Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 77718 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77718 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
“Jesus Christ.” He sits forward, putting his head in his hands. “This is my fault. I asked you to go to that auction.”
“It’s not your fault.”
He looks at me. “You wouldn’t have been there for this to happen if I hadn’t been away.”
“You had a game.”
“I always have a game.”
“Dad…” My mouth goes dry.
“I know I failed you. Time and time again. I know it was wrong, but I couldn’t cope with your mom at the time…how she was…so I avoided being at home. I didn’t think about how that affected you. I was selfish. And. when she died…I should’ve been there. The guilt was eating me up so bad; I couldn’t look at you without feeling shame.”
“I always thought it was because I reminded you of her.”
“No. Christ, no.” He puts his hand on mine, gripping it. “You do look like her. You’re beautiful, just like your mom. But it was my own shame…I failed you, Ari. And, now, I’ve failed you again.”
“You haven’t failed me.” I squeeze his hand. “Truth: yes, you failed me back then, when I needed you, and I spent a lot of years being mad at you.”
“Is that the reason you drank? Because of your mom?”
Tears squeeze at my eyes. “Partly…”
He closes his eyes and heaves out a breath. “I’m going to sort this out for you.” He opens his eyes and brushes a fallen tear from my cheek. “I’m going to kill the son of a bitch who did this to you.”
“No.” I shake my head. “I’m going to do this the right way. I’m going to report it to the police.”
“Can I…go to the station with you?” he asks tentatively.
I give him a sad smile. “I’d really like that.”
“And Ares…have you spoken to him yet? He left the hotel without letting anyone know he was leaving. I was guessing he’d seen the video.”
“He, um…” I look away from my dad, picking my coffee up and taking a sip. “He came here first thing this morning, before I went to the hospital. He’d seen the video. I tried to tell him that I hadn’t drunk any liquor, but…he wouldn’t believe me.”
“Have you told him about the drug test?”
I shake my head and lower my cup to the table.
“You need to tell him.”
My eyes flash to my dad’s. “I don’t have to tell him a thing. He’s supposed to believe me. Not a drug test. He doesn’t trust me, and I’ve never given him a reason not to. And, without trust, we have nothing.”
My feelings toward Ares, the way he reacted, are turning to anger and bitterness, and I’m clinging to them because it’s all that will get me through this…through losing him.
“He deserves to know the truth,” my dad counters.
“I gave him the truth, and it wasn’t good enough, coming from me.”
“I know. But you have to see it from his point.”
“I get that.” I dig my hand into my hair, frustrated. “But he didn’t even give me a chance. He came here, guns blazing. He’d already made his mind up about what had happened, so it didn’t matter what I said. He was never going to believe me.”
“I know, Ari, but his background, with his dad…he has a hard time trusting people.”
“Especially drunks. Yeah, I get that. But I’m not his dad. He can’t hold me up against his dad every time something goes wrong. Either he trusts me or he doesn’t. And it’s clear that he doesn’t.”
My dad drags a hand down his face. “Okay.” He exhales. “I get what you’re saying. I don’t agree with you not telling him. But I get it.”
“And don’t you tell him either.”
“Ari—”
“I’m serious.”
“Okay,” he concedes. “I won’t say anything to Ares. But we should go to the police station now and report this. The sooner they talk to that little shit, the better.”
We leave my apartment, and my dad drives me to the police station where I make a statement to a policewoman with a kind face. I give her the copy of the test results that Dr. Pritchard gave me. The officer, whose name is Knight, tells me that she’ll talk to Leo and get his version of events and that she’ll be in touch.
And that’s it.
I’m frustrated at the lack of action, I guess, and so is my dad. But there’s nothing else we can do.
Dad drives me home, and we pick up pizza on the way.
We sit together, watching an old Friends rerun—“The One With Russ.” Both of us laugh through the episode, and honestly, I need the laugh after everything that’s happened to me since last night.
I guess the fact that I can still laugh tells me something.
I might have been drugged, and currently, my name might be getting dragged through the mud. And I might have lost Ares, the guy I love.