Page 49 of Healed
Shaun nodded.
“It just kind of slipped out.”
“Is it true?” he asked.
Bailey hesitated, but eventually nodded. “It is. I’m a little afraid to admit it, because I’m gun shy after all, well, you know. But yeah, it’s true. I just still need a little time. Is that okay?”
“It’s more than okay. I’m perfectly content to wait until you’re ready to shout it from the rooftops. Then you better coveryour ears, though. Because I’m going to make sure the entire parish can hear it. I want their ears to ring with its echo!”
Bailey smiled at him again. “Good. Because I’m expecting to hear it loud and clear myself.”
Chapter 9
Daisy looked across the table at Charlie. “I’m sorry, I’ve been talking about me all afternoon.”
“That’s exactly what I wanted to talk about,” Charlie said with a grin.
Daisy smiled and shook her head with a soft sigh.
“Seriously, though, we didn’t just talk about you. I told you all about me, and about Carson. We’ve just been getting to know each other.”
“True,” she agreed. “But now that you know I’m so broken I allowed my married professor to gaslight me, and then his psycho wife to chase me back home rather than standing up to her and finishing my last couple of classes to get my degree, you can run screaming from the restaurant now. I fully understand.”
Charlie laughed. “Not scaring me off that easily.”
“You sure? This is your opportunity to exit stage left and not get any flack at all from me. I’ll even call my cousin to come get me instead of you having to drive me home.”
“Honestly, the only question is why didn’t you file a complaint when you found out he was still married after conducting an ongoing affair with you?”
“I was embarrassed. I felt humiliated. I should have known. I should have picked up on the cues that indicated what a lie it all was. Instead I was blissfully discounting any doubt I had because I thought I’d finally found someone to love me. To appreciate me, the socially awkward, quiet, homebody, for who I really was. He said he admired my creativity, that I was kind and loving, and that he saw beauty in me that he’d never seen before.” She looked down at her hands folded neatly in her lap just beyond the table’s edge. “I guess I just wanted that so badlythat I bought it hook, line and sinker. Then his wife showed up screeching at me everywhere I went, making it quite clear that not only had he lied to me, but that I wasn’t the only one. And I do mean everywhere… my dorm, my classes, the library, everywhere I went on campus and off, there was a ninety percent chance she’d arrive at any moment and begin shrieking ‘whore’ and ‘home wrecker’ at the top of her lungs. She even went so far as to start telling anyone who was present that I’d seduced her husband and had sex with him in her bed. Which I did not do! He seduced me! And we never went to his house.”
“You should have called the police and filed harassment charges. At the very least campus security.”
“I couldn’t. I felt like to a degree I deserved what she was doing. I should have been smart enough to not just take his word for it. I should have checked out his story. I should have paid more attention and I should have believed the little voice in my head telling me to listen, to feel, to scent him! But I didn’t. I just let my need for acceptance, for love, make me fall for everything.”
“You can’t fault yourself for him being a douche bag. You’re too kind to assume people are bad, but people are bad, Daisy.”
“If I’d filed reports, there would have been no way to keep it from my family. They’d have found out, and if they found out, I’d have not even had home to return to.”
“What do you mean? I can’t believe they’d not have allowed you to come home if you needed to.”
“Oh, they would. They’d have most likely come and gotten me. But I’d have never been able to face them. I still live in fear that they’ll find out and be so disappointed in me.”
“Daisy, there’s no way you could have known.”
“But that’s the thing, Charlie. There’s everything about me that screams that I should have known. I still don’t know how I didn’t know. But I didn’t.”
“It’s okay,” he said, reaching out to her. “This professor… what’s his name?”
“Bourne.”
“This Professor Bourne obviously took advantage of other young women. He knew what he was doing. He deserves to have his life yanked out from under him.”
Daisy lifted her hand and laid it on the table so he could touch her, like he was so obviously trying to do.
Charlie laid his hand over the top of hers. “If you ever want to go that route, I’ll be honored to stand beside you through it all.”
“I don’t know if I could. I’m still having panic attacks from it.”
