Chapter 21
Alex parked in front of a dilapidated building on Main Street and compared the number with the address Katie gave him. Inside, he jogged up the stairs to the third floor and rushed through the hallway until he came to apartment 3C. He tried the knob, but the door was locked. He knocked and shouted, “Katie.”
A muffled cry for help came from within.
“Katie.” He stepped back and gave the door a solid kick. It sprung open. The apartment was dark. He followed the sound of her cries and entered a bedroom. In the light filtering into the room from a streetlight he saw Katie struggling with a man on the floor. He grabbed him by the hair, yanked him upright and slammed him against the wall.
“Hey, man, whadda ya think yer doin’?”
Alex recognized him. Rob from the alley, the sleaze who was putting the moves on Katie.
“You.”
“We didn’t do anything, man. Just fooling around. Nothing happened.”
Alex smashed Rob’s head against the wall. His eyelids fluttered and his eyes rolled back.
He released him and Rob fell to the floor. Alex rushed to Katie. “Did he ... did he hurt you?”
She threw herself against his chest and whimpered.
He held her tightly and stroked her hair. “It’s okay,” he soothed. “Everything’s okay.” He didn’t know if that were true or not, but he hoped so for her sake and her mother’s. “We have to call the police,” he said softly against her hair.
She jerked out of his arms. “No. No police. My father. He’ll kill me.” She sobbed as though realizing for the first time the consequences of her actions. Throwing herself back against his chest, she sobbed harder.
“Okay, no police, but Katie, honey, you have to tell me what happened.” She cried so hard now he doubted she could talk. “Did he rape you?”
She shook her head. “He ... he ... said ... he was ha ... having a ... party ... but when I ... I got here ....” She shuddered and hugged herself. “He ... took ... some drugs and got real ... mean, th ...throwing me around and ....” She gulped. “He tried to ta ... take off ... my clothes. I fought him. His h-hands were all over me, t-touching me ... I-I told him ... no, but he j-just kept on grab ... grabbing me ....”
“Then what happened?”
“I k-knocked him over the h-head with a l-lamp. He f-fell. I-I thought … h-he was dead. I ran to the ... phone and called Mom. You ... you answered.”
“Wasn’t that a stroke of good luck?” He didn’t think she would, but she smiled. He took a hankie from his pocket and dabbed the tears from her cheeks. “And then?”
“Rob woke up. He called me all kinds of ... of names and hit me across the face. I fell and he ri-ripped open my shirt and unzipped ....” She pointed to her jeans.
He nodded.
“T-that’s when you ... you came in.”
Behind them, Rob came to. “Fucking bitch. Fucking cock teaser.”
Katie covered her ears and cried louder.
Alex sprang forward, grabbed him by the shirt and hauled him to his feet. Rob took a swing at him. Alex ducked the punch and rammed him against the wall and held him there with an arm across his throat.
The overhead light came on.
“Hey, what’s going on here?”
“Who are you?” Alex asked, looking over his shoulder.
“Greg. I live here.”
Alex released Rob and faced Greg. “Your friend tried to rape a sixteen-year-old girl, is what.”
“Sixteen?” Greg looked at Katie. “She told us she was eighteen.”
“Yeah,” Rob said. “Sixteen. That little bitch.” He lunged toward Katie.
Alex tripped him. Rob crashed to the floor. Alex turned to Greg. “Get him out of here while he can still use his legs.” He walked over to Katie and knelt beside her.
“It’s all my fault. It’s all my fault.” Katie strengthened her hold on Alex.
He stroked her hair and comforted her with reassurances while Greg hustled Rob out of the apartment. He couldn’t deny some of what happened was Katie’s fault. She’d lied to her mother, to him, and to Rob and Greg and the truth caught up with her. That didn’t give Rob the right to do what he had, though, and Katie was too naïve to realize saying “No” didn’t always work.
