her that I didn’t remember. Even worse, I felt bad that I’d apparently cheated on you. I never learned what happened until after I married her.”

He grows quiet again, and I flag down the server for refills on our drinks. We sit in silence until our drinks are refilled.

“Men don’t say shit like this because it doesn’t happen to us,” he rasps.

“It does. It’s not right, but it does, Ro.”

“About four years into the marriage I overheard her talking about the incident with someone on the phone. That’s how I found out. I walked into the room and asked her if it was true. She ended the call. I was furious and she was full of apologies, crying, and saying she’d been so lonely, and she was sorry she’d taken advantage of me, but she had feelings for me and didn’t know what to do with them. We went through a rough patch in the marriage. I couldn’t trust her. On the other hand, I was embarrassed and didn’t know who I could tell or who would believe me. When it first happened, I felt horrible and avoided her as much as possible.”

“That bitch! Then why was she in your hotel in Charleston when you returned?”

“She’d come to tell me that she was pregnant, offered to have a DNA test, and asked if I wanted her to have an abortion.”

“Which you don’t believe in.”

“Yeah. She knew that.”

Silence takes over again, and I see he’s lost in thought.

“You don’t have to keep talking about this,” I say when he opens his mouth.

“No. I owe you. I’ve protected Lyndsey for far too long and me.”

“You deserved protection.”

“No. I was a coward. Fucking afraid no one would believe me, and if they did, they’d laugh at me. Afraid I would be a joke because how can a man be so weak as to be physically assaulted by a woman. The only person I told was your brother and my coach. Didn’t even tell my own brothers until years later.”

“What did your coach say?”

“Told me that men don’t talk about shit like that. He said I should be happy that she’d negotiated me a sweet deal when I was a rookie that would have me financially set for life. Told me to chalk it up to initiation into the league, swallow my pride, and keep moving. He said it happened a long time ago, and I should forgive and forget. Besides, I’d married her and had a kid with her now, so there was no use in crying over spilt milk. Said I should keep my head up and eyes open from that moment on and that it was a great learning lesson.”

“That fucker!” I bark, causing a few people to look my way. “Sorry.”

He purses his lips and looks out the window again.

“So, what did you do?”

“I swallowed my pride and kept moving. We separated for a while, but then decided to reconcile after six months.”

“God! I’m sorry that happened to you,” I say, pushing the tears back.

“It happened to us, Bryn. I was supposed to trust you when I couldn’t trust no one else. I was so fucking angry that you didn’t want to tell your brother the truth about us. So, when I found out the truth, I couldn’t come back to you after all that time. If you didn’t stand by me before the trouble, I didn’t expect you to return to me after the trouble.”

“I just wish that you’d have told me anyway.”

“Would you have believed me?”

---