Lauren tried to slip through the door quickly while holding out her hand for the folders. "I'll give them to him for you. I don't know when he'll be back and you have other things to do-" She instantly realized her mistake when he shoved through the door before she could close it.
"You little flirt!" he chuckled, trying to look seductive as he pushed her further into the hall so he could shut the door and lock it. "If you wanted to get me alone, you just had to say so!"
She tried to swallow her sudden, sickening sense of fear and look coldly authoritative like her mother did when someone Got Out Of Hand. "Get out of here, now! I swear I'll-"
"You'll what?" Suddenly, she'd been shoved back against the wall of the entryway, knocking the breath out of her. The man in front of her had never been attractive, but now the ugly twist to his mouth and his red, sweating face made Lauren nauseous. "You'll call daddy? Do you think he'll care? Who do you think pays for your fancy fucking house and your fancy fucking education? Managers likeme, bitch! And you need to start showing me some appreciation-"
"GET OUT OF HERE!" Lauren yelled back, "Get OUT or I'll call the cops, you freak-" A hard slap nearly knocked her over and the girl shrieked when Meyer's grabbed her t-shirt and ripped it nearly off her. Now she began to scream in earnest, terrified and trying to fight back but his bulk was already on top of her, crushing her chest and hurting her and then she was crying, trying to keep her knees together when he began yanking at the button to her jeans.
Suddenly his ugly face was yanked away from hers and a spurt of blood came from his temple where he'd been slammed across the face with a huge purse.
"Saia seu porco!"Beatriz, their housekeeper was there, slamming her bag against his head again, making the man let out a thin shriek. "I'm calling the police! Rapist! Bastard!Eu deveria cortar seu pauzinho!"She was still hitting Meyers when the door opened again, her father dropping his briefcase.
"What the hell is going on here! What the hell!" Frank was shouting at everyone, silver head turning as he tried to find the right person to blame. Looking down at his sobbing daughter, jeans wrestled halfway down her knees and pink bra showing under her torn t-shirt, he quickly averted his eyes. "Meyers! What are you doing here!" Lauren was crying so hard, trying to pull on Beatriz's offered sweater that she didn't get much of the conversation. Their housekeeper was holding her own, gesturing furiously at a bleeding Meyers and back at Lauren, still curled up on the floor. Suddenly, Meyers was scuttling out the door and Frank was yelling back at Beatriz to "Shut the hell up and let me think!"
The older woman stared at him furiously before turning to help Lauren up, who was still shaking and trying to pull up her jeans. "He tried to ra- to hurt me and he hit me, Dad! He wanted to-" she stopped for a moment, realizing that she really had been moments away from being raped without Beatriz coming back to pick up something at the house and saving her. "We have to call the police!"
"Don't be an idiot, Lauren!" her father shouted back, putting an arm around her shoulders and steering her rapidly into the kitchen. "Meyers wasn't going to assault you- he just misunderstood your politeness. He thought you were interested and-"
An enraged Beatriz burst into a rapid-fire round of Portuguese and Frank finally shouted over her.
"Is that what you want, Lauren? Imagine what this is going to do for the company's reputation!" Frank's hands were waving wildly as if trying to grasp some sort of persuasive argument out of midair that would make his daughter stop crying. "I'll just get a quote ready for theWall Street Journalwhen they call asking about the rape culture at Atlantic Equities! Your grandfather's company, Lauren! To make your mother go through something like this while she's battling cancer? Really? Do you know what this will DO to her?" He was loosening his tie while he yelled at his daughter. "You know how sick she is- what the chemo is doing to her. How do you think she'll handle THIS?" He whirled and glared at the housekeeper, who still had an arm around Lauren. "We'll take care of this. You go home." When it looked like Beatriz would argue with him, Frank blustered, "I'm her father! I'll handle this!"
When Thomas got home early the next morning, Lauren was cycling through the worst part of the attack again, feeling the man's disgusting hands, his fingers trying to get past her jeans and yanking her hair. "Don't touch- you get off- it- MOM!"
