Stolen Dreams by Cheryl Bradshaw

Author:Cheryl Bradshaw [Cheryl Bradshaw]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-07-01T07:00:00+00:00

“Honestly, you guys, I’m fine,” I said. “It’s just a few bruises here and there. No big deal.”

Rae hovered over the hospital bed, inspecting me. “You have a few cuts on your face. Not bad though. With a little makeup, you won’t even be able to tell.”

Sasha and Kenna sat in chairs on the other side of the room, looking on, but not speaking.

“Really, you didn’t all have to come down here. You can go home. They’re releasing me in the next hour.”

“You’ve always been here for us, and we’ll always be here for you,” Rae said. “It’s what we do.”

There was a knock at my door. Sasha sprung from her chair and opened it.

Josh walked in, carrying a cheap bouquet of roses I assumed he purchased at the hospital gift shop.

I looked at my girls. “All right, which one of you called him?”

They looked at each other. No one spoke.

“They didn’t call me,” he said. “The hospital did.”

“I don’t want you here.”

“Callie, I didn’t come here to upset you. I just wanted to know if you were okay.”

“I’m okay. You can go now.”

“Can we just—”

“No,” I said. “You can go.”

He turned and walked out the door, closing it behind him.

Sasha and Kenna joined Rae at my bedside.

“What’s going on?” Rae asked. “You weren’t this mad earlier. Last time we talked, you wanted to work things out with him. What changed?”

“Remember Libby Hansen?”

Their pleasant dispositions turned to anger.

“What about her?” Rae asked.

“She hired Josh to renovate her bathrooms.”

Kenna grimaced, crossed her arms in front of her. “I just bet she did.”

“I know,” I said. “I should have known. I remembered what she was like in high school. She was the biggest flirt of them all. I knew she couldn’t be trusted.”

Before anyone had the chance to ask why, Kenna said, “I don’t think you really understand just how bad she really is.”

“What do you mean?” I said.

“Libby slept with Todd.”

Todd had been Kenna’s high school sweetheart. Everyone thought they’d graduate and get married, until they broke up at the end of their senior year.

“Is that why you two broke up?” I said. “Over Libby?”

Kenna nodded. “If I saw her right now, I’d slap her across the face. Scratch that. I’d punch her. I mean, I love Ben, and if it weren’t for Libby, we probably would have never met, but I’d still like to smash her face through a brick wall.”

We all remained silent for a moment, allowing time for what she’d just said to sink in.

“Kenna,” I said, “why didn’t you ever tell us what she did to you?”

“I was young and embarrassed. I should have. I’m sorry.”

Embarrassed.

I knew the word well. In the ambulance on the way to the hospital, I thought about Rae, Sasha, and Kenna, and I’d decided I wouldn’t tell them about Libby. But I was wrong to think like that. Now, seeing them standing in front of me, dropping everything in their lives to be by my side, I knew I had to tell them the truth, so I spilled what little details Jeremy had told me about Libby and Josh.

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