Not Quite Juliet: A Club Imperial Novel (Silver Soul Book 1) (24 page)

She sighed. “John and I have been going out since I was fifteen. We fought all the time before that—”

“John Warner? The boy you used to get into fights with all the time and rip your clothes?” I wanted to laugh. I knew she had liked him, even back then.

“Yes, John Warner.” She smiled. “I’m kind of glad you remember him. We got into an enormous fight at the farm one day, punching and kicking and the whole MMA thing going on. And when I pinned him, near the end, he leaned up and kissed me hard. We’ve been going out ever since. He graduated this year and we went to the Dells for the weekend. It was a sweet weekend. Completely awkward, and hilarious. But we got over ourselves. We went away a few times over the summer, with his family, with ours. We hung out, had fun.

“I’d started applying to nursing schools. I got into the UW Green Bay and I was thrilled, and I ran into the house with the letter to show it to mom and dad.” She choked on tears. I slammed my glass on the table and walked around to sit with her on the couch. I put my arm around her; she was shaking and trembling and I hated it. I remembered this feeling, every second of it.

This was going to be hard. But I opened my mouth and spilled my guts to my little sister. She needed to hear it to know she wasn’t broken.

“The shit started when I was seventeen. I started dating Brandon Silver. He was nineteen as a senior because he was held back in first grade. He was a great guy and treated me right and I thought mom and dad liked him. I
thought
. I told him I wanted to sleep with him after we’d been going out for a year and he set up the most romantic escape for New Year’s. It was a group of four couples and we had a four bedroom cabin. It was two of his friends, and my best friend. And he was sweet and gentle with me and I discovered I really liked...having sex. Bran could barely keep up with me and loved every minute of it.”

Nicole’s mouth hung open. “Morgan, you don’t have to—”

“Sure I do.” I grabbed the wine. “You’re not a freak and you need to know why. You’re not guilty and you’re not harlot or a whore. It’s rape shaming. Women shaming. Female shaming. It’s all oppressive and you’re a victim of them, not the guilty party.

“Bran’s friends weren’t as scrupulous as he was. They found out I’d admitted to liking sex, and liked giving hummers, so they got me drunk over summer break and tried to take advantage of me. I wasn’t stupid and they didn’t get their way and Bran lost his shit on them. He wasn’t playing pass the pussy with me. His friends didn’t understand that he knew how to have sex. That you don’t just pump and dump. You take your time, you enjoy, you make sure she enjoys as well.”

“You sure don’t mince words.” Nicole was blinking rapidly.

“Why should I?” I shrugged. “Have you ever heard how men talk when they don’t realize there’s a woman in the room? I’m not going to hold my tongue. I’m going to tell it like it is.”

Lisa cleared her throat. “Nicole, your sister is pragmatic about relationships. I guess you’ll find that out, but at first it’s a little shocking to hear. If you don’t want to hear this, tell her to stop now. But if you do want to know, just realize she’s being honest and shooting from the hip. I think you might find it refreshing to not hear euphemisms and silly parallels. I’m immune, but you aren’t. So speak up, please.”

She looked lost, but shook her head. “Don’t stop, please.”

“Bran went to UW Marathon and we were still dating,” I continued, after a moment to collect myself. I was feeling this as acutely as she was. “Or we tried to keep dating. It wasn’t easy because in August dad needed us to help on the farm with all the harvesting. You know it wasn’t unusual for him, or any of the other farmers, to pull us out of school in September and October. So Walt and I would help. Between that and him being in Marathon, we were starting to drift apart.

“I started seeing another guy in my class. He was nice, and...” I paused. What I was about to say was critical to all of this. I had to be honest with her. I hadn’t seen or heard from this girl in six years, and that was no fault of her own. We probably would be good friends if I hadn’t just left. So, I took a deep breath and spilled it. “...The sex was nothing more than adequate. I had the feeling that despite his claims, he hadn’t slept with anyone else. Never bothered with my end of the bargain. I dumped him in about month and found someone else. Same deal. Then...I hooked up with one of the farmers’ kids, Maddox, who was working his dad’s farm and not going to college.