When she calmed, he put on her shoes while she fixed her clothes, then he grabbed her jacket from the floor and helped her stand. “Can you walk?”
She nodded. “I’m a little shaky, but I think I can.”
“Lean on me.”
She clutched him around the waist. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“Shh. What do you say we blow this popsicle stand?”
“That’s so cliché.”
“Glad to have you back, Katie.” He gave her a quick squeeze. “All set?”
They made their way slowly through the apartment and down the stairs.
“Are you going to tell my mom?”
“You know I have to. I should have told her about what happened in the alley, too.”
“Mom doesn’t need to know about that.” She looked up at him. “You’ll get in trouble because you kept that from her. I know you like her and she likes you. I won’t tell. I promise.”
He recognized that Katie saw him in a different light now, but what she suggested wasn’t possible. “You’re going to tell her everything, Katie, including the incident in the alley.” When he found her and Rob in the alley, he had suspected Katie knew Rob and that she went willingly with him. But he’d given her the benefit of the doubt. He was sorry he had. If he hadn’t, what happened to her tonight might not have occurred.
“Mom’s going to go ballistic. She’ll never trust me again.”
“Your mother’s not going to go ballistic.” Susan's trust in her daughter was another matter.
Outside, he guided her toward his vehicle and after he fastened the seat belt around her, she smiled and whispered, “Thanks, Alex. Thanks for everything.”
At Susan’s, he ushered Katie ahead of him into the house.
Susan waited for them in the front entry. “I heard your car pull up and ....” She looked at Katie and gasped. “Oh my God, what happened?” She turned to Alex. “What happened?”
Katie sobbed and stumbled toward Susan with her arms outstretched.
Susan hugged her. Over Katie’s shoulder, she mouthed, “Is she okay?”
No, she wasn’t okay. But she would be in time. “She had a close call," he said. "She was almost raped.”
Susan let out a mewl and hugged Katie tighter. “How’d this happen, Katie? You were supposed to be at Veronica’s.”
Alex touched Susan’s elbow. “I’ll tell you all about it.” He turned to Katie. “Why don’t you take a hot bath?”
Katie sniffled and looked at Alex. “Will you be here when I’m done?”
“If you want.”
She nodded.
Alex watched her walk up the stairs.
Susan stared into Alex's face. “She was supposed to be at Veronica’s. She’s been lying to me all along, hasn’t she?”
He nodded.
“I wanted so much to believe her. I wanted so much for our relationship to be like it was. I suspected she was lying to me. I suspected her good behavior was all an act, but I closed my eyes and pretended I didn’t see.”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself.” He brushed a strand of hair from her face. Katie fooled him, too. He told Susan what he knew and what Katie told him in the car. How she thought she’d get her parents back together if she rebelled. How she was sure they would because they loved her and didn’t want to see her unhappy. How she had resented him because he was trying to take her father’s place in her mother’s life.
Susan shivered and hugged herself as though doing so would warm her. “Katie’s been through so many changes in so short a time. I keep thinking that if Jonathan and I would have been at each other’s throats all the time, she would have
seen the divorce coming. She would have had time to prepare herself.”
“You’re such a wonderful mother. Anyone else would be livid.”
“Oh, I’m furious. I want to throttle her.” She sighed. “I also want to beg her forgiveness.”
“You still feel responsible and guilty for the divorce.”
She nodded. “Sometimes. Times like these.”
“You should be thanking Jonathan.”
“I should?”
“Sure. Otherwise, we probably would never have met.” And they would never have fallen in love.
“That’s true.” She smiled. “God, what was that Rob guy thinking? I know Katie acts and looks older than sixteen, but she’s so inexperienced … and to do what he did to my daughter and get away with it ... he should be punished. I want him punished, Alex. It was assault and attempted rape. He should be charged.”
“Yes, he should.” If he believed laws protected the innocent, Alex would agree to pressing charges against the s.o.b.
