Chapter 80 Reed
REED
“Have you ever heard the term ‘white-hat hacker’?” I ask.
Georgina and I are dressed in soft clothes now, sitting at my kitchen table with one of Amalia’s meals and a bottle of red.
And I’m nervous. Yes, I know Henn is completely trustworthy.
Even more so than a priest or lawyer. But Georgie doesn’t know that.
What if she finds out I told Henn about Gates, out of pure necessity, and decides, once and for all, she can’t trust me to keep a promise?
If me telling Henn about Gates is the straw that breaks Georgina’s back, and she leaves me again—for good, this time—after I’ve said those three little words to her—words I’ve never said to another woman—then I’m positive I won’t survive it.
Georgina says, “White-hat hackers are the ones who help companies find vulnerabilities in their online systems, so the bad guys can’t hack them.”
My heart is thundering. “That’s right. Well, Henn is one of the best white-hat hackers in the world. Sometimes, he does favors for good friends, including me. In fact, if he believes in the cause enough, he’ll even don a grey—or maybe even black—hat, on occasion.”
Georgie lights up. “Oooh! You think maybe Henn would hack into Howard’s computer for me?”
Damn. I probably shouldn’t have led with that. “Uh... No. I mean, maybe. But Howard wasn’t the reason I mentioned Henn.” I take a deep breath. “Georgie, I had Henn gather some information for me about Gates. So I could find something to destroy him with.”
Georgina’s nostrils flare. But she says nothing.
“When you told me what Gates did, I wanted to kill him. Literally. I still do. But since murder is apparently hard to get away with, according to Leonard, and I very much enjoy my freedom—I decided to destroy Gates in a more indirect way. I figured he’d have a stash of child porn, or maybe Henn would find proof he’d embezzled from the school or something.
I didn’t know what Henn would find. All I knew, in my bones, was a guy like Gates couldn’t be living a squeaky-clean life. ”
Georgina blinks slowly... and exhales.
“I’m sorry I breached your confidence by telling Henn your secret.”
“What, exactly, did you tell him?”
“The gist of what you’d told me. Gates was your teacher in high school, someone you trusted, and he tried to rape you, but you got away. I also told him you’ve been deeply traumatized by the incident.”
“He’s the only person you’ve told about this?”
“Yes. And I told him not to tell anyone, not even Hannah. And I know he hasn’t. Please, don’t be angry. Please, Georgina, don’t leave me.”
Her features soften with pity. “Oh, Reed.” She gets up and slides into my lap.
“I’m not going to leave you. This is DMV-serious, remember?
” She touches my cheek. “I like that you felt so protective of me, you roped Henn into helping you.” She smiles.
“It turns me on that you did that, if I’m being honest.”
I’m so relieved, I can only exhale loudly.
Georgina chuckles. “You poor thing. You really thought I’d leave you for telling Henn?”
“Georgina, when it comes to you, I never know what you’re going to do. And I know we’re only just beginning to rebuild trust. I don’t want there to be any reason for you to doubt me, ever.”
She presses her forehead against mine. “Don’t cheat on me. Don’t lie to me. Don’t you dare smack me. But anything else, we’ll work it out. I’m not going anywhere, ever.”
Again, I breathe a sigh of relief. “Don’t cheat on me. Don’t lie to me. Feel free to smack me, any time. Especially in bed. But, please, for the love of all things holy, do not put a scratch on my Bugatti.”
“Deal.” She kisses my cheek and returns to her chair. “So, did Henn find something useful?”
“He did. And what he found led him to hacking the principal of your high school and another guy—a renowned criminal defense attorney named Steven Price. AKA the father of the Price Brothers: Brody, Brendan, and Benjamin.”
“I remember Brody. He was a year behind me. The star quarterback. I don’t remember his brothers, though.”
“You wouldn’t. Brendan was two years behind Brody, and Benjamin a year behind him, so you were long gone by the time the two younger Price brothers got their starting quarterback gigs.”
“What does the father of the Price brothers have to do with Gates?”
“Steven Price confidentially paid hush money to two female students who’d been assaulted by Gates.”
Georgina gasps.
“There might be more victims besides those two other girls and you. Maybe more girls, like you, who told nobody. But, thanks to Henn, we know, for sure, there were at least three total girls, including you. One before you. One after you. The before you was a sixteen-year-old named Katrina Ibarra. Gates raped her a year and a half before he tried to rape you.”
“Oh my God.”
“It was smack in the middle of football season, when scouts from all the top colleges were actively trying to recruit Brody Price. Hence, the motivation for Steven Price to keep that information from coming out and disrupting his son’s football program.”
“This is... crazy.”
“The second girl, the one after you, was a fifteen-year-old named Penny Kaling. It’s not clear exactly the nature of Gates’ sexual assault of her.
All we know, for sure, from some text messages, is that Gates forced himself on Penny in some way, and she was scared and ashamed and extremely upset about it the next day. ”
Georgina looks ashen. “You realize what this means, right? If I’d reported Gates, I could have saved Penny from whatever happened to her.”
