Page 93 of Obsession (Temptation 4)

Lachlan

“So Ethan is Nick’s son? Not Dax?” I asked, struggling to put the pieces together.

Lucy nodded. “They both are. Born four years apart.”

“The incident report...” I glanced at Agent Curran before looking back at Lucy. “During Ethan’s ‘investigation’,” I said, using air quotes, “he found a complaint you made about an assault that occurred when you both attended Brown. It had Nick’s signature all over it. Nine months later, Dax was born. Is—”

“Yes. Daxton is also Nick’s son. But while Domenic…Ethan was born out of something beautiful, Dax was not.”

“What happened?” I asked. “Other than the obvious.”

“After my graduation party, my parents pretty much forced me to stay in the house all summer, not allowing me off the property unless there was some engagement that required a happy, perfect family.” She rolled her eyes. “Keep in mind, this was over thirty years ago. Long before cell phones, text messages, and email.”

Imogene’s jaw dropped at the mere thought of life without all the modern conveniences.

“So it wasn’t like Nick and I could just follow each other on social media and stay in touch. There was no such thing. So I went away to Brown, thinking I’d never see him again.”

“But he enrolled there, as well,” Julia stated.

“In the PhD program for Humanities. So when I was walking through campus one day and saw him, I almost didn’t believe it. It left me…stunned.”

“Did he recognize you?” I asked.

“He did.” She drew in a breath. “But I pretended he meant nothing to me. That I simply used him so he’d convince my parents my tutoring sessions were going well.” Her chin quivered as she swept away the tears flowing down her cheeks. “I don’t know why I lied to him. Maybe because every time I saw him, I also saw the baby I had ripped from me. It hurt.”

“Was he aware of the baby?” Julia asked.

Lucy lowered her eyes, subtly shaking her head. “So I did everything to avoid him. To make him want to stay as far away from me as possible. Even joining in on the ridiculing he got from other students on campus.

“I could see how much it hurt him. He even approached me one day, begged me to look him in the eyes and swear that what we had wasn’t real. That the love I once claimed to have for him wasn’t real. It took everything I had to deny him. To walk away and declare I didn’t feel anything for him.

“I saw what it did to him. How it transformed him into a different person. Yet I didn’t care.

“Then one day, during the spring semester of my senior year, I was in the library with a fellow student working on a research paper. As we looked through the stacks of books, I noticed Nick watching me from a distance. I don’t know why I did it. It was so immature. But I wanted to prove I was over him. That I never had feelings for him. So I pulled my classmate toward one of the private microfiche rooms, making sure to keep the door open just slightly, and we, well… You know.”

“Did Nick see?” Julia asked.

“He did. The entire time, I kept my eyes locked on his. The hurt in his expression…” She shook her head, voice catching. “It was heartbreaking.” She grabbed a tissue from the box on the coffee table and dabbed at her eyes, collecting herself before continuing her story.

“That night, I agreed to go with some friends to Open Mic at a coffee shop around the corner from campus.”

“Let me guess,” I said with a sympathetic smile. “Nick was there.”

She nodded. “Halfway through the night, I couldn’t take being in the same place as him, so I headed back to my apartment on campus.”

“And the next thing you knew, you woke up with blood between your legs,” I stated.

“Actually, I remember the whole thing.”

I furrowed my brows. “But—”

“I said in my statement that I felt dizzy at Open Mic, then didn’t remember anything after that because I didn’t want to name Nick. If I did, everything would come out and he’d learn the truth. That I’d given birth to our child.”

“Then why make a statement at all? Why lie?”

“I guess I hoped maybe if I made some sort of statement, he’d realize what he did was wrong and wouldn’t do it again.” She blinked back tears. “I never could have imagined he’d take my version of events and turn it into a how-to manual for assaulting women under the guise of ‘freeing them’, as he claimed.”

Julia reached across the coffee table, grasping her hand and squeezing. “It’s not your fault. I know how you feel. I spent the past seven years blaming myself for not doing more to stop Nick from harming all those women. Now I know. He would have carried out these acts regardless of anything we may or may not have done to stop him.”

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