“The look on your face tells me you don’t think the police should be involved. Why not?”
“I’m thinking about Katie. How will a trial affect her? Look at it from the defense's point of view. Katie misrepresented herself. She went willingly to his apartment. Defense could argue she looked for what she got. She’ll be discredited and every aspect of her life will be dissected. The end result could be that he walks and Katie is left looking like the one who did the wrong.”
“God. I never thought about that. So, what ... I should just do nothing?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“What are you saying then?”
“Jonathan is a cop. Why don’t you let him handle it?”
“He still has faith in the judicial system. He’ll want to bring charges against the guy.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. Because it’s his daughter, it might be a different matter. He might handle it differently.”
“What are you suggesting? Vigilante justice?”
“No, but I’m sure your husband has ways of dealing with someone like Rob. Katie said he took some drugs, so ....” He gave her a long, steady look. “You know you’re going to have to tell him about this.”
She nodded and cringed. “That’s something I’m not looking forward to doing.”
He ran his hands slowly up and down her arms. “I’m sure he’ll understand you aren’t to blame for Katie’s actions.”
“Maybe.” She threw her hands into the air. “I was so wrong. The way I handled Katie was wrong. I thought if I showed her how much I loved her and if I was patient with her, she’d eventually come back to me. In my heart and in my mind I knew her behavior would end in something like this. I guess I wasn’t willing to believe my daughter was capable of such deceit and self-destructiveness.”
“Katie should be so thankful she has a father and mother who care about her so deeply and who’d do anything they could to protect her. She behaved recklessly, but I think she learned a lesson from this experience. And for what it’s worth, I think you handled her behavior the right way.”
“No.” She shook her head. “No, I didn’t. She lied to me time and time again, but still I trusted her. I’m a terrible mother.”
He wiped the tears from her cheeks. “No, you’re not. Katie told me in the car how much you love her and how sorry she is for hurting you and betraying your trust and how lucky she is to have a mother like you.”
“She did?” she asked between sobs.
“Uh-huh.” He took her in his arms. She laid her head against his chest.
“Will I ever learn that people are not as I see them, as I want to see them, as I want them to be? I trusted my family that they would love me no matter what, that they would never hurt me. But they did. And still I placed that same trust in my daughter and look what that got me. Every day I teach my children the same values my parents taught me, but that isn’t enough, is it?”
“A parent can only teach their children right from wrong. How they apply those teachings is up to them.”
She looked at him. “How’d you get so smart, anyway?”
He shrugged.
“After I realized the divorce was inevitable, I tried to accept Jonathan’s decision with humility and grace and vowed I wouldn’t be like those other women who fought with their ex-husbands about every little thing. As it turns out, I’m no different. I hate myself for it. I liked that I could punish Jonathan. I liked that I had the children and he ended up unhappy. And he is unhappy, you know. He asked me if there was a chance we could get back together.”
Alex stiffened. “What did you tell him?” He held his breath, refusing to imagine his life without her.
“No chance in hell.”
He exhaled. “Good for you.” And good for him.
“If you weren’t in my life, I might have jumped at the chance.” She wiped her nose and eyes with the sleeve of her sweater.
“I’m glad I am. Going back to your husband would be a mistake. You know that.”
She nodded.
He looked at her red eyes and nose and disheveled hair. “You’ve never looked so beautiful.”
“How can you say that? I must look a wreck.”
“Never.”
“I’m so glad I have you. Which reminds me, you lied to me about having your calls forwarded. I know why you did, but don’t try to protect me, even if you think it’s for my own good. Okay?”
“You have my word.” He saw her love for him in her eyes just before he kissed her. Her lips were warm and inviting. She pressed her body against his. The kiss ended. He took a step backward, knowing he could not keep his past from her any longer. Susan deserved to know the truth. Tonight seemed a night for confessions and forgiveness. A better moment might never come.
“Susan, I — ”
Katie trudged down the stairs.