Don't Trust Her by Elizabeth Boles

Author:Elizabeth Boles [Boles , Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: LADYBUGBOOKS, LLC.
Published: 2021-06-05T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 25

There are many betrayals here, but I think the worst one of all is that Paige, or Charlotte, or Charlotte or Paige, whoever she is and was, was taken advantage of by Sam’s father.

Bile surges up the back of my throat as an image forms in my head. I see sixteen-year-old Charlotte being convinced that having sex with an older, married man is the best thing for her.

It’s vile. It’s repulsive, and it doesn’t surprise me at all that Sam did what he did with her. He obviously learned shitty behavior from someone.

Guilt rushes through me. Oh God, what we did to her.

It’s unbearable to even think of now, that a girl would be wrongfully accused of such a heinous crime. That the three of us were involved makes it so much worse.

Shame runs deep in me. I bury my face in my hands and wish that Paige had told us. The least we could have done was apologize for what happened. Maybe it would have lessened some of her wounds. Maybe we could have healed together.

I remember the first time that I met Paige—and I mean Paige, not Charlotte. It was a sunny day, early spring—about a year ago. The birds chirped, and there wasn’t a hint of humidity in the air. It was a morning brimming with hope and possibility.

But even with all the beauty around us, there was still a fragile brokenness to her. Paige carried wounds. I didn’t know how deep until now.

I cast curious glances to Faith and Blanche. Do they feel the same as I do?

Anguish twists up Faith’s face. “Oh my God, she was Charlotte. I never knew.”

“Me neither,” Blanche says. “Even if I suspected, I would have shrugged it off. I mean, Charlotte was gone, out of our lives. She was right—I never thought about her once she left town with her folks.”

“What we did,” I murmur. “She was right to blackmail us.”

The money that Paige took is a small price to pay for the suffering that she endured. I would have paid double if it could have erased some of her pain.

“Oh God,” Faith sobs. “She was raped by Sam’s dad?”

“Sounds more like she was lied to and coerced,” Blanche says. “But yes, she was technically underage.”

“Why didn’t she tell anyone?” Faith says.

I shake my head. “How could she? No one believed her when she said that she was innocent—not even her parents.”

“She was a kid.” Blanche slumps to the couch. “She was a kid, and we fed her to the wolves.”

“We were kids, too,” Faith argues.

Blanche’s gaze snaps to Faith. “What are you going to say? That we didn’t know any better? We knew better. We knew a helluva lot better, but we let it happen anyway.”

“She could have told someone about the officer.”

“Who?” I direct to Faith. “Everyone thought she pushed Brittany off the bluff, thanks to us. Who was going to buy that a respected police office had talked her into having sex? Especially when folks knew she was already screwing around with Sam.

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