Page 53 of On One Condition

“What?” I fumble over the single syllable. Blood drains from my face as I stand in utter confusion and horror. “What do you mean statutory rape?”

“You’re eighteen, Ledge. She’s not. Pretty cut-and-dried.”

My mind is too overwhelmed to think straight, to process that while he might have known Asher and I had sex tonight from my texts, how would Pop know? All I can hear is the word rape. All I can think about is how everything earlier with Asher that I thought was fucking perfect, is now a goddamn nightmare. “I don’t . . . I don’t understand.”

“You’re a smart boy. Surely you do.”

“But it wasn’t rape. She wanted it. She—”

“Do you hear yourself? Do you know how horrible that single phrase—she wanted it—would sound to a judge? To a jury? Would look splashed across the front page of a newspaper?”

“That’s not what I meant.” I pull my hands down on the back of my neck and try to think straight, but it’s not exactly easy. Rape? What happened tonight was not rape. It was far fucking from it, but truth be told, I’m scared out of my mind right now.

Fucking terrified.

“Dad. I swear. You have to believe me. That’s not what happened.”

“It doesn’t matter if it is or if it isn’t. What matters is that Mr. Wells is threatening it.”

My shuddered breath is the only sound in the room save for the whoosh of my pulse in my ears. “I’ll go talk to them. I’ll—”

“What? You’ll make it right? That’s not how the world works, Ledger. Far fucking from it.”

“This doesn’t make any sense.” My voice rises in pitch with each and every word. “Talk to Asher. She’ll tell you we made this decision together. That I didn’t force her into anything.”

There’s no way she’d go along with this. Not a chance in hell she’d let this happen if she knew.

“Don’t you get it? It doesn’t matter what Asher says or feels or if it was mutual. All that matters is what her grandfather says. What he wants. What he threatened. The law is the law, son, and even a Sharpe and our money can’t get around it. Especially when we’re outsiders like we are here.”

“But Pop knows me. He knows I’d never hurt Ash.”

My dad walks in front of me and meets my eyes. “Sometimes people do crazy things to protect the ones they love, son.”

I stare at him, my whole body vibrating with disbelief and fear. “Fuck it. I’m going over there right now.” I head for the door, but my father grabs my shoulder and yanks me back.

“Don’t be a fucking idiot. That’s the last thing you should do.”

“It’s the only thing I can do,” I shout at him.

“Do you think I’m thrilled with this fucking situation?” he thunders in an unusual show of temper. One that only serves to reinforce how fucked I am. How fucked this situation is. “Do you think I want my son’s name thrown around in the same sentence as the words sex offender? Because that’s what you’d be. A sex offender. You’d have to register in every neighborhood you move to for the rest of your life. You have a kid someday who goes to school? Guess what? You won’t be allowed near the school to pick him up because, you guessed it, you’re a registered sex offender. This isn’t a fucking joke.”

I shake my head back and forth to reject his words, but I can’t speak. I can’t do anything other than hear what he’s saying and be scared shitless. “I don’t understand,” I finally manage.

“Exactly. You don’t understand. Not at all, because clearly you were thinking with your dick.”

“Dad . . .”

“We’re not nobodies, Ledger.” He throws his hands up, his strides eating up the room as he paces. “We’re a family with a flashy name and a pristine reputation, and I guarantee this would be picked up by the media in a heartbeat. Rich prep school kid. Penniless, vulnerable small-town girl. Throw the word ‘rape’ in there and the Internet will light itself on fire. Scandal sells papers, and you bet your ass this would be a scandal.”

I sink into a chair, my face in my hands and my chest constricting more and more with each breath.

Asher. What does she think about this? What is she saying right now?

Oh. My. God.

“This can’t be happening.”

“Oh, it’s happening all right. This is what happens when you mix with people who aren’t like us. Who don’t live our life or understand—”