I didn’t expect to hear how Dani lost her virginity. How it wastakenby some fuck who was at the masquerade ball a few years ago.
Someone drugged me. When I woke up, I was in a weird place. At first I thought it was a basement because it was so dark and damp and musty. But um…when I woke up, I was naked and there was a man inside of me.
My skin buzzed, blood bubbling, the red mist coating my vision.
He got off on that. He loved that he was myfirst. That he made me bleed.
“Fuck!” I roared, the sound echoing off the empty gym. I was in our home gym, attempting to work out the rage soaring through my body. Dani had said she wasn’t feeling well so she crashed on my couch after West and Ash left, so I thought I’d get a late night workout in.
And then I had to open that fucking video recording.
They kept feeding me drugs so I would stop fighting as they took turns.
I couldn’t fucking imagine what she went through, and then to keep it all inside for three years…
I watched the clip again, trying to absorb every detail. There had to be a way I could figure out who did this. I remembered that night. We went to the masquerade ball every year. It was another fundraiser for some insignificant cause, and Gemma and Dani begged to go every year. Dad finally knuckled under and let them go. Three years ago.
Dani didn’t go again after that and I never knew why. She said they were stupid. She said they were pointless. But really, it must’ve brought up a horrible nightmare for her. And she never fuckingtoldanyone about it.
He said he would take my best friend Gemma and…and do to her what he did to me.
She was protecting Gemma. Whoever did itknewus. I could’ve talked to him at that ball. Could’ve laughed with him right before he took Dani and raped her.
Fuck.
I would find out who did this and make them pay for what they did.
I had to.
She was drugged and raped because I wasn’t there to protect her.
ThreeYearsAgo…
She looked like an angel as she descended the stairs. Like she was floating on a cloud. She smiled as she clutched a mask in her hand. It was covered in white feathers that matched her dress. Her ice blue eyes found mine and my heart stopped for a moment. I pulled my collar away from my throat, suddenly feeling like I couldn’t get enough air in my lungs.
“I’m ready,” Dani said proudly as she reached me and Gemma at the bottom of the stairs.
My sister looked up at me knowingly as I schooled the smile that had crept up my lips.
“Finally,” I scoffed. “You took that long to get ready andthat’swhat you look like?”
Dani’s face fell and I instantly regretted my words. I couldn’t give her a compliment–especially in front of Gemma. I froze when she accused me of having a crush on Dani the other day, catching me off-guard, and I didn’t need to hear it from her again.
“You’re such a jerk,” Gemma said as she swatted my arm. “You look beautiful, Dani.”
She slithered past us out the door, avoiding the compliment, the smile that graced her lips long gone.
Fuck, I was an asshole.
We rode in silence to the ball. It was a yearly event put on by Winston McKinley–some guy Dad worked with once in a while. He was mega-rich and held a masquerade ball at a banquet center in Gilchrist Point every year around Thanksgiving. It was boring as shit. A bunch of old people wearing masks and flaunting their money. Snoozefest.
After an hour of avoiding Dad’s friends and other people I didn’t want to talk to, I spotted Dani and Gemma near the edge of the room. They were drinking punch–definitely spiked with alcohol of some kind–and giggling. Mom walked up to them and tilted her head. She grabbed Gemma’s cup and sniffed it. Then she took Gemma’s hand and dragged her away, probably to call for one of our cars to pick her up and take her home.
“Hey,” I said as I approached Dani. She narrowed her eyes at me and turned to leave. I grabbed her arm so she couldn’t. “I need to talk to you.”
“What do you want?” She asked as she tried to rip her arm from my grip.
“I wanted to–can we do this somewhere else?”