“This is where my best friend became my ex-best friend. She started spreading rumors about me having slept with everyone on that romantic weekend. I don’t know what made her turn against me, but I was heartbroken when I found out she was the one spreading rumors that the fat chick was easy. I wasn’t easy. I was never easy, I
liked
sex. But apparently liking sex in Edgar, Wisconsin was the same as being easy. I had lived the rest of the year with that bullshit.

“I thought Maddox was on my side when it came to these rumors, but... Memorial Day weekend, right after graduation, he asked over a whole bunch of people and we were going to have a movie marathon.” Jesus Christ, the anger I still felt over all of this was blinding. “The movie was snips of all the different times I’d sex with Maddox. I’m not just pragmatic about sex, Nicole. I’m a little on the wild side, but I had never
ever
told Mad that he could tape me. Us. They whooped and hollered about the Jello Jiggler on the screen and how much fatty loved getting dick.”

I smeared tears off my face. I hadn’t realized I was crying until that moment. I was utterly consumed with anger and betrayal, and I wanted them to tell me to stop. I didn’t want to continue, but no one said anything and I dredged up the courage to finish.

“I hid the whole summer on the farm. I simply slunk off to college at the end of the summer despite dad telling me I couldn’t go and wouldn’t be going. He needed me at the farm. I told him to fuck off, and I moved to Marathon and started an associates there. I had plans to go to Eau Claire or Madison after that. I figured I’d think about that later.

“I felt like I was far enough away from the hell of Edgar that I was safe enough to try dating. It didn’t work out, but I had a few friends with benefits. I was happy there as I was, away from everything that had happened. Most of the people who knew about the movie went to other colleges, or if they were at Marathon they just stayed away from me.

“I was going to go home for a week after the end of the semester when dad showed up at my front door. He had paperwork in his fist and pushed his way in the front door. I wanted to know why he was there when I was going to be home in less than two hours.”

The words were just falling out of me at this point. There was no stopping me. “The papers he had that he wanted me to sign were to bring a case against Brandon. He said Brandon had clearly raped me and he had to pay for it. I looked at him cross-eyed, and said there was no case. Bran had never raped me. Maddox had told him. Maddox had told him Bran had raped me, and they were going to make sure Bran never had a moment of peace for doing that to his daughter.

“I refused to sign. Bran did nothing wrong. He wouldn’t listen. Dad didn’t believe Maddox would lie to him, he had no reason to lie. I wasn’t welcome back to the house until I signed the papers, admitted Bran had raped me and went to confession for my sins of adultery.”

“Adultery?” Nicole whispered. “Were you married?”

“No, no. I’ve never been married.” I shook my head in the negative. “It’s how some religions put the kaibosh on premarital sex. It’s adultery because you’re cheating on a future spouse. It’s the most convoluted explanation of it I’ve ever heard. But you know what mom and dad are like—strict,
strict
Lutheran. Conservative, old school synod. They basically couldn’t handle the idea their daughter would have done this on her own, without coercion.”

“Done what?” she asked, genuinely confused.

“Had sex.” I sighed. “I wasn’t allowed home. They didn’t want my sinning filth in their house. Here’s the real mind-fuck of all of this: because they were filing on my behalf when I was a minor, they were permitted to continue the case and get it through a grand jury. I didn’t want to do it. Why were they going after Brandon when it was Maddox who had really bullied, exploited and humiliated me? Why weren’t they going after all the assholes who made fun of my weight, made fun of me?

“I had to work fast. I knew they’d try to get me to testify. I knew dad and mom wouldn’t give up until they pulled me back into the fold. I had been applying to other schools to get out of Marathon. When Duquesne came back with a yes, I rented a U-haul, got a few of the remaining friends I had to help me pack up and got the fuck out of Wisconsin. I didn’t tell mom and dad where I was going. I called Walt to tell him I was leaving and he didn’t have anything to say to me.

“I landed here, in Pittsburgh, thirteen hours later. I called Walt again, to let him know I was alive. I was done with Wisconsin forever.”

Nicole looked terrified. Completely, totally terrified. She sniffled, and swallowed. “That’s what they’re doing to me. They want to have John brought up on rape charges. He didn’t rape me! He didn’t. I love him. How can they do this?”

“Because they don’t care about what you want, they just want to make sure we stay clean in the eyes of the Lord.”

“I’m not a bad girl.” She was weeping.

