Page 66 of Deacon

Jade stared at the table. “Should’ve done us all a favor and wiped themselves out.”

Evan snorted before catching himself. “Preach, sista.”

My head swung toward him. “Evan. You were supposed to be helpful.”

He raised one hand, expression perfectly serious. “That is helpful. I agree with her opinion on natural selection. Her science is sound.”

Jade laugh-snorted despite herself, cracking the tension enough for all of us to breathe. I rolled my eyes at both of them before turning back to her. “All the times you told me you were hanging out with Chloe, where were you actually?”

The humor drained from Jade’s face. Her gaze dropped as her fingers twisted together in her lap, shame replacing the defensive edge she had walked into the kitchen wearing. “The library,” she said quietly. “I’d go into one of the study rooms and study, or sketch, or just read.”

The answer hurt because it was safe.

And lonely.

I reached across the table and covered her hands before she could twist them any tighter. “Baby, why didn’t you tell me what was going on?”

Her eyes shifted toward Evan before coming back to me, and that small hesitation hurt in a completely different place. “I didn’t want to burden you,” she said. “You worry so much already. I didn’t want you to have anything else to worry about.” Her voice grew smaller despite the effort she made to keep it steady. “Besides, these are my problems.”

Evan leaned closer and laid his hand over ours, the performance dropping out of him so completely that Jade looked up. “Gemstone,” he said gently, “that is where you are wrong. Problems belong to family. We are family. You could’ve come to your mom. Or me. Or Blue. We are here for you.”

Jade swallowed, then finally looked at me. “Freshman year,” she began, “Chloe and I went to a party.”

Something in her voice changed the room, and every instinct inside me sharpened. I knew that careful tone, the way a girl reached backward toward the beginning of something she wished had ended differently. Jade rubbed one thumb against the side of my hand before continuing. “A couple of older boys came up to us. They led us to the backyard. They gave us drinks. I didn’t drink mine. I pretended to. Chloe drank hers.”

My spine straightened as she spoke. “They danced with us for a while, and then Chloe…” Jade swallowed. “She started looking really weird. Like something was wrong. She got woozy. Like she couldn’t stand up right.”

Evan’s fingers tightened over hers.

“The guy she was with got really handsy. She didn’t even seem to notice.” Anger pulled at Jade’s mouth now, tangled with something older and more painful. “The guy with me started getting irritated. Said I wasn’t drinking enough. He tried lifting my cup to my mouth to make me drink it, but it spilled all over me.” Her eyes dropped again. “I grabbed Chloe and told her we needed to go clean up in the bathroom. She got really sick in there.”

My pulse climbed with every sentence, but Jade kept going. “I was sure they drugged her,” she whispered. “I called the cops anonymously about the party. Then before they got there, I dragged Chloe out through the woods and got her back to her house.”

For a second, breathing became something I had to think about. Jade had been fourteen, dragging another drugged girl through the woods while boys who had tried forcing a drink into her mouth remained behind. I tightened my hands around hers, needing the contact while she stared at our joined fingers.

“The next day I tried telling her what happened. That I thought they’d drugged her. She wouldn’t listen. Said I was overreacting.” Her voice began to shake. “Then when we got to school Monday, people started asking if we were the ones who called the cops. Started calling us snitches, since we weren’t there when they showed up, and since Uncle Matty’s a cop.”

A bitter little laugh escaped her. “Chloe threw me under the bus. Said she heard me on the phone. Said she tried to warn someone at the party that I snitched and called my uncle, but they were too drunk, and then she ran off.”

My hands had gone numb around hers by the time Jade’s face crumpled. “She started making fun of me with everybody else because she wanted to be popular. Started spreading rumors too.” Tears spilled down her cheeks, and her voice cracked under the weight of them. “I’m sorry. I know it’s stupid. I know I should’ve said something.”

Evan moved first, pushing out of his chair and pulling Jade into his arms as if he could make up for every day she had carried this alone. She clung to him for a moment before looking at me over his shoulder, red-eyed and heartbreakingly young. “I’m sorry if you’re mad at me, Mom.”

I was out of my chair before she finished. “No, baby.” I crouched beside them and wrapped my arms around both of them, feeling Jade shake between us. “I am furious, but none of it is aimed at you.”

Her breath hitched against Evan’s shoulder, and I pulled back enough to see her. “Chloe had you beside her when she needed someone brave enough to get her out of there. You may have saved her from being assaulted.” Rage surged hotter as the rest of the night settled into place. “And those boys tried to make you drink whatever they gave you. If that cup hadn’t spilled…”

My voice caught.

I cupped Jade’s cheek, forcing myself to breathe past the picture my mind wanted to create. “You got both of you out. You called for help. You were fourteen years old, and you protected her.”

Her mouth trembled harder.

“That is what I see when you tell me this. My daughter saved herself and her friend.”

Jade broke against us, and I hugged her again while fury buzzed beneath my skin. “I am vibrating with rage right now and seriously considering calling your Uncle Matty and asking him to commit an off-duty crime.”

A startled laugh escaped Jade through her tears, and Evan barked one out above her head. I glared at both of them. “Do not laugh.”