Beg You to Trust Me (Lindon U #2)(110)

I glance at the card on my nightstand. “I need to talk to my family, but I think I can make that happen. Can you tell me what airport I’d need to fly into?”



I managed to pass math with a C-, and if I hadn’t dropped from film, my grade point average would be far lower than the 2.8 I scraped by with for my first semester. A far cry from the 4.0 I always held in high school.

It’s a deflating feeling when my parents ask me how I did and seeing the disappointed frowns on their faces when I admit the average. Some of my old assignments are still hanging on the fridge with As and high remarks from old teachers, only making me feel worse when I meet two sets of sad eyes.

But it’s nothing compared to the crushing feeling that consumes me when my sisters convince me to sit Mom and Dad down and tell them what I’d told them the night before.

Everything. From start to end.

And it goes about as I expect it to.

“You are not going back to that school,” Mom informs me, swiping furiously at tears as she paces in the den.

“Mom—” Serena tries coaxing.

Our mother snaps her a look that has her quieting quickly.

Serenity speaks up. “If she doesn’t go back, then he wins.”

It’s our dad, who’s been eerily silent this whole time, who looks to his first born with surprise and says, “You didn’t even want her going there in the first place.”

“That’s because she’s better than Lindon. We all know she would have thrived at any ivy league that accepted her, but that’s not what she wanted. This is. And I’m telling you both that it would be a mistake to pull her away. It’s not her who should leave.”

I sit straighter, glad to have her fierceness backing me. Even though my time at Lindon U hasn’t been great, I don’t think running away is the answer. “I won’t lie, I considered dropping out a few times when things were…bad.” A few eyes focus on me as I sink into the cushion I’m sitting on. I play with my hair. “But Serenity is right. I don’t think it’s fair if I’m the one who has to say goodbye to the few good things I have going for me there.”

Dad swipes at his jaw. “Pumpkin, we don’t want to see you get hurt any more than you already have been.”

“Did you really…” Mom’s soft words fade as she studies me carefully. “Did you really have to go through all that alone? You had to get treated for—” She winces.

Admitting to my family that I caught chlamydia was probably the most traumatic part of this experience. But the anger and disappointment I expected to be met with was void on all of their faces.

They just looked…shocked.

Sympathetic.

Mom cried harder.

Dad’s jaw clenched.

Serena and Sienna held hands.

Serenity patted my back in a much more maternal way that I ever would have expected from her.

“Yeah, I needed to go on antibiotics for it at the beginning of the semester. I was too embarrassed to tell anybody. I thought I’d get judged or get in trouble, so I…” I lick my lips and shrug defeatedly.

“Baby.” Mom comes over and sits back down on the other side of me, taking my hand. “I know we don’t always see eye to eye, but you could have told us. We would have never judged you for what happened. It wasn’t your fault.”

It wasn’t your fault.

Olive told me that.

Danny.

All of my sisters too.

And now my parents.

Maybe it’s time I start believing it.

My throat bobs as I slowly begin nodding, trying to let those words absorb into me until they loosen my tense posture.

Mom brushes at my damp cheeks with her thumbs. “People like to pretend others are the bad people in life, so they don’t feel guilty about the things they’ve done to them. Do not for one second believe you’re the villain. What that boy did, whoever he is, and what Rebecca has been making you feel like is not valid. So, if staying at Lindon is going to make you feel safe, is going to make you feel like you have a fighting chance to prove to them they’re wrong, then I’ll support you. But your sister is right, sweetie. You need to file a formal report.”

I find myself quietly agreeing.

It’s Dad who says, “There has to be medical records of people treated for the same diseases.”

“There would be,” Serenity agrees. “But that isn’t something that can be easily obtained. There’d have to be a targeted audience for investigators to even look into before collecting any information from them, and there are a lot of hoops to jump through to get it. Frankly, that’s even if they take this kind of case seriously.”

My shoulders drop.

Serenity squeezes one of them.

Dad growls, “What the fuck do I need to do to get my hands on a copy of the fucking reports?”

“Dad,” Serenity warns. “We both know that would never happen. No amount of money will gain you access to that sort of thing. It’d be a major HIPPA violation to breach anybody’s medical reports, even if they’re a person of interest in a case under investigation.”

His anger is palpable. “You’ve done it before. I know you have.”

Mom hugs me into her side as Serenity glances at our red-faced father. “Yes, I have. But those instances were much more…serious than this one.” She gives me an apologetic frown. “I know you don’t want to hear this, but cases like this one would not garner any type of judicial approval for us. It’s not even likely a thorough, formal investigation will happen without hard evidence.”