“I reached for him, sobbing, begging.” My shoulders slump. I feel exhausted, as if I ripped open the wounds that have never really healed. “He shook me off like I was something filthy. Then he stormed off that porch, leaving me standing there with my heart in pieces and the whole town ready to grind me into dust.”
Joy grips my hand fiercely.
Aria’s voice is steel and sorrow all at once. “Sons of bitches, all of them. And even now, Cade walks around likeyouwronged him?”
Joy’s eyes darken. “What a douchebag!”
I bob my head in agreement. “No shit! I thought Cade would believe me. He was my safe place. My first. My only. But when I told him, he just…stared at me like I was dirt under his boot. He’d decided to believe Landon even before he talked to me.”
Now that the floodgates are open, I spill everything.
I tell them how my own father didn’t believe me. He said I’d embarrassed him, ruined our name. He called me a liar to my face.
How the deputy told me to stop lying and to not to stir up trouble. There was no hospital, no rape kit, nothing. Just whispers that grew louder every day until I couldn’t walk down Main Street without hearing them.
“I left because I had no choice,” I murmur. “If I stayed, I wouldn’t have survived…Cade’s hatred or the shame that felt like it lived under my skin.”
Joy’s eyes shimmer with unshed tears. “I don’t knowhow you carried that alone. You’re stronger than anyone I know.”
Aria cups my face. “Listen to me, Sarah. This wasn’t and isn’t your shame. It’s theirs. Landon’s. And Cade’s. And this town’s for swallowing the lie. But not yours.”
“I know. That’s why I came back,” I admit.
CHAPTER 9
cade
The road home unspools in front of me, headlights cutting through the dark.
My hands tighten on the wheel as Pony’s words from the Rusty Spur replay over and over.
She was always a slut.
I wanted to knock the bastard’s teeth down his throat.
But the anger isn’t only at him. It’s at me, too. I’ve said the same cruel things to her—right to her face, behind her back—and yet I flare up when someone else says them as if I’m the only one allowed to be vicious to Sarah.
And what gives me that right? That was ten years ago….
I hear Maverick then, his voice sharp as a branding iron. “This ain’t 2015 anymore, Cade. It’s 2025. We believe women now as we should’ve then.”
But that’s the thing. Ididbelieve. I believed my brother.
Unease swamps me as I recall Kaz’s warning.
Is Mav right? Am I repeating an old story like it’s new evidence?
But it’s not a story—not something manufactured. I was there. It happened.
“She’s been hittin’ on me for months, so don’t blame me because…we both were drunk, alright?” Landon wears an armor of wounded indignation. It’s his special skill.
“I don’t care. You fucked my girlfriend, Landon. How could you?”
“She wanted it. Asked me again and again. I…I know it’s wrong, but what the fuck did you want me to do when she stood naked, asking me to see if her pussy was?—”
I hit him. His lip splits, and he goes down on his knees. He doesn’t fight back, just says, “I’ll always regret this, brother…but she’s not worth us fightin’.”
He looks at me with pity, like he’s the one with the moral high ground.
