Collared by Nicole Williams

Author:Nicole Williams [Williams, Nicole]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Collared
Published: 2016-03-21T04:00:00+00:00

MY VOICE IS straining, my skin is burning, and my body aches. As much as I don’t want to tell my parents this party was a bad idea, I’m about five more reintroductions and awkward embraces away from telling them.

It’s too much. Too many people. Too many questions. Too many smiles of pity. Too many strangers touching me and talking to me and acting like I haven’t missed the past decade of life.

I’ve met Patrick, who was a little warmer than Sam, but that doesn’t say a lot. I’ve talked to every family member, most every old friend, and at least half of my parents’ acquaintances and work friends. This would be a lot for anyone—to be at the center of this kind of attention. Up until two weeks ago, I’d spent years with one person—a person who talked without really speaking.

I’m proud of myself for doing so well tonight, but I know better than to push my limits. I don’t want this day to end up with me passed out in a small room and flashing back to one of my worst memories.

I’ve just managed to pry myself away from a couple of our old neighbors to find one of my parents and tell them I need to leave when a conversation catches my attention as I pass the dessert table. They’re work buddies of my dad’s, and they’re shaking their heads at each other.

“Can you imagine if that was your daughter? I don’t know what I’d do,” the one close to my dad’s age says to the others. I can’t remember his name, though I know I was told it when we were introduced.

“You know exactly what you’d do, and then Tom and I would have to arrest you, and you’d spend the rest of your life rotting with the same criminals you put away.”

“How would that be a crime, for Christ’s sake? I mean, come on, putting a guy like that out of his misery? Although if it was my daughter, I would have beat a lot more misery into that son of a bitch before putting him out of it, if you know what I mean.”

The two men around him bob their heads.

“I know they’re saying he never touched her like that, but he might as well have for as much as he fucked her up. That is not the same Jade. That’s not Jade at all.”

Chills spill down my back, and I know I should keep moving. I don’t need to hear anything else.

“I wish that sick fucker was right here right now because let me tell you what.” One of the others sets down his plate and points at the ceiling. “I’d string him up by his ankles and let everyone in this room take a swing. I’d let Jade take as many as she wanted until it was his guts spilling out instead of Butterfingers and bubblegum.”

The other guys are still nodding, and I know I should keep going. Pretend I didn’t hear any of it.

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