Falling Apart

Chapter 81

Katherine's POV

"Ms. Willick, I'd like to know everything about you and your relations with Ian Scott." The detective enters the room and my father follows closely behind him.

I try focusing on what words to use, but I can't seem to explain it at all. Not with my dad here, whom I haven't had a decent conversation with since I was eleven. I catch myself from looking at the freshly shaven face behind the detective, looking as if he cleaned up just to see me.

My eyes roam around the room in search of a mere beginning as to where I should start to explain. I suppose I don't speak for a few moments out of thought, and Will speaks up. "She told the nurses here what happened to her, and they didn't do anything about it!" He shouts. "There was no protection of the child, and no one bothered to do so much as talk with Ian."

The detective brings his gaze over to Will and gives him a grim look. "I believed I asked Ms. Willick." He purses his lips and clicks his pen. He brings his attention back towards me and I clear my throat.

"I met Ian in my first week of college." I begin, hoping that will summon something. "It was this past fall, and..." I stop, choosing my words carefully now. "He seemed like a normal guy. I felt like I was in a movie when I was around him, only I was the foolish one who ignored the signs of his true character."

"So I was thinking, maybe you'd want to come to a party with me." Ian suggested. "My roommate is throwing it; it's at the big frat house on the other side of campus. I could get you in if you wanted to come."

"I don't know. I'm not really a party girl." I had tried to decline with a gentle blow but my luck faltered.

"I beg to differ." His cold eyes scanned down my body and I shook off the icy feeling. Something in those few words made me feel something different; maybe I masked it as confident or independent when in reality I was scared of this mere acquaintance that looked at me in this way.

I mistakenly told him I'd think about it, which he took as a definite and I felt forced to go to the party. I was raised all my life to be smart, and to think before I act, but my new independence had its whims. Later, as I waited for Ian to pick me up, a knock sounded at the door and it ended up being the first time I met David. His light blue eyes burned into mine like a smelting iron and I found it hard to look away from this stranger knocking at my door.

"He's not good enough for you." His accent was foreign to me but his words didn't make much sense at the time. I'd never spoken to this man before, and I quickly wondered how he knew about Ian, how he knew where I was about to go, and how he knew where to find me.

"What are you... I don't even know you." I stuttered like a lovesick child. My curious thoughts got the better of me but before I could spit out questions, he replied.

He introduced himself as David before warning me, "Don't go to the party with him."

It was the first of many startling threats. David had tried so hard to keep me away from Ian but something came over me when I was around Ian; pure curiosity.

Later that night, I found myself at the party sitting on a couch for what felt like hours. I didn't know where Ian had gone but he wasn't back as soon as he said would be. Finally, the couch sunk lower and Ian had joined me. "Where were you..." I begun but my question changed when I took in his appearance.

"Are you drunk?" I asked instead.

Ian's eyes were red to the brim and what smelled like cologne before was now replaced with the smell of whiskey. Instead of answering, he brought a liquor-smelling finger to my lips and with the other he spread himself against my thigh. "Come upstairs baby." His words slurred together.