Lucy Lahey trusted the man she was dating, and it turned out to be her biggest mistake. Reeling in the aftermath of a rape that stole not only her virginity, but her confidence, her love for MMA, her clarity and more, Lucy now finds herself in Jerse...
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Coen was right, the video was fast to reach numbers. This morning, Instagram was blowing up, my DMs were full of questions I didn't want to answer. It was full of accusations too, as to be expected, I had no delusions going into this that there would be people who don't believe me.
Downstairs, mom and dad are sitting at the breakfast table with coffee. I'm wearing sweat pants and a hoodie today and I drop my backpack on the floor, retrieving the smoothie mom left on the bench for me.
"Thanks, mom," I say with the straw between my lips as I sit down and look between my parents. "You might as well just move in, dad. You're here all the time."
"No," mom snaps, nervously laughing when we stare at her. "He's not moving in. Don't be ridiculous."
"Saw the video," dad palms his mug. "Made us real proud. I sent it to the board at Harvard."
"You did?"
"I wanted to be sure they saw it," he says. "Hopefully he gets sent home. Be super insane if he happened to get run over once he gets back to Fort Collins."
Mom nods in agreement, slow and sinister. "That would be strange."
"Or if his breaks stopped working," dad shrugs. "These tragedies we have no control over."
"It'd be a real shame if he was in his pool at the same time as a toaster," mom sits forward, leaning her elbows on the table top. "The odds of such a thing happening."
"Am I watching my parents plot a murder at the breakfast table?" I blink and slurp on the smoothie. It's inevitable that my mom and dad would want to hurt Logan. It's a normal reaction to the situation. If they genuinely went through with it, that would be the shocking part.
"Nari's picking me up again," I stand up and check my cell phone, there's a text to let me know she's coming. "Will Coen be all right getting to school?"
"I'll take him," dad says. "You don't have to go, kid."
Mom doesn't disagree with him but I decline the offer. "I'd rather get it over and done with. The longer I drag out a disappearance, the more people will talk when I do go back."
"Call us if it get's too much," mom says, remaining seated while I snatch up my backpack.
"You know what it'll be like, right?" Dad asks. "It's going to be rough, Luce."
"I'm trying not to think about it."
He gives me a brief nod, both of them look at each other with concern, it rattles me. I knew it was going to be brutal, people will be talking, judging, possibly confronting me, but I'm sick of being the one that suffers for Logan's choices. I've suffered enough, I don't want to keep hiding.
Nari can't stop talking about the video when she picks me up. "I cried, so much. Mom cried, she put you down for prayer in her bible group too, I hope you don't mind."
