“She threatened to tell the whole school. She threatened to tell our parents. I was terrified. I begged him to fix this. If our parents found out, I’d never see the light of day again. They’d ship me somewhere overseas, for sure. Shane was so calm. He told me not to worry. That nobody would believe her.”
“Did she tell?”
Thomas watched the flames dance in the fireplace, giving a stilted shake of his head. “No. She never really got the chance. Shane trashed her credibility before she could ever even think to start spreading rumors. He said he’d dumped her for another girl and she was just trying to get even. That she’d threatened to ruin his reputation. He did a good job of making sure nobody believed the truth. Which was why nobody believed her when she said he assaulted her. Not even me.”
“Assaulted…”
Thomas downed the rest of his glass. “Yes. She claimed he raped her in her dorm room.”
“Did he?”
“Probably,” Thomas said. “I-I didn’t believe her at the time. He’d never forced himself on me. Not really, anyway. Guilted, coerced, manipulated, yes. But straight up forced…no. I convinced myself she was just mad that he’d broken up with her, that she was mad he chose me. That made it easier for me to stay in my denial. After that, it was just the two of us again. Sex seemed a small price to pay for his undivided attention.”
Thomas snuck a glance at Aiden, who was quietly seething, his mouth a hard line, his jaw tensed.
“It was a long time ago, Aiden.”
“He took advantage of you. You were a little kid.”
Thomas shook his head. “We were both kids. Honestly, if it had just ended there, it might not have been so bad. Just a future therapy bill. If my parents had just left well enough alone, things probably would have turned out much differently.”
Aiden’s gaze jerked to his. “Your parents found out?”
“No.” Thomas shrugged. “Well, maybe. We don’t know what happened, but our parents stopped speaking. No more joint parties, shared vacations, family holidays. Nothing. My father said I was no longer to speak to Shane in school. That for all intents and purposes, that part of the family was dead to us.”
“No explanation given?”
Thomas shook his head. “Our families didn’t really feel the need to explain themselves. They just expected to be obeyed. But I was in way too deep with Shane. He was the only thing I had in the world. The only person who loved me. At least, that was what he said anyway. That he loved me. I didn’t believe him, but I wanted the words just the same. I was desperate for them.”
“With a family like yours, you were a perfect target for someone like him.”
Thomas tried to smile but failed. “My father had spies everywhere. It only took a couple of weeks before he realized that Shane and I were still…friends. He dragged me back home, locked me in my room for my entire spring break, and said if he found us together again, he’d send me to boarding school in Switzerland. In my head, it was all veryRomeo and Juliet.”
“Did you…stop seeing Shane?” Aiden asked carefully.
Thomas shook his head. “No…” he managed. “I—”
“You what?”
He set in motion the events that would change the course of his life forever. He planted seeds that would eventually grow the most poisonous fruit. He inadvertently made the worst decision he’d ever made in his entire fucking life. He…
“I killed them,” he managed, voice raw.
It was a gross oversimplification of a nightmare. But it was true nonetheless. For better or worse, Thomas had killed his family. And it all started with what came next.
He could feel Aiden’s gaze boring into him. “What does that mean, Tommy?”
Thomas could feel his panic trying to climb its way up his throat, making his words stick until he felt like he’d choke on them. “I was mad. Furious. I didn’t mean it.”
“Mean what?”
Thomas ignored him, just trying to get it all out. “I’d just come off two weeks of what was essentially solitary confinement. I hadn’t heard or seen another person in days and days. No television. No radio. Not even books. I was going out of my mind. Completely cut off from the world.”
“What happened?” Aiden prodded.
Thomas shook his head. “I hated them. I need you to know that. I hated my parents more than anything in the world. But I loved my siblings. We weren’t close. My parents wouldn’t allow it, but I loved them. I didn’t blame them. But I also never excluded them from my wrath either.”
“What wrath?”
