Page 124 of Edge of Unbroken

“You… Wait, you send Zack nudes of you?” I ask Summer, a flicker of relief, even hope, sparking in my chest.

“Of course I do,” Summer says with aduhface.

“I sent Shane a soapy boob pic this morning while I was under the shower.” Tori shrugs.

Shane grins victoriously, nodding. “She did.”

Even Vada chimes in. “Stevie had an album full of nudes I sent him.” She looks at Steve more timidly than I’ve ever witnessed before.

“And I’d cut off my own hands before I ever show them to anyone,” Steve says so sincerely, elation blooms in my chest. Not only are my friends by my side through this, but they’re also completely supportive.

Shane turns his gaze to me. “Let me tell you something, Cat. Any decent guy isn’t going to share nudes, even of his ex. That shit is sacred. Tori sends me pictures or, fuck, if she lets me film us…”—he lets out a low growl, looking at Tori admiringly for a second—“that shit gets put in a special folder, locked away from anyone’s eyes but mine. The shit your ex is doing is fucking disgusting and illegal.”

“Yeah,” Steve says. “Okay, so what are we going to do about this guy?” He poses his question to Zack and Shane.

“Find him. Kill him,” Shane says so dryly, I actually laugh. “You think I’m joking?” he asks with a smirk.

“Oh, no, not even a little.” I feel a thousand times better already. “Shay, when you talked to Ran… I…” He still hasn’t called me in the hour and a half since he ended our call, since he made sure our friends got to my house to ensure I’m not alone. I know he's hurt, and he has every right to be. Now that I sit here and I’ve come clean, unburdened myself, I can’t for the life of me remember why I didn’t just tell Ronan when Adam first began blackmailing me. At least then the only pictures I would have had to tell Ronan about were the ones Adam took of me during our relationship. That’s certainly more forgivable than what I’ve done since…

Shane gives me a half smile that doesn’t translate to his eyes. “He only told me you’re in trouble, Cat. He didn’t go into any details.”

I sigh deeply.

“Ran loves you, Cat,” he says. “He’s probably hurt, yeah. I know I’d be if I found out Tori sent pictures to her ex during our relationship, but it’s not like you did it because you were cheating on Ran.”

“Yeah,” Tori says. “You didn’t really have a choice. This guy was extorting you.”

“Ran knows this,” Shane says. “He’s going to sit on this, he’ll think it to death, and he’ll come to the same realization. In fact, I bet he already has.”

“He said he’d call me right back…” I lift my eyes to Shane’s.

“Give him some time,” Steve says.

The front door unlocks and my mom walks in. She startles at the sight of me surrounded by my six friends. “Oh, hi guys!” she says in a chipper tone. “I take it Cat shared the amazing news with you?”

Good god, I had already forgotten about my college acceptance letters.

I shake my head. I know the time has come. I’ve already taken the hardest step by confessing to Ronan and my friends, so I take a steadying breath. “Mom… I need to talk to you…”

It takes another hour to catch my mom up on everything—and I meaneverything—that transpired not only over the past eight or nine months, but during the time I dated Adam. She remains surprisingly composed throughout, only occasionally gasping or shifting uncomfortably in her spot next to Vada on the sofa.

The moment I finish, she gets up and pulls me up and into her arms, holding me tightly against her chest. My mom’s warmth, the way she rubs my back, causes me to dissolve into tears once more. It’s as though I’m shedding all the tension, crying all the uncried tears, and releasing all the pain that has been compounding ever since Adam began to mistreat me.

“Okay,” she says when she releases me from her hold. She straightens herself out. “Here is what is going to happen. First, you’re not going anywhere alone again until this… this… this absolute garbage human is finally arrested. Second, I’m going to have to tell your dad—”

“Oh no.” Aside from telling Ronan, the one thing that scares me most is my dad finding out what I’ve done.

“Sorry, Kitty, but there’s no way around it. He has a right to know.”

“God, Mom, he’ll—”

“I’ll handle your father,” she says, but I give her a doubtful look. I can already hear him go off the rails when he finds out his little girl sent dirty pictures to a boy. He’ll be so disappointed; he’ll judge me in the worst possible way. I’ve failed him. “We’ll also call the police. I know they won’t do much if anything based just on Adam’s most recent text message, but I want to make a record. And then—” She turns to Vada and Zack. “Would you two mind getting me in touch with your father?”

I furrow my brow, but Zack immediately pulls his phone out of his back pocket. “Yeah, I was actually thinking we should talk to him.”

Vada nods. “His office prosecutes these things once in a while. You know, the revenge porn stuff.”

“He calls it intimate image abuse,” Zack says, already holding his phone to his ear.

---