Moral Compass by Danielle Steel

Author:Danielle Steel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2020-01-06T16:00:00+00:00

* * *

—

Gwen was with Vivienne by then, and very gingerly explored with her the stories that the boys had told them.

“Why were they interrogated at all? I said I wasn’t with them that night,” Vivienne said, looking shaken.

“You lied to us, Viv. Your fingerprints and theirs were on the tequila bottle.”

“Is that why you fingerprinted the students?” she asked in a frightened voice, and Gwen nodded.

“You have a right to be protected, valued, and vindicated. Do you want to tell us the truth now?” Vivienne didn’t answer her for a minute.

“I don’t want them to get in trouble because of me,” she said in a small voice.

“Why not, after what one of them did to you? If it was one of them.”

“Maybe some part of it was my fault. Maybe I did something wrong or gave them the wrong impression. And besides, I got drunk with them.” She was willing to admit that much now. She had no other choice since the boys had talked about it and the fingerprints on the bottle were undeniable.

“Every rape victim in the world says what you just did, and thinks it. It doesn’t matter what you do. I don’t care how short your skirts are, or how drunk you get, you have the right to wear whatever you want and not be raped.” Gwen sat in silence for a minute letting her words sink in. “Viv, are you going to tell me what happened?”

Vivienne shook her head and then slid deep into her bed. “No, I can’t. And I didn’t say any of them did it.” But Gwen knew they did, and she knew that Vivienne remembered what had happened.

“Are you in love with one of them?” It was the only other reason Gwen could think of that she would protect them.

“No. I like them all…and I like two of them a lot. Maybe I could have fallen in love with one of them, but now it will never happen.”

“No, I guess it won’t. So you let them all go scot-free, no matter what?”

“Their lives will be ruined forever if they go to prison.”

“And yours?”

“I’ll be okay,” she said in a small childlike voice, but she was having nightmares about it, and headaches.

“You’ll remember it forever and that you did nothing, and you’ll regret it one day. I want you to think about this, Viv. Hard. You have a responsibility to yourself, the community, and even to them.” Vivienne turned her face away then and ignored her.

“My head hurts,” she said in a whisper.

“I’ll go. Call me if you want to talk…and tell me the truth about what happened.” She left Vivienne alone in her room then. Her parents had been out somewhere, and Dominic was waiting for her in the car in the hospital parking lot. She slid into the front seat next to him and looked at him in frustration.

“Well, did she tell you the truth this time?”

“More or less. One of them did it. But if I try to get a statement out of her, she’ll deny it.

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