His voice is so firm that I don’t stop to think. Instead, I enter the communal workspace and delete the documents.
“Done.” I check the log. “No one has downloaded anything.” I lean back and then grimace. “But doing this won’t help. They’ll exclude me from the project and destroy me in the peer evals.”
“No, they won’t.” His tone suggests that my worry is laughable, but he doesn’t know my two pampered and misogynist group members like I do.
“I know you’re very popular, but these guys won’t care about that. They’ve got huge egos, and they’re not used to being humiliated. Threatening violence will probably just get you reported to campus police or Granthorpe administration.”
“You think so?” His tone is mild as his brow quirks like he can’t imagine it.
“I do. Guys like that—they’ll never let this go. Remember the way you and Declan destroyed me socially in high school? The way no upperclassmen would speak to me or look at me?” My voice falters and trails off. The corner of my mouth tugs down and, inwardly, I cringe. I do not want to revisit that topic.
He watches me. His face is impassive as if he’s unmoved, but his shoulders square.
“When guys with power get angry, it never ends well,” I say.
Shane’s brows rise again. “In high school, you got what you deserved.”
“I didnot. My mom made a mistake. That she regretted by the way. But you were furious, and you ruined my life at that school because of it.”
“Your mom was the only one who made a mistake?” His eyes cut into me. “No.” His tone is measured, but a deep frown appears. “And for the record, I never said anything to anyone.”
“Well, Declan certainly did then,” I say softly. “People didn’t stop speaking to me overnight for no reason.”
“You should have told the truth. Right when your mother accused me.”
I wince. “I didn’t know the truth. I blacked out and woke up naked. I didn’t know what happened to me.”
“You sure as hell knew I hadn’t had sex with you. You were a goddamned virgin back then. You’d have known if a guy shoved his dick in you. Even if you couldn’t remember the details, you’d have been able to tell.”
“I felt sore all over that morning.”
“From a hangover. Sore muscles from dancing on tables and around the basement. Not sore between your legs.”
“It was my first hangover. I was innocent and dumb! And I never accused you of anything.”
“No, you didn’t. You stayed silent while she accused me. You let it go on. She called the fucking police.”
His fury and frustration rams into me like fists, until I can’t breathe.
“Itoldher I didn’t think you had.”
“When?”
“When she and I were alone in the bathroom. I tried to tell her to hold on until we could figure things out.”
“So you say now.”
“I’m not lying.”
“What I know is that you disappeared to the second floor, the princess’s tower, and left me to twist. After the cops talked to you, they seemed more convinced than ever that I was guilty.”
“Shane, no—”
“I was proven innocent by video footage. Which existed because your bitch of a mother made my own fucking father distrust me so much he had cameras stashed all over the basement.” He grinds his teeth, and then adds, “Security cameras, my ass. He was watching me. Even after I let them run me out of my own goddamned room, so you could have it and we wouldn’t be on same floor. I lived in the basement for a year, but it wasn’t enough.”
My throat is tight as I swallow. I can’t believe I’m finally getting to have this conversation with him. He usually immediately shuts down any discussion of the past.
“She’s really overprotective, Shane. She was scared and irrational that morning from the shock of finding me that way.”