“Oh, I know that. I know.” I pulled her over and into my arms. This was my little sister, shaking, crying and terrified. “You’re not. They don’t live in the world we live in, Nicole. I don’t know why dad thinks this way. I don’t know why Walter followed him. But I know you’re not.” I pulled her away from me and lifted her chin to look at her face. “And you know what else I know?” She shook her head. “A hell of a lot more than when I left Wisconsin. We’ll get that case dropped.”

“We will?” She sniffled.

“Yes, because I’m six months away from graduating from law school. I know how the law works and I know how we can work it to get him out of this.”

“She can’t go home.” Lisa looked at me. “She can’t go back to Wisconsin. Not after this.”

“I know.” I nodded. “Nicole, do you understand that? You can’t go home. You’ll never be accepted back into life there.”

“I don’t want to go back.” She hiccupped. “I don’t. I can’t. I won’t. God, no, I don’t want to. I can’t believe dad wanted to file rape charges against him. He’s so sweet and kind to me and it’s all because we slept together and someone told someone who told someone.”

“It’s okay.” I patted her arm. “You don’t have to go back there to live. You’ll have to make a few trips with me to get this all straightened out, but you’re nineteen now, and you can do what you like.” I glanced at Lisa, who nodded. “You can stay here with us. I have plenty of room in my bedroom, and we can pick up a bed for you tomorrow.”

She threw her arms around me. “Shit, Morgan. I didn’t ever believe what they said about you. Now I know they were lying and I was right to not trust them.”

I hugged her. This was unreal. I’d thought my family was completely lost to me, I would never see them again. Any of them. But here was my sister, weeping on my couch, drinking my wine, in exactly the same situation that had driven me from Wisconsin in the first place. I didn’t want her to go through this and I wasn’t going to let it happen.

Jesus Christ, my little sister. I’d really thought I lost her. I knew mom, dad and Walter were lost cases. They lived in some other world I never wanted to be a part of anymore. I had the brains and drive to be a judge, and by damn that’s what I was going to do.

If Nicole wanted to be a nurse, then by God, that’s what she was going to do. I’d find her a nursing program here and I’d get her away from this.

“You don’t mind the couch tonight, do you?” I patted the cushion.

“I think I can handle that,” she said. “You have no idea how glad I am I came here.”

“I’m glad you did too,” I said. “I get my little sister back. I wish it wasn’t like this though.”

“Me too.”

Lisa put her wine down and ran for us, tackling us both backwards. “Group hug!”

––––––––

N
ick’s house was a gorgeous classic Gothic Victorian house with a wraparound porch, done in the classic three colors that were the hallmark of a good restoration. He had cream for the main color, with red for the secondary and yellow for the details. I was sad it was nearly dark and I couldn’t really see the house.

I expected a bachelor pad. I was beyond wrong. There was a formal living room with warm cream furniture, a pale blue rug, and even paler blue walls clearly not the place to sit to watch television. There was a den to the right, which was done in rich, comfortable browns and taupes and had deep leather furniture I wanted to sink into.

He took my overnight bag. “Are you sure your sister is going to be okay there?”

“She’ll be fine.” I smiled. “She’s got my bed and my cat. Her bed will be there on Monday and we’ll set everything up then.”

“You’re really going to share a room with your sister?”

“I’ve done it before.” I laughed. “Of course, she was an annoying thirteen year old who pissed me off twenty-four seven, but we’ll figure it out as we go along.”

“I’m going to take this upstairs and you can take the food to the kitchen.” He kissed me quickly on the lips. “I’m starving and that food smells so good. I’m going to change out of this suit too, so just settle in and I’ll be back.”

I nodded and took the bags of food into the kitchen, and was again stunned by what I found. It was a gorgeous, full gourmet kitchen. An enormous double Sub-Zero refrigerator, a six-burner Viking stove top, a double oven, apron sink and a goose neck faucet. There was a prep island, and in the far corner there was a breakfast nook with a table for four that over looked the back of the property. I wished I could see out the window. I wanted to find out if my boyfriend was also a gardener along with all the other things he was turning out to be.

I put the bags of takeout on the island and walked back to the den. There were pictures on the mantle and I was curious. I stood in front of the fireplace, just imagining us naked on the floor in front of it. I smirked and shook it off, getting close enough to see the pictures.