Page 67 of Tempting Eden

“Yes.”

“Even while knowing you were alone with a grown man who you’d been sending all these signals to for a month or more?”

“Signals?”

“Dressing like you described, going to bars, doing things that would lead him on.”

“I didn’t lead him on.”

The lawyer tsked. “You testified you’d told Mr. Mason you loved him, didn’t you?”

I looked at Claudia. Her mouth was set in a grim line. I had to answer. “I did.”

“So when you went to his house, are you saying you had no expectation that you might have sex?”

“No, I had an expectation. But when I said no, my expectation was that I wouldn’t be forced.”

“Are you sure you said no?”

“I am certain.”

“But you don’t remember what you were wearing?”

“No, not exactly. Details of clothing didn’t seem as important as my rape did.”

“Tell me, did you fight him?”

“I tried, but I was so much smaller, it didn’t do any good.”

“Fine, fine. Now, since you were horribly mistreated and had a crime perpetrated against you, please tell me who you told about it and when you went to the police.” His eyes bored into mine, trying to defeat me.

I picked my chin up just a bit higher. I wouldn’t let this two-bit asshole in a cheap suit best me. “I didn’t tell anyone. I was ashamed of what he’d done to me.”

He spun on his heel and threw his hands up in dramatic fashion. “So we’re supposed to believe that you were raped almost twelve years ago, yet you never told a soul?”

“That’s the truth. I don’t care if you believe it or not.”

“Why didn’t you tell your mother?”

I looked at Mother. Tears rolled silently down her pale face. Maria’s arm was around her shoulders.

“Shame, mostly. She had really high hopes for me. After my father died, she sort of pinned all her dreams on me. I couldn’t bear to let her down. When she found out I was pregnant, something shifted between us. I couldn’t risk it getting worse. And when Adele was born, Mother was so smitten, and things got better. I didn’t want them to get dark again. I’d rather pay off Mason than have Adele or Mother know about what he’d done to me.”

Mother shook her head softly, the tears flowing faster as she dabbed a handkerchief at her eyes.

“But sitting here today, you don’t have one iota of proof for this tall tale, do you?”

“My daughter and what I’ve just told you are the proof.”

“Neither of those proves rape.”

Claudia stood up, ready to object, but the judge cut her off. “Mr. Laramie, if you have a question, ask it. Otherwise you may have a seat.”

He smoothed his tie and said, “No further questions, Your Honor.”

“Ms. Rochester, you may step down.” The judge didn’t look at me.

I let out a breath of relief and stepped out of the witness box. I glanced at Mother as I returned to my seat next to Claudia. She hadn’t taken her eyes off me. The pain writ large on her face aged her, made her seem less of the foreboding matriarch and more of a mortal, soft and breakable. I wanted to cry with her, but I needed to be strong. To stay strong for Adele.

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