Page 138 of Shattered

A part of her knew that wasn’t the entire story.

She knew Callum now. If she were a betting person, she would bet that she knew him better than any other person in his life, and she just didn’t see him as the type to try to beat up another person just for dating his sister. But, then again, she’d never truly had an older brother, so she wasn’t really sure what that dynamic was like.

“Callum, just tell me. At this point, based on the amount of hatred between you two, I know it's not just about me. There is something else there that you aren’t saying.”

“I promised her I would never speak of it again. Truthfully, the records are sealed, and I planned to never see him ever again. I thought that chapter was over.”

Sam rolled her eyes. “You’re speaking in code. Please just say it.”

He looked up at her then. “I need to be honest with you

about something first.”

She nodded her head, unsure of where he was taking this. “Okay.”

“I knew about your past before you told me.”

Her body physically recoiled.

“What?”

He quickly shook his head when the words had officially hit her. “Wait. I said that wrong. Not the whole thing. I didn’t know about what happened to you, I just knew you grew up in the foster care system.” He rushed the confession.

She took a step back and cocked her head to the side in confusion. She wasn’t sure whether she was more angry, confused, or impressed. She’d kept that lifelong secret guarded better than most could.

“How?”

“I know Christian. I know he was a foster kid, and since you mentioned that you two were lifelong best friends, I just put two and two together. It wasn’t confirmed until you told me, but I had a suspicion that was at least in part what you were hiding. I just didn’t want to force it out of you or embarrass you and tell you I already knew. I wanted you to tell me when you were ready.”

She was definitely impressed with the deduction he had made.

She took a deep breath. “That doesn’t explain why you hate him?”

“No. I guess it doesn’t.” His hand made another path through his hair, which Sam now recognized as a nervous habit of his. “He met my younger sister Amelia, Millie, while they were in highschool. He was seventeen, she had just turned fifteen. They were friends, if you could call it that. I think they just kind of knew each other and hung out periodically when they happened to run into each other at school events. Anyway, there was a basketball game between his school and hers. They saw each other, and he made a move. She let him know she didn’t see him in that light. He initially was okay with it, but then they saw each other that night at a party. All I know is that the mom whose kid hosted the party found Millie lying in thebushes when she walked out the next morning to get the paper. Millie was completely incoherent and there was blood. She was covered in bruises and vomit. But the thing is, Millie doesn’t drink. Ever. I’m not just saying that or being naive or anything. Millie is thedefinitionof a rule follower. So anyway, they immediately took her to the hospital, and after, she woke up and pieced it all together—well, what she could remember—and then, with the lab results and footage from the security cameras at that house, we figured out that Christian had drugged and raped her.”

Sam was absolutely frozen. She saw Callum look up at her, but she wasn’t sure she could form words.

There were very few times in Sam’s life in which she’d felt utter shock. Now was one of them. Her heartbeat picked up and then it slowed. Her hands became clammy and then her throat felt too tight.

“They had it all on video. And the idiot still had the fucking pills in his pocket when they picked him up later that day. He was arrested, and then, because he had no family to bond him out, he stayed in juvie for the better part of six months while we waited for the trial. His defense played the card of a tough life and blah blah blah. Anyway, because it was his first offense and he had good grades and was a supposed good guy, he got off with time served. I think he had his eighteenth birthday in the middle of the trial. All I knew is they released him and he moved into a shitty motel for a few months with some girl until he started college. I now know you were that girl.”

Sam stood then, if only by pure will alone, and promptly walked straight to the bathroom where she proceeded to vomit up everything in her stomach for the next five minutes. She was vaguely aware of Callum coming in and pulling her hair out of the way.

When she finally stopped, he lifted her up from the floor and carried her back to bed. Then he brought her a glass of water and rubbed her back in soothing circles.

“That’s why he lost his scholarship.” She wasn’t sure why that was the first thing to come out of her mouth, but how could anything have made sense in the moments after her entire view of life had been shattered into a million tiny pieces.

“What?”

“He won the same funding as I did, but he lost it right before college started. He said it was due to poor grades his senior year.” She closed her eyes and tried to steady her breathing.

Callum reached out to hold her hand and began drawing little circles there. “Honestly, I didn’t think you would believe me. I had this whole speech planned out in case you didn’t.”

“There is a small part of me that doesn’t, but then again I know you wouldn’t lie to me.”

“I wouldneverlie to you.”

His mouth kept moving. He kept talking, but she didn’t hear the words. There was a deafening silence that consumed her. In that silence, she found the truth. She ran through every memory of his time away, every memory of the days, weeks, months after he had returned. She thought about how she’d suddenly not been allowed to watch the news, or how when he came back, her foster father wouldn’t allow him in the house to visit. It was why she had lied and snuck away to the dilapidated playground two neighborhoods over to meet him. It all made sense.

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