Page 34 of Against All Odds

I didn’t say anything; I just waited. I’d known Natasha almost as long as I knew Alexa, and at the start,they seemed similar, but over the years, Natasha had matured in a way Alexa had failed to. Natasha, I knew, took her time to speak and didn’t just vomit words, so I gave her time.

She wrapped her hands around her wineglass, her knuckles whitening as she stared at the table. “You probably don’t know this, but Sable didn’t have an easy time growing up. I mean, yeah, you’ve probably heard the whispers—trailer trash this, foster kid that—but it was more than that.Wemade it more than that.”

She was obviously distressed, so I put a comforting hand on hers.

She looked at me and smiled. “When we were in high school, Alexa and I—and Leslie and a few othermean girls—we were awful to Sable. Like,reallyawful.” Her voice cracked slightly, and she cleared her throat, forcing herself to continue. “There was this one time....”

The server came by to check on us, and I nodded to him in a way that he understood to make himself scarce. Natasha looked like she was about to fall apart. Maybe we should’ve had this conversation in private.

“An ex-boyfriend of mine said he was interested in Sable to make me jealous. Igotjealous. Alexa told him to go for it, and if he could prove that he had sex with her by recording it”—she paused and took a deep breath—“I’d give him another chance.”

I removed my hand from hers, utterly disgusted with Natasha…well, the high school girl she used to be. If Juno behaved like this, I’d lose it and think it was a personal failure in how I raised her.

Natasha flinched at my expression but soldiered on. “I didn’t think he’d do it. You know, it wasn’t easy to make a video in those days.”

I couldn’t look at her and instead downed my bourbon, which was a mistake because my stomach dropped, and the fine alcohol was bitter in my mouth.

I could guess what was coming. Fuck, but this was awful. How did someone get over such things? Sable had been what, seventeen-eighteen then? She was in foster care and, as she’d told me, dealing with handsy foster parents. That, combined with someone having sex with her at that age to prove he did, and now that asshole husband of hers leaving her—it was no surprise she was as skittish as she was.

“He made the video. You know, set up a camcorder. It was grainy and shit quality, but you could see it was Sable. We showed it to her and a few others—but then everyone heard about it. It was?—”

“Fuck, Natasha,” I cut her off. This was painful to hear. My heart broke for Sable. I couldn’t imagine this happening to Juno—I couldn’t imagine the devastation that would wreak.

“I know,” she said sadly. “I know. The teachers found out, but we were the Vikar girls. Daddy was the mayor. The principal lectured Sable on her behavior and how she shouldn’t give it away. It ruined her reputation. Everyone found out.”

“What did you get out of doing that?” I asked, unable to hold the question inside me.

“Points for being a head mean girl? Alexa and I werequeens after that,” she replied ruefully, full of self-loathing. “There were other things. I started a rumor she was sleeping with a chemistry teacher. We kept…we just kept at it. Then high school ended, and we went to college in Boulder.”

“Where did she go?”

Natasha gave me a blank look. “Colorado Mountain College.”

That was a community college. I didn’t know what education Sable had, and I didn’t care to ask. But it made sense. My privilege showed in the question I asked her. Sable couldn’t afford to go to a university. No, she’d have gotten a job after high school, which she probably did because she aged out of the system. So, she’d probably juggled work and college. She got a job in a bank. She elevated herself.

“But then we came back, all grown up.”

“Did your reign of terror continue?” I waved to the bartender and pointed at my glass. I’d have to Uber home tonight because I needed a fucking drink or two or three.

Natasha winced, her face twisting with guilt. “On and off. She married Jack, and then it quietened, but now it’s loud again; it has been since Jack knocked up Molly.”

“And she’s to blame, I presume, since she couldn’t keep her man?” I bit out coldly.

The server brought me a fresh glass and looked at Natasha, who shook her head. Her hands were trembling, and I didn’t have an ounce of sympathy for her. She’d been old enough when she pulled that stunt to know right from wrong. Finding out the woman whohad been my wife and partner for so many years had had this kind of ugly inside of her was unsettling and made me wonder about my instincts when it came to people.

“It’s worse than that. She’s to blame because she couldn’t have children.” Natasha raised her glass in a mock toast.

Every time I thought it couldn’t get worse, it did.

“She can’t catch a break. It’s like every time she tries to get up, someone kicks her back down.”

“That’s....” I trailed off, gripping my glass tightly. I didn’t even know what to say.

Natasha nodded, staring down at her wine. “People in this town just...they don’t forget. They kept treating her like she didn’t belong here, like she’s less than them, andwemade sure of that.”

“Jesus, Natasha,” I muttered. “Why are you even telling me all this?”

“Because Sable is a good person, Heath.” Natasha put a firm hand on my arm as if trying to convince me with her body and words. “She’s always been a good person. She built a life here. She runs the Wildflower now, and she does all this charity work—feeding people, helping out wherever she can. I’m happy she’s dating you. I’m happy you’re dating her. But I also know that Alexa is not going to accept this with any grace. I wanted you to know the truth so you didn’t buy into the trailer trash and slut stories.”

---