Lauren screamed for a moment as she felt hands try to hold her flailing ones and then she heard her husband's beautiful, soothing voice in her ear. "Shhh, darling. I have you. Shhh... you're safe. I'm here." Thomas heard the words come out of his mouth and wondered at how alien they sounded. Soothing a terrified girl and promising her safety was not his forte, but this was his Lauren, and when she stilled, he wrapped her in his arms and rocked her back and forth, whispering calm assurances and humming gently. When she could sit up, he went to the master bath and fetched her a glass of water, wiping her wet face with a warm washcloth. Settling her back on his lap and stretching out on the bed, still in his suit, Thomas ran his hand up and down her arm until she could talk again.
"Thanks, Thomas. I'm okay now, sorry. Just a nightmare." She smiled anxiously, trying to disarm him. It didn't work.
His eyes were still the color of the frozen sea as Thomas said calmly. "Tell me what Steve Meyers did to you."
"I-" Lauren's mouth gaped open like a fish, trying to think of what to say.
"He hurt you. This is clear. Tell me what happened, Lauren. Don't be afraid."
So, she did, finally looking down at her empty water glass and feeling sick again.
Her husband was silent for a moment. "Frank did not call the police and press charges?"
Lauren laughed bitterly, a harsh sound he'd never heard from her before. "No. He told me he'd fire him and make sure he didn't work in the industry ever again. Frank said..." she angrily pushed back her blonde curls, feeling so incredibly stupid. "Frank said it would kill my mom to think I'd almost been raped and that we had to protect her. That I'd never see Meyers again and he'd take care of it so that Mom wouldn't have the stress. So, I agreed." Clutching the glass so that Thomas removed it, worried she'd crack it and cut herself; Lauren shook her head. "He never fired him. Did he?"
Thomas's voice was emotionless, each word perfectly shaped and enunciated like shards of glass. "Meyers is vice president of the company's South American division. He's been in the position for six years."
Laughing a bit before she started to cry, Lauren gasped, "That would actually be a promotion, you know. In the company? A step up. Frank never fired him, he just moved him out of New York so I wouldn't see him again." Looking over at her husband's utterly still face, she started shaking. "Thomas, he's a monster but- you can't kill him. Please don't kill him. I can't have that on my conscience." Watching him as he took in a deep breath and let it out, Lauren knew that was exactly what he planned to do.
"Sweetheart, has it occurred to you that you are not the first, or the last girl he's hurt?" Thomas ran the back of his hand down her cheek. "Can your conscience bear it if he does this to someone else?"
"That's not fair Thomas! You're-" Lauren leaned back as his beautiful face darkened. "I mean, couldn't you just fire him? Ruin his reputation like Frank said he would? Killing him... I..."
Thomas took another deep breath, setting her down on the mattress gently and rising to remove his jacket and tie. "If that is what you want, I'll do so." Before she could thank him, he added, "Just after I beat him half to death. I will make quite certain he never touches another girl." He looked down at his wide-eyed wife. "It is the least he deserves, and don't pretend to yourself that you don't know that."
When he returned to bed, naked except for a pair of silk boxers, Lauren wondered if Thomas would attempt to soothe her the way he had so many times before. But instead, her mysterious spouse simply gathered her back in his arms and asked, "Can you sleep now?" At her nod, he tucked her head under his chin and rubbed her back until he heard her soft breathing. But Number Two in Jaguar Holdings didn't sleep for several hours later, watching the shadows from the trees outside moving on the white ceiling of their bedroom.
"Saia do porco!"- Portuguese for "Get away from her, you pig!"
"Eu deveria cortar seu pauzinho!"- Portuguese for "I should cut your tiny dick off!"
This is so important:if someone has forced you to perform a sexual act against your will - even if they just attempted it - it is not your fault. You did nothing wrong and you deserve help and support. The Sexual Assault helpline here in the US is: 1-800-656-4673
