Page 90 of Sugar Coated Secrets

“Like right now?”

He nods. “I’ve missed you, and there is nothing I want more than to spend time with you.”

I shouldn’t leave with him or believe anything he has to say, but I decide to go because when it comes to Ford, I lose all rational thought, and so far, I feel I can trust him.

After telling Mary I’ll be back, I find myself in the car with Ford parked in the back of the diner after two milkshakes.

“Have you ever talked about it?”

I shake my head, playing with the straw in my cup. “Not since the cops, no.”

“You know, I may not be a doctor, but if you ever want anyone to listen, I’m right here, Dulce. I can listen.”

Tears prickle the back of my throat. No one has ever offered to listen to anything I have to say unless it was forced or required of me.

“I know it doesn’t change what happened but sometimes it helps for someone else to know. To understand.”

“You won’t like to hear what I have to say.”

“I won’t like it, but I want to understand what you went through.”

I tell him everything that happened that night. I stop after I was hit on the head and blacked out.

“You were attacked. Like old man Moody?” he asks, trying to figure out exactly how it happened.

I look at my hands between my thighs and notice they're shaking. He places his warm hand over them let the words I hate tumble out of my mouth. “I was raped.” I sniff. “I woke up and knew something wasn’t right. Everything hurt. I’ve never been with anyone before so I had to piece it all in my head quickly what was wrong.” Two fat tears slide down my cheeks. “No one did anything. It sounded like they were listening, but they weren't, if that makes sense. I…” I trail off, not ready to tell him the rest. I’m not sure I could ever tell anyone.

“Shh…” He pulls me into his arms, and I breathe in his scent. “I’m so sorry, Dulce. I’m so fucking sorry.” I cry in his arms. I don’t know how long he holds me, but I feel safe for the first time since it happened.

When he pulls back, there is a grim expression on his face.

“I found out something you’re not going to like, but I have to tell you.”

With the palm of my hand, I wipe my face. “What is it?”

“Old man Moody is related to Officer Mays.”

I feel like I’m drowning. Then a loud ring assaults my ears, but I only catch the last part of what he says next.

“Nephew. Mays’s middle name is Moody.”

“What the hell?”

28

FORD

“Now what?” she asks when I pull up in front of her house.

I asked around, finding it weird that no family was devastated by the old man’s passing. I found out that the closest family member that the old man had was a nephew named Danny Mays. The old man’s real name was Hubert Moody Mays.

“I keep digging,” I tell her with determination.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” she says.

“Well, not doing it is an even worse one,” I tell her truthfully. Her opening up to me that she was raped felt like I was stabbed in the chest. What she went through. I don’t blame her for not trusting me.

“Who do you think did it?”

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