Page 138 of Wicked Sin

“So, we finally meet Taylor.”

“Yep.”

“She’s beautiful.”

“The most beautiful woman in the world to me.”

A thoughtful expression crosses her face. “She’s been through a lot.”

“Yep.”

Ma tilts her head to the side. “Are you going to stick with her through the rest of her journey?”

My mother slays me. She doesn’t worry about the impact of Taylor’s history on me. No, she’s smarter than that. She wants to make sure that I’m going to do what I promise.

“I’m going to stick with her for the rest of my life, Ma.”

She beams. “Good boy. Your father would be proud of you.”

I exhale roughly, and she squeezes my knee. “Worried about that conversation a bit?”

“Little bit.”

“Don’t be. We’re going to love her just as much as you do.”

Second Epilogue

Taylor

Three months later

My hands shakeas I open Melinda’s email.

Here’s the direct link.

It’ll go live on the site in the morning.

Thank you for sharing your story with me and trusting me to tell it right.

As I click on it, my head spins. Like maybe this was a complete mistake. But it’s done, and either it will make waves, or it won’t.

Either way, I know my own truth. I know I am good, and loved, and safe. For the first time in my life, I have a home, a lover, and best of all, a true friend.

Before I read the article, I go back to my email and forward it to Hailey and Ali. And I grin. That’s another truth I know about myself. I lost a trust fund and re-gained a sister. I’m definitely on the right track.

The Art of Self-Forgiveness: Confessions of a Former Party Girl

By Melinda Gray

All names and locations in this article have been changed at the request of Clara*, not to protect herself, but to center this story on the things that happened to her, and the the things she did to others.

* not her real name

Clara doesn’t like the title for this article. She makes a rueful smile when I scribble it across the notebook open between us in a diner well off Broadway. She likes New York City because of the anonymity she has here. She also likes the distance it gives her from her family on the west coast.

She does not like talking about herself, or reporters who get too nosy about her past.

Born into wealth, she knows she’s never experienced real hardship. It’s the first thing she says to me, to minimize the angle I keep pushing for this article: that she is a survivor of lifelong trauma. That her trauma led her to hurt others.

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