“Not necessarily. Katrina reported him and it got her nowhere. She told a teacher, who told the principal, who then called Katrina and Gates into his office for separate interviews. After those interviews, the principal, in his infinite wisdom, determined Katrina’s claim ‘wasn’t credible.
’ And that was that. He swept it under the rug and didn’t send it up the flagpole to anyone else. ”
“How is that possible?”
I shrug. “Gates denied all wrongdoing, and the principal believed him. Gates said Katrina was an unstable girl with a crush who’d thrown herself at Gates and gotten rejected—and, now, she was getting back at him.
Lucky for Gates, Katrina wasn’t a star pupil.
She’d been suspended the prior year for plagiarism.
Plus, she was known for being a ‘drama queen’ after a couple breakups.
So, the principal decided it was a ‘he said, she said’ situation, where the accuser wasn’t credible, and the accused was a ‘well-respected and admired pillar of our community.’ Oh, and by the way, the football team was having an undefeated season at this point. ”
Georgina hangs her head. “I should have known he’d do it to someone else.”
“Look at me, Georgina. You were seventeen and in survival mode. If you’d said something, I doubt it would have made a difference.
There were no witnesses to your assault, any more than there were to Katrina’s.
If you’d accused Gates of trying to rape you, maybe those mean girls from the newspaper class would have come forward to say you’d always had a ‘thing’ for Mr. Gates.
Maybe you would have been labeled a ‘drama queen,’ the same as Katrina.
Has there ever been a time in high school when you lost your temper, or maybe got highly emotional, or displayed some sort of behavior Gates or the principal could have pointed to in order to paint you as an ‘overly emotional’ and ‘unstable’ drama queen, too? ”
“Well, of course. I was a teenage girl who wound up breaking down every year on the anniversary of her mother’s death.”
“Well, there you go.”
Georgina sighs. “So, how did Steven Price get involved?”
“Gates contacted him and told him some ‘crazy’ girl was making accusations against him. At the time, Brody was being courted by the best colleges in the country. So, Steven Price told Gates not to worry about it. He’d take care of it.
And he did. He paid Katrina off. Well, Katrina and her mother, since Katrina was a minor. ”
“I can’t believe her mother took that money.”
“Don’t judge her too harshly. Katrina’s father wasn’t in the picture.
Her mother, an immigrant, worked three jobs.
So, a hundred grand was life-changing money to that family.
All Katrina had to do was transfer schools and shut the fuck up about Gates forevermore.
I can’t really blame them for taking the deal, especially after the principal had basically called her a liar.
I’m sure Katrina figured a hundred grand in her and her mother’s pockets would help her a whole lot more than going to the police and being called a liar again. ”
Georgina looks down at her wine glass on the table, shaking her head. “What about the other girl? Did she get paid off, too?”
“She did. Penny was fifteen when Gates did whatever he did to her. A sophomore on the newspaper staff. Unlike Katrina, she didn’t report him to anyone.
But we have text messages between Penny and Gates, where she tells him she feels ‘sick’ about what she ‘let’ him do to her and that she’d been crying nonstop about it all day.
She says she’d never done anything like that before and she feels like throwing up every time she thinks about it.
Next thing you know, Steven Price was wiring Penny and her mother two hundred grand as part of a confidential settlement. ”
“No father in the picture?”
“No father. Not sure if that was a coincidence or a sign of Gates’ MO.
Maybe he figured girls with one parent at home, like you, had less of a support system.
Or maybe he thought one parent would be easier to convince, later on, that nothing happened.
Either way, by the time Gates assaulted Penny, he was Steven Price’s man.
Brody had gone on to play football at Purdue.
His first pick. And the next Price brother, Brendon, was having a golden season and getting courted by top colleges. ”
“And the principal?”
“It’s not clear what he knew about Penny. We found nothing to indicate he knew anything. But who knows?”
Georgina picks up her wine glass and takes a long gulp. When she replaces her glass, she puts her elbows onto the table and sinks her face into her hands. “This is... horrible.”
I get up and pull her to me. Take her into my arms. Hold her tight and kiss her cheek. “Don’t beat yourself up about not telling anyone. You did the best you could under the circumstances.”
“But I’m not seventeen anymore.”
“No, you’re not.”
“But what good would it do to speak up now? It’s been almost five years since he tried to rape me—and it’d still be my word against his because those other two girls signed confidentiality agreements. I’d be on my own, the same as always. He said, she said. Only, now, five years later.”
“The truth is the truth, whether anyone believes you or not. Maybe, if you speak up, you’ll save the next girl. And if you don’t, at least you tried.”
She makes a tortured sound. “I need some time to think. Can you send me everything Henn sent you?”
“Of course. How about you read it after we get back from New York, though? Like you said, it’s been almost five years. Surely, it can wait another five days. In the meantime, let’s have fun and celebrate your birthday and forget about this shit.”
She looks grateful for the suggestion. “Yes. I’d like that.”
“In fact, let’s kick off that game plan, starting now.” Without hesitation, I scoop my beloved butterfly into my arms like a bride, making her swoon audibly. “Come on, beautiful. One giant dose of pleasure-induced amnesia, coming right up.”