“Yeah.”
“And Perry would photograph it?”
“Yeah.”
“Chase—
“I know! Please don’t turn on me.”
“I’m not. This isn’t your fault.”
“It is. And now Haley is pregnant by me, and it’s my fault. We were into it the first few times and liked it. Then he started getting too pushy and touchy, and things got weird. We told him we didn’t want to do it anymore and just wanted to model shoes and clothes. He said if we didn’t continue, he’d release the pictures online and the negative press would not only wreck our careers, but Haley’s mom’s and Hollis’ too. So we went along with it.”
“Did this guy put his hands on you and Haley?”
I could feel Chase nod against my side.
“Did he do anything else to either of you?” I asked him before I had enough smarts to end the questioning.
“He showed me how to position myself and stuff. But sometimes I volunteered instead of him using her.”
Fuck. Yeah, Hollis is going to kill someone. I took a deep breath and was glad I was sitting down with him because when his folks and Hollis found out … oh my God.
“Chase, you can always come to me. You could have told me, and I would have gotten you out of that mess and away from that sleaze.”
“I wanted to model, though. I wanted to be good at something. Morgan and Hollis have so much going for them, and I didn’t want to be the fucked up spazz brother who couldn’t do anything.”
I swallowed hard and squeezed his shoulder. I rubbed his arm over the scratchy hospital gown.
“Not that way, Chase. No one has a right to make you do things by manipulating you. No one has a right to touch you and do God knows what.”
“I was tired of being in everyone’s shadow and tried to make it work.”
“You’re not in Hollis or Morgan’s shadow.”
“I just want to die.”
“No, you don’t, Chase.”
“I do.”
“You don’t. I was just like you. Different circumstances, but a lot of the same. I had wanted to die several times before I moved in with you guys. I even attempted to kill myself.”
“You tried to end it all too?”
“I did, yes.”
He was quiet for a few minutes as I remembered back to the times I tried to put an end to all of my suffering, but couldn’t completely go through with it.
“What made you change your mind?” he asked.
“Your brother.” I took a deep breath. “Hollis changed my mind. I couldn’t imagine not seeing him anymore.”
I looked up when Charles appeared at the foot of the bed. He looked like he’d aged many years during his drive over, stress and worry marring his features. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to get a call from an emergency room saying any of his children were in the hospital. Charles’ shoulders relaxed a bit when he saw Chase. Seeing that he was alive probably alleviated a lot of stress.
“Chase…” Charles said, swallowing back the unease in his voice as he hurried to Chase’s bedside.
He sat on the opposite side of the bed and tugged Chase into his arms. Chase went willingly and hid his face against his dad’s chest. Charles held a hand on the back of Chase’s head, cradling him as if he were a delicate piece of glass. And I didn’t doubt for a moment that Chase was very delicate right now. I worried about everything that might be uncovered with this fucking asshole Perry once things settled and his parents started digging.
