Chapter 17 #3
When he finally does message, he replies that he can’t make it. He’ll explain soon. It’s curt and not at all what I was hoping for.
My heart sinks, and my mind is stuck on the first part. He can’t make it. Not even an apology for letting me walk into the lion’s den myself. He left me here to face my peers alone.
I respond, telling him that we made a promise to do this together, that we both need to be unashamed. I hit send just as Paulie makes his way over to me.
“You need to eat that,” he tells me softly. “Don’t give them anything more.”
“They’re all talking about me, huh?”
“Yeah, but it’s not all bad. Half of them are pissed that anything was leaked in the first place. Maya needs to get that info out to the public, so you look like the victim you are in all of this.”
“Yeah, we’ll see.” I still want Colton to be the one to pull the trigger. It’s his life. I don’t know whether I have that right.
So, I do what Paulie suggests and force the food down. I even talk animatedly with him, even though inside I’m slowly dying. But he’s right, I don’t want to give them anything. By the time we leave, I’m exhausted, drained, and ready for bed.
There has to be a reason Colton didn’t show up. I know he’ll tell me what happened, but it better be a damn good reason. Because as Paulie and I make our way back to his car, I feel those stares, hear laughter following me all the way home.
I don’t even want to go to class tomorrow. I just want to hide in bed all day, to pretend none of this exists. But I can’t. Because I have to show them—specifically his stepfather—that they won’t win this. That they might try to hurt me, hurt him, but we will persevere.
Those photos won’t ruin us.
If anything, they will ruin him.
So, I pick myself up slowly and make my way through the next two days.
Without him
Colton doesn’t call me, so I assume the worst—that he’s decided I’m not worth it.
At first, I thought maybe he was hurt in some way, but he assured me he wasn’t.
His brief, placating text messages don’t help my worry. They don’t give me anything to work with, so I imagine it all. All to the detriment of my mental health.
Midweek, I see that Maya released the tapes. I didn’t tell her to, but I’m assuming Colton told her to go ahead.
It makes me incredibly proud as I watch his stepfather and mother face criticism and humiliation as more and more is brought into the light.
Secret after secret is exposed. The videos Maya sent in are damning, and there’s nothing they can really do to defend themselves.
Colton’s family, which rarely made the news unless they were featured at a charity gala, is now a huge society scandal.
The media are reporting nonstop on how cruelly his mother and stepfather treated Colton for years, even bringing up the allegation that Erick had Colton’s father murdered.
It goes further than this because there’s a police cover-up to consider as well.
It’s all a major shitshow, bigger than even I imagined.
I don’t think Erick considered this when he threatened me, but I’m proud of us for exposing it.
Of Colton for telling Maya to publish it, and for Maya in making good on her promise to take this family down.
Speaking of my sister, she’s taking the brunt of the press, attending different interviews that have been requested.
I’ve been called and emailed, and I’m sure Colton is receiving his fair share of inquiries as well, but I don’t answer and I don’t respond.
I don’t want to explain myself. I just want to be left alone.
The only things that matter are that Colton is safe, that what’s happened to him all these years is finally being exposed, and that he still has a chance of keeping his dream of going pro.
I don’t know what’s going on with him, though. I have no clue because each time I ask, I’m met with simple, placating responses.
I’ll be back soon.
Don’t worry, I’m safe.
Just wait for me.
I promise I’ll explain it all when I see you.
But while I appreciate the attempt at communication, it’s not enough.
And as the week passes, my anger and resentment slowly start to build.
I gave him everything, and he left me alone.
At the same time, I realize that he’s dealing with something that he can’t talk about right now. Perhaps it’s even legally binding.
I’m lying in bed, flipping through the news on my phone, when I see him on TV walking into a lawyer’s office with Samuel Manning by his side. I assume it has something to do with the ownership of his company. The media seems as clueless about it as I am.
But they speculate it has to do with him moving his shares, perhaps even meeting with the board to sell them.
Hell, he could be stepping up and taking control of the company. I don’t know, and I wish I did.
I text him, asking him to give me a crumb, a hint of what’s going on. I want to be a part of this. It hurts to be left out, even though I know I’m important to him. He told me he wanted this. He wanted me. But his actions aren’t showing it. Not at all.
But he never responds. There’s nothing left to tell me that we’re going to be okay, that this relationship can and will continue.
I’ve put it all on the line, and he’s giving me nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
Everything about his actions has left me bruised, and my heart, which was slowly starting to mend, is starting to unravel. It’s a painful, sticky mess.
And by the end of the week, I’m nothing more than a shell of who I was.