While everyone was thrilled about Kelsey’s pregnancy, she had been traveling between Colorado and Boston, and everywhere in between, during the hockey season.
“No news on a trade?”
“I don’t think Tom is in a position to negotiate. To be honest, the contract negotiations confuse me. I’m glad that Sam had his settled before we met.”
And I was thankful that a negotiation with my brother-in-law wasn’t on the horizon. I wouldn’t want to be involved, and neither would Jonathan.
“Why couldn’t you find a restaurant with valet parking?” I asked, circling the block for the fifth time, trying to find a spot on the street.
“What’s wrong with that spot right there?” Kelsey asked.
Ducking my head in embarrassment, I felt my cheeks go warm. “I don’t know how to park this thing.”
“There’s a lot over there. Just pull in.” Kylie pointed out the lot with plenty of available spots.
“It’s $50.”
“Girl, you’re driving a G-Wagon. Pay the $50. Besides, you don’t want to make your pregnant sisters waddle around town, do you?”
We all waddled out of dinner because we had all indulged every craving my two sisters had. I dropped them off and then headed home. Looking forward to decompressing with Jonathan after a long fucking day.
When I opened the door, I dropped the keys and placed my purse on the chair, surprised to find it dark. Huh, he would have told me if he were staying late or stopping somewhere after work.
My eyes were drawn to the movement across the room, and I found him sitting in the dark and staring into space.
“J—are you okay?”
“No.” One simple word, but it carried the weight of what sounded like absolute torment.
I rushed over to him, sat on the edge of the coffee table, and took in his red-rimmed eyes.
“What happened?” I heard the quiver in my voice, revealing the fear I wanted to hide from him.
He gestured to his phone, without watching as I picked it up. “What am I looking at?”
The screen had been cracked since I’d last seen him. If Jonathan had been angry enough to throw his phone, I could only imagine what I was about to see.
“Texts.” He directed me where to look, the word tearing bitterly from his mouth.
I punched in his password and opened the messaging app. There was an unknown number that stood out from his messages to the team’s chief counsel, and another from his grandfather that had gone unopened.
When I opened the message from the unknown number, the sounds of me pleading with Tucker filled the quiet room. I had seen this film before; the phone slipped out of my hand, and the video kept playing. The sounds were mixed; he must have edited several videos together.
“Please shut it up, Ken.”
I reached for the phone, fumbling as I tried to turn it off. “I never wanted you to see that.”
“Why thefuckwould he have sent clips of your fucking rape?” His tortured eyes stared into me.
“How do you know it’s the rape?”
“God, Kendra. Iknowwhat you sound like. I’ve memorized everything about you. Every whimper, how you beg for more. I can’t unsee that.” His fist flew to his mouth, his knuckles white with rage as a sob tore out of him. “I can’t un-fucking hear that. I want that motherfucker to suffer.”
Tears rolled down my face. My stomach turned, and my dinner threatened to come up. “I can’t let that tape see the light of day. You know what that is—but a stranger? A jury? It looks like it was roleplay.”
“I fucking know that.” The bitterness in his voice was unmasked. “God, you don’t deserve this, and I have no idea how to fix it, how to protect you. You let me in, Ken. And I’ve got nothing. No solution.”
I crawled into his lap and we held each other and cried. It was unclear who was comforting whom.
