Secret Lucidity(73)

“They know,” he whispers in my ear, and I burst into tears.

“She has to go,” the guy barks from across the room. “For Christ’s sake, what if someone sees her car?”

“She parks in the garage,” David says as he holds me.

“David,” I choke out through my tears. “The police came to the school.”

His arms are solid muscle around me, unrelenting. “I know.”

“You’ve got to get her out of here.”

David breaks his vise grip on me and turns to the guy, snapping, “Give me a fucking minute with her.”

“Who is that?”

He squeezes my shoulders with shaking hands. “Liam. He’s an old buddy of mine who’s an attorney. I called him after I left school this morning.” He drops his head to mine before adding, “They put me on administrative leave.”

“What?”

He moves me to the couch when my legs almost give out, and he sits next to me.

“I don’t know how they know, but they know.”

Tears free fall down my face. “How?”

“The principal couldn’t say—”

“This is a bad situation,” Liam states when he walks into the living room. He takes a seat in a chair across from us.

David never lets go of me as my body trembles against him.

“What do we do?”

“I can only advise David on that. If charges are pressed, I don’t want to be accused of tampering with the victim.”

I dart my eyes to David before going back to Liam. “A victim? Of what?”

“You’re a minor . . . and his student. He’s looking at a possible charge of second degree rape.”

I belly over in a wave of nausea, heaving in shock that severs my capacity to take in a decent breath.

Rape. How could anyone say that about David? About us?

“We don’t know what the allegations even are just yet,” he adds, and when I lift my head, he continues, “They are going to question you before they question David. So, at this point in time, we don’t know what was said or who said it. But if it’s substantial enough, if someone saw you two kissing or anything of that nature, then we have to prepare for the worst.”

I look at David from over my shoulder, and he takes his hands from me, raking them through his hair in distress.

“He could be looking at prison time. So, whatever this is between the two of you, it stops right here. No more texting, no more talking, no more seeing each other. No contact at all.”

“I’m so fucking sorry,” David says through painfully sad eyes.

“It’s over.” I look to Liam when he says this, his face, which is a stone wall of fervency, distorts through my tears. “I’m going to step outside. Say whatever goodbyes you need to say, David, and then send her home.”

A sob rips through me so loudly I don’t even hear the door shut as Liam heads out to the back patio. I fade entirely too fast in a wicked storm of emotions that splinter my heart. Their shards drop to the pit of my stomach, and I feel sick. When the pressure in my chest becomes too much to bear, ribs snap and lungs puncture. I can’t breathe through my agony, but I feel it when David lifts me from the couch, carries me to his bedroom, and sets me down on his bed.

Our bed.

The bed that has become a place of safety for me, because it’s here that, piece by piece, he put me back together, mending the unmendable.

He hunches over my collapsed body, covering mine with his, and it’s through my shattered heart that I hear him crying too. His tears soak through my shirt and dampen my back as our bodies wrack in excruciating pain.

“Don’t make me say goodbye,” I wail, begging for just one more wish to be granted in my favor.

But it’s out of our hands, and I know it. Maybe we were foolish to believe that nothing could ever part us. That we were invincible. Untouchable. Unbreakable. Because here we are, crumbling apart at the hands of the law.

“Look at me,” he eventually says, and when I sit up, I wipe my fingers across his face and collect his tears. “You can’t say anything. They can’t force you to talk, so don’t. No matter what they say they know, promise me you won’t ever tell them about us,” he begs in terror, and the thought of him being punished and going to prison for this kills me.

“I won’t say a word,” I tell him, unable to stop myself from crying. “I promise you.”

He runs his hand, his amazingly loving hand, down the side of my face. “You were never a kid to me. Never did I see you as anything other than everything I was missing inside myself. You’ve given me what no one else ever could. And I need you to know that you are so special and so beautiful”—he kisses me—“and that no matter what they might try to say about me, you were never a conquest. You were never preyed upon”—he kisses me again—“I swear to you, with all of my fucking heart, I love you. I love you in a way I never thought I could love, and nothing will ever change that.”

“I can’t be without you, David. I can’t,” I weep. “I’m nothing without you.”

“You’re everything. You always have been.” He takes me in his hands and dips his head to look me straight on. “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I will do everything I can to protect you from suffering any more pain. If I take the fall, don’t you dare feel guilty for that, because I have no regrets about falling in love with you.” Another kiss from him spurs more tears from me. “And listen, this might not amount to anything. We might be fine, but if the worst comes, I need you to make me a promise.”