The Amendment (Arrangement #2)

Chapter 17

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

AINSLEY

“ Y ou’re not in trouble, sweetheart. You just need to tell us the truth.”

“But I have told you the truth,” Maisy screamed, her cheeks red with frustration and glistening with fresh tears.

“So, you have no idea what Julie’s talking about? Bailey hasn’t mentioned anything about it at all?”

“No,” she whined, swiping her hands across her eyes. “Please just stop! She doesn’t know anything!”

“Okay.” I put my hands up, trying to calm her down. “Let’s just breathe.” I gestured toward the bed and we sat down. Peter was likely lingering just outside the door, but I knew if I had any shot of getting her to open up, talking to her alone was it.

She sat down slowly, her breathing erratic as she sobbed. “Okay, let’s just start with who Julie was talking about in the first place. Who was the man?”

Her face wrinkled. “It’s all just a stupid rumor, Mom. Please don’t make me talk about it. It’s disgusting! ”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t just let it go. If it is a rumor, we’ll figure out how to get it stopped. I’m not going to be mad at you, I just want to help Bailey.”

She sniffled, looking up at me. “What will happen to them?”

“Happen to who, baby?”

“To the girls…”

Something in the quiver of her voice had my insides squirming. “So, it is true, then?”

She placed her face in her palms. “I don’t know.”

“Well, what do you know?”

She was quiet.

“Do you know who Julie was talking about?”

Face still in her palms, she nodded.

“You can trust me. I only want to help.”

“I don’t want anyone to get into trouble.” She broke down into sobs then and I pulled her to my chest, smoothing her hair down against her temples as I had when she was a small child. She was too young to be dealing with this. It broke my heart to even broach the subject.

“I promise you, you won’t get into trouble. Bailey either. None of your friends… You’ve not done anything wrong. But you have to talk to me so I can fix this.”

She shook her head against my chest. “I really didn’t want to quit dance, Momma.”

The words chilled me to my core. “Wha—”

“It was Coach Chris.”

No.

My throat went dry, the hair on my arms standing on end. “What are you talking about? ”

The dance coach I’d trusted to teach our daughter over half of her life. The man who’d taken the girls to dance competitions. The man who’d brought her home when we had to work late or kept our daughter back for an extra session when she wasn’t nailing her routine.

“What did he do, Maisy?” I said, praying Peter was standing outside the door and hearing every word I was. If not, I might be convinced I’d misunderstood. “He was the one sending those pictures?”

She pulled away, meeting my gaze with such wide-eyed innocence it broke my heart.

“Yes. To some of the girls on the team.”

“Did he send any to you?”

She shook her head, and relief broke through the concrete boulder in my chest.

“Did he…did he touch you? Did he hurt you?”

“No,” she confirmed.

“But… He did do something to Bailey?”

Her head hung with a regretful nod.

“What did he do to Bailey?”

I hated myself for feeling relief that it was someone else’s child. “I don’t know when it started. He was keeping her after practice and doing private sessions for a while. Then it was nearly every day. Every practice. She didn’t tell us what was happening, but then in health class we talked about…well, you know.”

I didn’t know. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know. “Talked about what?”

“Diseases and stuff.” She wouldn’t meet my eyes. I was almost thankful for it.

“We didn’t know about all of that… I mean, I knew yo u could get pregnant or whatever, but… I guess it scared Bailey, and she told us.”

“She told you they’d been having sex?”

“And other stuff.”

I was going to be sick. I placed a hand to my stomach to keep from throwing up.

“And did you tell anyone? Any teachers or parents?”

“He told her no one would understand. She thinks they’re in love.”

“Maisy, you know it’s impossible for a child to love an adult in that way. He’s abusing her. What he’s doing is illegal and completely wrong.” I looked away, tears filling my eyes at how terrified she must be. She was just a child. They were all just children. “Is that why you left dance? Because of what he was doing to her?”

“Sort of.” She wrung her hands together in her lap.

“Sort of?”

“Coach asked me to start staying late with him for practices last year. I stayed for one, and he followed me into the locker room. He kept saying something about a tag on my leotard and how he needed to help me get it off.”

I was going to pass out. I was sure of it.

“Did he?”

“No,” she said quickly. “It was after Bailey had told me what he did to her. I was scared, and I told him you were waiting for me outside. After I told Bailey what happened, she was angry with him. That was when she decided to drop out of dance. I was too scared to tell you anything, so I stuck with it—”

“Oh, honey— ”

“But then he started pulling me out of routines and criticizing me in front of everyone. He moved me to the back of every formation. I just thought it was going to keep getting worse.”

We were both crying then, and I pulled her into my chest. “You did the right thing. Do you hear me?” I cupped her face, drawing her away from me to meet her eyes. “Thank you for telling me. I’m so sorry you had to deal with that, but I promise you I’m going to handle it.”

“Mom, you can’t tell anyone.” If possible, her face went even paler. “If everyone knew what happened…well, you heard what Julie said about Bailey. The rumors are everywhere. I don’t want anyone talking about me. We dropped out of dance, we’re safe. Please just let it go. Please.”

“Maisy, I can’t do that. You’re safe, yes. But there are other girls out there who aren’t. Kids. Maybe girls who don’t have a parent to talk to. We have to report him. Bailey’s parents should know what’s happening. We need to get the police involved. I have an obligation to report this as a parent… You’re all just children.”

“No.” She looked horrified. “No, you can’t! Please! You said I could trust you!”

“You can trust me—”

“You said you wouldn’t tell—”

“I never said that. Let’s just take a breath—”

She stood, her arms at her sides. “I can’t believe you. You lied to me. I should’ve never told you. You’re going to ruin my life.”

“Maisy, please—” I reached for her, but she was already storming away .

“I’ll never tell you anything else if you do this,” she warned. “Bailey will never forgive me. Everyone will hate me. I thought I could trust you!”

“Sweetheart, that’s not true. No one will hate you. Please, wait. Let’s talk about this—”

But it was no use. She’d swung open the door and stormed out, and I was left reeling with everything I’d learned and had no clear path forward.

I remembered being Maisy’s age, remembered when everything felt like the end of the world, but this was so much bigger than anything I’d dealt with at this age.

I gripped my fists in front of me, staring at the empty doorway.

We’d trusted him.

We’d counted on him, and he’d betrayed us.

I wanted to kill him.

To make sure he’d never hurt anyone else.

I wanted to go back in time and kill him before he’d ever had the chance to step foot into my daughter’s life.

A sickly feeling washed over me as I watched Peter appear in the doorway. I knew from a single glance that he’d heard everything.

He nodded at me slowly, his eyes bloodshot and wild.

“They’re children, Peter. I know you haven’t made up your mind about what I proposed, but…this is a special circumstance. You heard her, she’ll never forgive us if we tell. We have to handle this.” My body trembled with rage, my breathing erratic. My vision tunneled as I struggled to focus on him. “I physically can’t breathe until he’s taken care of. ”

His response came in the form of an exhale, as if he’d been waiting for me to say exactly that. “Then we’ll take care of him.”