Page 17 of Our Cracked Pieces
“Dad-”
“I don’t give a fuck that he’s a cop,” he said to no one in particular, and that’s when I knew I was losing him. Dad didn’t curse like this. Dad was the type of man who set the example. Mom was the one with the fiery temper, it’s where Grayson got his fierceness from, but I think the woman in her was identifying with what this has done to me, and heartache was trumping her temper right now.
I felt Grayson stand up from behind me. “I’ll do it,” he volunteered, and that’s when Mom finally snapped out of her heartbreak.
She stood up and grabbed my father by his shoulders, putting his pacing to a halt. “I agree he needs to die, but Rowan comes first,” she said. “Right now, we need to focus on the repercussions of what the girls did and protect them from the fallout.” Her hands cupped his face. “Rowan also needs help, Stanley. She needs us tohelpher.” Looking over at my brother, she repeated herself. “Rowan needs us, Grayson.Herfeelings are what matter right now.”
It broke my heart to see the two men I loved most in the world deflate with their inability to avenge me. Men were fixers. They were doers. They were protectors. And I had snuck through their masculine need to provide and protect and let myself get caught up in something terrible.
But Mom was right. While I was a victim in all this, I didn’t want to take the girls down with me, and I needed my dad to do what he could to protect them from what we’d done. There was also the glaring fact that it was my word against Officer Connors’, and who was going to believe me over a cop.
“Mom, Dad?” They both looked over at me. “It’s…it’ll be my word against his,” I pointed out. “And who’s going to believe me over a cop?”
The entire room went still at that.
Dad finally came and sat down next to me, his hand squeezing the shit out of my knee. “Sometimes, you have to look past the winning to see the point of it all,” he said. “Even if we lose, you still made him have to answer for his actions.Publicly.”
“I’m so sorry, Da-”
“Stop it, Rowan,” he said fiercely. “You didn’t do anything wrong. You made a teenage mistake, like a million other teenagers around the world, that’s it.”
“Can…can you two give us a moment?” my mother asked of my father and brother, and though you could see it tearing them up to grant her request, they still did it. Quietly filing out of the living room, they left me and Mom to talk.
She sat down where Dad had been sitting, and her blue eyes were filled with so much emotion, it was kind of hard to look at her. “If you go through with pressing charges, you’re going to have to share your experience with strangers, Rowan. You understand that, right?” I nodded. “But before we get to that, I want to ask you something that I didn’t feel should be asked in front of your father and brother. I’m not sure they can handle it right now.” I nodded again. “You said it’s your word against his, but…is there anything about your experience that…there’s no way you could know unless you’re telling the truth?”
At first, I was confused about what she was asking, but as I mulled her words over in my head, I finally understood what she was asking. She was asking if there was anything identifiable about him that I’d only know from what he’s made me do.
And there was.
Chapter 12
Lorcan~
Ihad left school, and as soon as I had gotten home, I had texted the guys to let them know I was okay, and I’d talk to them later. I knew what happened would be all over the school by now, and I didn’t want the guys worrying.
I had also sent Molly a text, telling her the same, but I expected her home any moment now. Since Molly couldn’t beat up a pregnant girl, her only other option was to come check up on me. Because, trust me, if Vanessa weren’t pregnant, Molly would be in jail right now.
Now, I was in our home gym, trying to work out everything I still had left in my raging blood. Had the teachers not pulled me off Mr. Hostettler, I was sure I would have killed him. I wouldn’t have stopped hitting him until I’d dispelled all my rage, and with my blood still boiling the way it was, he would have been dead before I had settled down.
How could I have been so fucking blind?
I’d see the signs, but I never imagined, in a million years, that Vanessa would be fucking a teacher. A married one, at that. While I had suspected the cheating, I never suspected she would have gotten wrapped up in screwing a married man.
And the fucking pregnancy, Jesus Christ. I had believed her wholeheartedly when she had told me the baby was mine. That fucking bitch had let me hold her and comfort her and make fucking promises to her, knowing the entire time that the baby wasn’t mine. Hell, from what I had overheard, she was doing a lot more than fucking Mr. Hostettler, she believed he was going to leave his wife and kids for her. She believed they were in a forever-kind of relationship. While I had been trying to come up with ways to make our long-distance relationship work, she had been planning a life with her married teacher.
How fucking stupid was I?
Even suspecting that she was cheating, I still gave Vanessa the benefit of the doubt because I’d had no proof. Even knowing that my feelings weren’t as strong as they should be, after all this time dating her, I still wasn’t going to toss away a two-year relationship frivolously. That wasn’t how I worked. I believed in loyalty and commitment. I believed if someone was worth your love they were worth the effort.
Until they proved that they weren’t anymore.
“Lorcan!”
I kept hitting the punching bag because I knew it wouldn’t be long before Molly found me. This was always my go-to when my temper was threatening to drown me. And I’ve been to enough anger management counselors to know that I needed an outlet for my anger.
I always would.
I stopped the bag from swinging as soon as Molly came rushing inside the gym. “Lorcan, oh, Christ,” she rushed out. “Are you okay?” Poor thing looked so worried. “What the hell happened?”
