She opened her bag again and pulled out a few sheets of paper that she had folded in half. She handed them to me and crossed her arms.
“Maybe you’ll change your tune if these get released. Maybe Luke will.”
I opened the sheet of paper and my heart sank when I saw them.
They were images of me, naked, performing oral sex on Blaine.
“I have videos,” she hissed. “I was willing not to use these so I didn’t have to hurt Luke, but I will.”
I covered my mouth with a hand, and tears sprung to my eyes.
“Where did you get these?”
“Where do you think?” she said, her voice acid. “Your ex-boyfriend.”
“He tried to kill my best friend,” I said and looked at her, my vision blurred. “You shouldn’t have been talking to him and getting things from him. You should have called the police and told them where he was so they could bring him in, arrest him.”
“He sent them to me,” she said, haughtily. “I didn’t meet with him. What kind of fool do you think I am?”
I looked at the two images. One was of me with Blaine’s erect penis in my mouth, tears running down my cheeks. The other was of him sodomizing me.
What the images didn’t show was the restraints on my hands and the bruises on my body from how rough he had been.
Yeah, when I tried to leave him, he didn’t like it very much. I was lucky to get out of it alive.
I never talked about it. I never told anyone except the police what he did to me, abducting me and raping me.
“If you release those, Luke will never speak to you again.”
“If I release them, I imagine he’ll never want to see you again.”
I shook my head because I knew Luke loved me and would never leave me over the photos.
“You’re wrong. If you release them, all you’ll do is lose any chance you have of being part of our lives. You’ll likely never see your grandchild.”
“So be it,” she said and grabbed the sheets of paper from me. She shoved them back into her handbag and left the living room, storming out of the suite and down the hallway to the hotel elevator. I followed her.
“Don’t do this,” I said. “At least wait until you talk to Luke. Don’t ruin your relationship with him. He won’t leave me over this, and I won’t leave him no matter who much money you try to pay me.”
She pressed the elevator button again and again so hard I was sure she’d break it. Then, the elevator doors opened up and out walked Luke.
“Mother,” he said and came out into the hallway. “I told you I wouldn’t be home until four thirty,” he said and checked his watch. “You’re leaving already?”
He glanced down the hallway to where I stood in the door to our suite.
“Alexa?”
“Your mother had a chat with me. Show him the pictures, Mrs. Marshall. Now’s your chance.”
Mrs. Marshall looked startled. She opened and closed her mouth without saying a word in a comical fashion.
“Very well,” she said and right there, in the middle of the hotel hallway, she pulled out the two sheets of paper and handed them to Luke.
“What are these?” he asked, glancing over them. He looked over at me. “What the hell are these?”
“They’re photos Blaine took when he abducted and raped me. Your mother threatened to release them to the gossip columnists if I didn’t leave you and get an abortion.”
“What?” He turned to his mother, who stood there, a smug expression on her face. “How could you?” he managed to get out through gritted teeth.