Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 47525 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 238(@200wpm)___ 190(@250wpm)___ 158(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47525 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 238(@200wpm)___ 190(@250wpm)___ 158(@300wpm)
Just get home and take a bath. Just get home and take a bath.
“You said I raped you?” Jonathan’s voice roars from behind me, but I keep moving forward. I pick up my pace.
The alley stretches across four buildings and as long as I can reach building two where the restaurant is, I can—
“Stop fucking ignoring me.” Jonathan grabs me from behind and spins me around, crushing my plans. “Say that I didn’t rape you.”
I say nothing.
“Sadie...” He pushes me against the bricks. “Sadie, I’ve been nothing but nice to you tonight, and last I checked, you got a lot of benefits for trying to bring me down in high school.”
The tears fall even faster now, and I hate that this man is seeing me cry.
“It’s time for you to finally be honest with yourself.” He drags a hand across my wet face, smearing my tears instead of clearing them. “We had consensual sex. It wasn’t rape.”
“Please get the fuck away from me, Jonathan Baylor.” I manage. “Please just leave me alone.”
“I will, once you leave me alone.” He grits his teeth. “I’ve heard rumors that you’ve been sending letters about what you think happened between us to the media.”
What?
“You see me succeeding, just like you did in high school, and because I don’t want you—or because you couldn’t have me then—you’ve decided to try to ruin my life again.”
“I haven’t told anyone anything.” The mercurial look in his eyes is scaring me. “Nothing happened the last time, so why would I try again?”
“That’s a good-ass question,” he says. “That’s why I wasted time out of my life to track you down and figure this out.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“So, you’d be willing to sit down with my lawyer and sign a statement saying that I never raped you, correct? Sometime between right now and tomorrow, correct?”
“No…” I shake my head. “No…”
“That’s the wrong answer, Sadie.”
“I haven’t said anything to anyone, I swear.” My voice cracks. “Maybe it was one of the other girls you raped… I’m sure I’m not the only one.”
A painful burning flash flares across my cheek, and I slump onto the ground.
My vision blurs, and it takes me several minutes to realize that he’s slapped me.
Clinging to my roses, I struggle to stand, but the burning flash comes again.
This time, I can’t get up.
All I can see are Jonathan’s shoes on the wet asphalt. I can hear him calling someone to pick him up in twenty minutes, then hear the flick of a lighter.
He grabs my arms and drags me closer to the dumpster. Then he helps me to my feet and presses me against the edge.
“Since you’re going to keep fucking with me and claiming that I raped you,” he says, unzipping his pants, “I guess I should probably give you what you clearly want, right?”
“No, please!” I scream. “Stop! I’ll sign it! I’ll sign it!”
His hand clamps over my mouth and he pushes up my dress. He slides his cock inside me, filling me against my will, biting the skin on the back of my neck.
“You were a slut then, and you’re a slut now,” he hisses, thrusting in and out of me so hard it feels like he’s trying to break me. “Your pussy isn’t even that good...”
I give up resisting. Fighting only makes him hurt me worse.
“Fuckkkk…” He stiffens behind me, then pulls out. I feel something warm dripping onto my back.
Seconds later, that warmth turns to searing pain.
He presses my head against the dumpster to muffle my screams.
He keeps me pinned with one hand while he burns the skin on my lower back with his lighter.
When he finishes, he lets go. I collapse onto the ground.
The burning, the inside pain, the flare-up of the scars from the past—it’s all too much.
I don’t know how long I lay there, but the next thing I know, someone is putting me in the backseat of a car.
“She looks messed up…” “I wonder what happened to her.” “Poor girl… Should we take her to the emergency room?”
My throat hurts too much to speak—to beg them to YES, please take me to the hospital, and what little I have left, leaves my body within seconds.
The next time I wake up, I’m in a hospital room and the TV is blaring loud with a Sunday night football game.
Jonathan Baylor just scored the winning touchdown.
34
SADIE
Day Thirteen
Being back in reality feels strange—almost cruel.
The storm has passed, the power restored, and yet I’m being strapped into the serum chair one final time. One night left here, and Ethan is nowhere to be found.
Neither is Robin.
Their absence gnaws at me, loud in the silence. I don’t know if it’s a sign of hope or a warning.
Over breakfast, my new lawyers spoke in cautious optimism, trading theories and legal jargon like it might save me. For once, I let myself believe them.