Holland guided me to the couch. She sat close and kept her hand on my arm. I didn’t mind her touch because it helped with the ache in me.
She grabbed the remote and scrolled until she found some random movie I didn’t recognize. She didn’t ask if I liked it, but I didn’t care what was played. She clicked play, then looked at me.
“You’re safe,” she told me as she studied my face. “You’re here. Nobody can touch you here.”
I nodded, but the knot in my chest didn’t move. Holland kept talking, reassuring me with her soft and honest words.
“You did nothing wrong. You didn’t cause this. You didn’t ask for it. What they did was illegal. It was sick. Callan knowsthat. Rocco knows that. I know that. You’re surrounded by people who care about you.”
“She’s right,” Rocco said as he came into the living room. “We’ve never really talked, but I’ve always liked you.”
I looked up at him with a tight smile. “Thanks, Rocco.”
“You don’t deserve any of this,” he continued. “You’re a good person. Anyone can see that. What they did says everything about them and nothing about you.” He was careful with every word. Holland glanced at him, then looked back at me with a small nod, like she agreed with every part of what he said.
“Nobody is going to judge you,” Holland said, her hand squeezing mine.
I held her gaze for a second. “I know. I just feel…stuck.”
“That’s normal,” Rocco said, and I snapped my head back to him. “Just know that this feeling is temporary.”
Temporary. I held on to that word and took a deep breath, trying to calm myself down. Their words were what kept me sane, but all the hopeful thinking made me tired. With Rocco going back into the kitchen to finish cleaning up, and Holland keeping her hand holding mine tightly, I let the tiredness finally take over.
I let myself sink into the cushions. Holland shifted so I could lean against her shoulder if I needed to. I wasn’t sure when my eyes started to close, but I just let it happen. I shifted again and curled slightly toward Holland, and without missing a beat, she let me rest my head on her lap.
“She’s falling asleep,” I heard her whisper a few minutes later.
“Good. Let her.” Rocco’s were the last words I heard before I fell asleep.
I woke up in my bed the next morning, unsure how I got there. But before I could wonder about that too much, mymind immediately went to the video. It hit me the moment consciousness returned in a wave of shame. My eyes snapped open, and I stared up at the ceiling for a long time, just listening to the silence surrounding me.
My mind kept replaying the scene on Karlee’s phone, and their nasty grins on their faces as they showed me. My body went rigid, and I shut my eyes tightly to push every thought of them out of my head. When I heard faint voices coming from downstairs, I sat up and rubbed my face with both hands before getting out of bed. I headed into the bathroom first, needing to splash cold water on my face, then I went downstairs, unsure who would all be there.
I hadn’t seen Callan since he left last night, and I wasn’t sure if I could face him again. I missed him, but something in me was still being careful. I was trusting him to fix this, because he had promised me he would, but I couldn’t believe it until everything truly settled.
I saw Holland’s back first, standing by the stove. She had changed out of her dress from last night and was now wearing my clothes. Her hair was pulled back into a messy ponytail, and she moved efficiently in front of the stove, preparing breakfast.
Callan and Rocco stood by the kitchen island, their backs turned to me, and their heads lowered as they looked at something in front of them. From the clicking noises I heard, I guessed that it was a laptop.
I stood there for a moment, not saying anything, but just watching them. The scene looked so peaceful, as if this were normal. I let it settle for a moment, listening to Callan’s low voice as he explained something to Rocco who nodded slowly.
Without seeing his face, Callan seemed exhausted. He was wearing the same clothes he had on yesterday, and his body looked tense. His shoulders were slumped, and his overall posture showed me how tired he was.
Had he been up all night? Surely, he would’ve come to bed if he’d come back shortly after I fell asleep.
“You did the right thing,” Rocco said, lifting his hand and giving Callan’s back a quick pat. “But you could have come back here. You didn’t have to stay all night, man.”
“No, I couldn’t,” Callan replied, lifting his head. “I wasn’t leaving until I filed the report. I needed them to know I was serious. I needed it on paper. They have a detective assigned to the cybercrimes unit. They’re serving them both with a subpoena this morning.”
Holland turned from the stove, her expression hard and serious. She slid a mound of scrambled eggs onto a plate. “And what does that actually mean?” she asked. “What happens next?”
“They have a legal right to seize all their electronics,” Callan explained. “It means they’ll formally interview them, and it’s now an official criminal investigation.”
I kept standing in the doorway, listening and observing their conversation that was about me.
When Holland turned around again, she saw me standing there. Her expression immediately softened, and after putting the pan in the sink, she came over to give me a hug. “Hey, how are you feeling?”
I hugged her back and closed my eyes for a moment. “Fine.”
