Since news broke of the case regarding me and George Kingsley, almost everyone at CPA had chosen to support me. I’d also received numerous apologies from people who bullied me during my first two months at the school. Most of them had the exact same excuse for joining in with the cruelty—they did it because they were too scared to go against Jax and the rest of the popular crew, who clearly hated me. Now that Jax was on my side with everything, they were falling into line and being friendly to me. Even Harlow and Bobbi were somewhat nice to me now.
The only exception was Cerina. She still despised me and made it abundantly clear at every opportunity.
“Did I tell you what she said to me last week?” I asked, glancing at Erin as I pulled my textbooks and tablet out of my locker.
Her forehead creased. “Maybe? I’m not sure. She says a lot of stupid shit.”
I lowered my voice. “She accused me of lying about George so I could get close to Jax, even though Jax is the one who made the accusation against him first.”
Erin groaned and shook her head. “God, she’s such a fucking bitch.”
“Yup. So that makes it even more obvious that she’snot RXorcist,” I said, raising a brow. “RXorcist actually believes the story about George.”
“Don’t worry.” Erin patted my arm and gave me a sympathetic smile. “Everyone else believes it too. We all know what that creepy old bastard did.”
I returned her smile with a weak one of my own. Sometimes it was hard for me to believe the story myself because I had zero memory of the abuse George inflicted upon me. That made me detach from it; made me feel like it happened to another version of me from a parallel universe.
I knew itdidhappen, though. True to his word, Jax had worked tirelessly to prove it to me and the rest of the world.
After he showed me that awful tape, he drove me to the hospital for testing. They took samples of my blood and urine and found traces of a powerful sedative in my system. Jax’s theory was correct—George must’ve been slipping the drugs into my hot chocolate at night to ensure I didn’t wake up when he sneaked into my room to fondle me.
After the blood tests, I underwent a series of invasive and uncomfortable genital and oral examinations. The doctors who conducted the tests found no obvious signs of sexual assault—no bruising, no micro-tearing in or around my vagina, no broken blood vessels on the soft palate of my mouth.
The footage Jax captured made it clear that Iwasbeing assaulted, though, so while I was at the hospital, the doctors contacted the authorities and filled them in on the situation. Jax and I made statements to the police, and George was arrested at the hotel a few hours later.
He was arraigned two days after that and charged with sexual assault along with assault in the second degree for the nightly drugging. I assumed he’d get out on bail right away, but the presiding judge determined that he was a serious flight risk due to his vast wealth and connections and denied him bail despite his lawyer’s protests.
On top of that, the prosecutorial team had decided to reopen and reinvestigate the 1998 case against George as part of their strategy. It would take a long time to sort all of that out, so the trial wasn’t set to start for at least eight to ten months. Maybe even longer. Until then, George would remain in prison.
“How’s your mom doing?” Erin asked, brows furrowing.
I let out a sigh and closed my locker. “Still the same. She’s decided to see a therapist, though. I think that’ll help.”
My mother was understandably shocked and distraught when she learned the truth. Over the last two weeks, she’d barely stopped crying for a minute. She wouldn’t stop apologizing to me, either, as if she could’ve possibly known what George was like deep down.
None of us knew. He had everyone fooled, including his own son. So how could Mom have known he was secretly a predator? She didn’t even know about the previous accusations against him because he’d kept them from her along with everything else.
I didn’t blame her for what happened to me for a second, and I never would. I was devastated for her—she finally thought she’d found true love, and her heart had been ripped out and stomped on instead.
We were staying in Crown Point for now, despite all the heartbreak and upheaval. Our old house in Oakland had already sold, so we had nowhere to go back to, and the lawyers for the case against George had recommended we stay close so we could easily stay updated and participate in the proceedings once the trial finally kicked off.
Jax had offered to let us stay with him in the mansion so we wouldn’t have to uproot our lives all over again, but we didn’t want to spend much time there after everything that had happened, so we swapped with Maeve instead. She moved all of her things into the eastern wing of the mansion, and Mom and I took the guest cottage on the expansive grounds of the estate. The cottage wasn’t as lavish as the mansion, but it was still very nice, and Maeve had taken excellent care of it over the years.
Erin’s forehead crinkled. “Are you going to see a therapist too?”
“I don’t know.” I lifted one shoulder in a vague shrug. “Mom thinks I should, but I’m not sure. I don’t even remember any of the stuff happening to me. I was unconscious for all of it.”
“But itdidhappen to you, and now you know about it. That’s traumatizing in itself. Plus there’s the added trauma of the court case, whenever it finally starts,” she replied, eyes flashing with concern. “So your mom’s right. You should go and talk to someone about it. I mean, I know you’ve been talking tome, obviously, but I’m not a professional.”
I let out a heavy sigh. Erin was always right. “I’ll talk to Mom about booking something.”
“Good.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Jax standing at a nearby locker, chatting to some of his friends from the football team. He looked my way and lifted his hand in a small wave, lips curving into a faint smile.
Erin noticed the gesture and arched a brow. “How are things with Jax? Is it weird still living with him?”
“We aren’t really living together,” I said. “I mean, we’re technically on the same property, but we’re in separate houses now, remember?”