Wesley
Chapter thirty-five
Her uncle!
He owns the club she dances at.
How could he let her dance there?
Anger builds in me, but fuck. What place do I have to say anything? I’ve treated her like trash, even got every fucking person at school in on bullying her.
“Why are you here? Wasn’t the video enough? What else is there left to do to me?” Sierra asks, where she sits surrounded by the guys.
“Please, just let me explain. That's all I ask. There’s something you need to know,” I beg. I’ll grovel at her feet if it’s what it takes to get her to listen to me.
“Let him up, Rico. I’ll listen to what he has to say. Then he can go and never talk to me again.” Her words are cold, so unlike the warm heart I knew her to have. I did this to her. I made her this way.
The pressure that’s on my back suddenly vanishes and I’m able to slowly stand. I lift my hand and run it through my hair, pushing the longer strands out of my face, and look at the beauty before me.
Once upon a time, I was going to ask her to be my girl. Then that night happened. That stupid fucking night that I wish I could go back to now and protect her, instead of leaving her to go through all the vile things my father did to her.
“Go ahead, boy, before I rip you to shreds,” Rico says from behind me.
I step over toward where Sierra sits on the couch, but Colton quickly moves from behind it, blocking my path.
“That’s close enough!” he barks at me.
“Fine. First Sierra, I am so fucking sorry. That night, at the party in my house, was supposed to be the best night of my life. I was, I am, so in love with you. I was going to ask you to be my girlfriend, then you disappeared. When I went looking for you, I found you in my dad’s office,”—Fuck, I hate calling him that—“and I saw the two of you together. You know—”
“No, I don’t know. What were we doing? Because I don’t remember the majority of that night. Something you would know if you had ever talked to me or listened to what I had to say.” Her voice rises as she stands from the couch and storms over to me, hitting me in the chest with her fist.
“It looked like you were having sex.” Her hand goes to her mouth as she lets out a gasp. Cyrus steps over to her, wrapping his arm around her and whispers something in her ear. “I know now you weren’t. You were being raped.”
Fuck, I wish I could be the person to console her, to be holding her in my arms, but I lost that chance.
“He’s the one. Your father. In the video?” she asks, her lips trembling.
“Yeah. He is. I’m so fucking sorry. I found a flash drive in his office and saw your name on it.
Savannah was at my house and noticed it.
She took it and made a copy. I didn’t know what was on it.
I promise it wasn’t me who sent it out. I just wished I had watched it earlier.
If I’d done that, I could have stopped it from ever being leaked. ”
“So your scumbag father drugged my niece and raped her? And you saw it and did nothing?” Rico steps up to me, towering over me.
“I didn’t know she was drugged at the time.
All I saw was my dad and my best friend, the girl I loved, having sex.
My family was ruined, and I was pissed and I took it out on Sierra.
For that, I will forever be sorry. It was part of some game.
He either recorded it and sent copies to his friends or it was a live feed.
Maybe both, I’m not sure.” I slip my hand into my front pocket and pull the flash drive out, handing it to Sierra.
Rico reaches out, snatching it from my hand before she can take it.
“She doesn’t need to see it. What she’s seen already is enough.” His deep timber voice fills the room.
“But I need to see it.”
“No, you don’t, sweetheart. It’s in the past, but we will make him pay for what he did to you. What he put you through. I promise on my soul he will suffer,” her uncle tells her.
“Okay, Wesley, you brought the flash drive. You can go.” She turns away from me and walks back over to the couch, sitting down between Zan and Brax. I don’t miss how each of them takes one of her hands in theirs.
Are they together? Like all three of them? And this Cyrus guy? He seems pretty chummy with her.
I don’t like it. I know I’ve seen Zan getting cozy with her, then Brax, but at the time I hated her even though I still craved her. She was under my skin and held residence in my heart, even though I despised her for what she did.
Wait! What I thought she did. But really, she did nothing.
“Sierra, I’m so sorry. Can you ever forgive me?”
Her eyes go wide, before she bursts into hysterical laughter. It takes a moment for her to compose herself.
“You treat me like shit, ignore me unless you’re bullying or threatening me, the whole school, and hell, even the teachers, are in on what’s going on because of you, and then you get Sam taken away from me.
And you want me to forgive you? Fuck you, Wesley, and the horse you rode in on. Get out of my home.”
“You heard my niece, get the fuck out, or I’ll let these three boys beat the shit out of you while we watch. That’s if you’re under eighteen. If you aren’t, then me and Cyrus get to have some fun rearranging your facial features.” Rico’s hands are fisted as he glares at me.
“I still need to tell you something. Like I said, my dad cheats on my mom. You weren’t the first, but it hit the hardest. He’s been talking about a stripper.
You. But I don’t know if he knows you’re Lilac or not.
Anyway, he’s trying to get you to do a private show with him, off site.
He plans to do the same thing to you that he did that night.
Promise me you won’t do it. I couldn’t take it if he hurt you again. ”
“Him hurt me? Guess how you hurt me was different. You practically tried to fuck me in the library the other day, Wesley. If Savannah hadn’t shown up, you would’ve raped me too, wouldn’t you?”
My stomach churns and I can feel the vomit trying to work its way up. I did that! I was forcing myself on Sierra, just like my dad did. Fuck!
“Sierra, I’m—”
“So sorry. Yeah, that’s a broken record at this point. It’s a little too late if you ask me. You told me what your dad plans to do and gave us the flash drive, so you can go now with your conscious clean.”
“Sierra!”
“She said go, little boy,” Rico orders, as he walks over, opening the front door, gesturing for me to leave.
Turning, I head towards the door, stopping before I step into the hallway and turn back around to look at her.
“I’m going to work every day to make up for what I did to you.
I love you, Sierra, and one day I want you to see the same boy I used to be before all of this.
I want a future with you and I’m going to make it my mission to show you how serious I am.
” She doesn’t say anything. I didn’t expect her to.
But I want her to know I’m going to fight for her.
Sierra needs to see that I mean what I say.
Once she knows I’ll be there to back and support her, I know she’ll forgive me.
She has a heart of gold and this was all just a misunderstanding. A terrible one.
Once I leave the apartment, I don’t look back. I’ve got a lot I need to do.
I need to handle the whole fucking Savannah issue. Make it known at school if anyone bothers Sierra, they’ll be treated just like she was.
Then there’s Dad. I still don’t know what I’m going to do about him.
But I need to figure all this shit out, because tomorrow I’m winning Sierra back.