Chapter 19 #2
“This is why you stopped hanging out with her.” At the time, she wouldn’t tell me what had come between them.
She said it was girl stuff, and I wouldn’t understand.
Arlo and I talked about it a few times, but eventually it didn’t matter anymore why two teenaged girls had fallen out a long time ago. It had nothing to do with us.
“She made me so mad with her holier-than-thou act and how we were bad people for leaving Neisy there alone…after it happened. She said we should’ve helped her. I told her everyone, including Arlo, would hate her the way they hated Neisy, and that she’d better keep her mouth shut or else.”
My head is spinning, and I feel like I might be sick.
There were fucking witnesses, and one of them is my own wife.
I know nothing about Blaise or what she’s been up to all this time. Arlo rarely mentions her except to say it’s weird that she left home and never looked back. This is why. Because she saw my brother rape Neisy. She ran away and never came back, taking this secret with her.
And now she’s in LE doing God knows what.
Fucking hell.
“Are you mad?” Sienna asks me in a soft voice that’s so not like her.
“No.”
“I did what I thought was right, Cam. I was protecting you and your family, like always.”
“I know.”
“You knew, didn’t you?”
I look over at her. “Knew what?”
“That he did it. You weren’t surprised to hear me confirm it. You were only surprised to hear I saw it.”
My head aches as I try to figure out how I should reply. And then I decide to go with the truth. “Yes, I knew.”
“For how long?”
“From the beginning.”
“What does it say about us that we’ve never told each other what we knew?”
“It says we both realized we were sitting on a powder keg and chose to keep our mouths shut, even with each other.”
“It makes me sad that you felt you couldn’t trust me with what he’d told you when you know I’ve always been loyal to you and your family.”
“I know that, Sienna, but I didn’t want you burdened with this.”
“Is that what you’ve been? Burdened?”
It’s the deepest conversation we’ve had in a while, which says something about the state of our marriage.
“I hate that he made himself feel better by telling me he did it. I’ve been angry with him about that for years, not to mention he did it in the first place.
That’s the part I still can’t believe. What the hell could he have been thinking? ”
“Can I ask you something else and will you tell me the truth?”
I’m suddenly as tired as I’ve been in years. “Yeah, I’ll tell you the truth.”
“The affidavit you all signed. Was that true?”
I ache when I think about being part of that. “No, it wasn’t.”
Her expression is so relieved that I realize she’s wanted to ask me that for years.
“What’re you going to do about Blaise?”
“I have no idea.”
“You’ve got to do something before she ruins everything.”
“I’ll take care of it.” I look over at her. “Don’t you do anything about her. Do you hear me?”
A guilty look crosses her face. “I might’ve already texted her and reminded her to keep her mouth shut.”
“Goddamn it, Sienna! Why would you do that? Maybe she’s wavering and you pushed her right over the edge.”
“I wanted her to know people are watching her.”
“Stay out of it from now on. You got me?”
“Fine. Whatever. You don’t have to be so nasty to me when I sacrificed my lifelong best friend to protect you and your brother.”
Because I’m afraid of what she might do if I piss her off, I turn to face her. “I appreciate what you did. I truly do. But promise me you’ll stay out of it from now on.”
She gives me a defiant look, and just that quickly the closeness I felt with her a few minutes ago evaporates.
“Sienna, I mean it. You’ll do much more harm than good by getting involved.”
“Fine. I promise I’ll stay out of it. But I want to know what you’re going to do about it.”
“I’m not sure yet.”
“But you’ll do something, right?”
“Yeah.” I’ve got to do something before the past blows up in our faces and ruins our lives.
I call Ryder first thing in the morning.
“Hey, how’s it—”
“Ryder.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Sienna told me something last night that I didn’t know.”
“What did she tell you?”
“That she and Blaise Merrick witnessed what happened with Neisy.”
“What?” he gasps. “They saw it?”
“They saw it.”
“And she never told you that before now?”
“She said she was protecting us by keeping it to herself.”
“Why’d she tell you now?”
“Because Blaise is back in town and hanging out in LE, according to Sienna.”
“What the fuck, Cam? How can we find out why she’s here?”
“We could ask Arlo.”
“Wouldn’t he have told us if he knew?”
“I would think so.”
“So what can we do?” he asks with a hysterical edge to his voice.
“There’re a million reasons why Blaise could be in LE. Maybe she met a guy on a dating app, and he lives there. Maybe she got a job over there. Who knows?”
“Can we ask Houston?”
“You want me to call him and ask if Blaise reported seeing you rape Neisy fourteen years ago?”
“Don’t even say it out loud. Someone might hear.”
“My wife already knows what you did. She saw it.”
“You’re angry.”
“You’re goddamned right I am! If Blaise comes forward, it’ll wreck us all. Remember how we laid ourselves on the line to defend you? If it gets out that I committed perjury, I could be disbarred.”
“What do we do? We can’t just sit here and do nothing.”
“I don’t think we should do anything. We could be totally wrong about why she’s here, and the last thing we’d want to do is alert Houston that we’re worried.”
“How am I supposed to function after hearing this?”
“You need to stick to your schedule and keep your cool.”
“How in the hell can I do that?”
“Ryder… It could be nothing.”
“Or it could be the end of me.”