Page 127 of The Moment You Know

“No.”

“You’re … serious?”

“Yes.”

And just like that, every trace of compassion for Claire was gone. “What the fuck?”

“Part of it was my fault—not the part where she didn’t believe me because that’s on her—but the part where I was so shocked.”

“How were you not supposed to be shocked?”

“If I had listened to Lauren, I might not have been,” she explained. “She’d warned me that a lot of parents don’t believe their child’s claims of abuse. This is especially true if a family member is involved, which meant there was a strong possibility that Claire would be one of those parents, especially with Carter being her twin brother. Lauren said I should be prepared for it, but …” Paige trailed off. “I wasn’t prepared. I just couldn’t imagine my mom not believing me and that completely worked against me.

“When I told her that Carter had molested me, she said she knew her brother and he would never be capable of doing something like that. But if he had, then why didn’t I ever say anything? She told me a normal person would’ve said something and the fact that I never did, was proof that nothing like that had happened. She also said there was no way she wouldn’t have known that was happening, because she was a good mother.”

He almost choked on that. “A good mother would’ve believed her child.”

Paige nodded, then continued. “At this point, her face was all red and she was actually yelling at me. I’d never seen her so angry, let alone angry at me. It was … surreal.”

David was pretty sure there was a better word for it, but he kept it to himself.

“She told me she couldn’t believe I was saying such ugly things about Carter, especially since he’d been so good to us after my dad died.

“The worst part, though, was when she defended Carter and said he dated a lot of women, so he had no need to have sex with a child. That’s what she called it. Having sex with a child. Not grooming a child, or molesting a child, or raping a child. Having sex … like that was okay.”

He reached for his wine glass, only to remember it was empty, then he reached for the bottle, only to remember it, too, was empty. His eyes fell on Paige’s half-full glass not too far away and he grabbed it like a desperate alcoholic.

“She then said she couldn’t stand to look at me anymore, grabbed my arm, and literally threw me out of her house, slamming the door in my face for good measure.”

David sat there, stunned, his heart actually hurting for Paige. He thought about his own mom, who hadn’t wanted him to marry for anything less than love and had boxes of his shitty macaroni art saved in her attic.

“She called me a few days later,” Paige continued. “I thought she was calling to tell me she’d had time to think and that she believed me because I was her daughter and she loved me. Boy, was I wrong. Oh, my God, so wrong. She was actually calling to tell me that she’d gone to Carter, told him about our ‘crazy’ conversation, and wanted me to know he’d denied everything. He told her he was really hurt by my false accusations, and was afraid there was something terribly wrong with me. He wondered if I was having some kind of a nervous breakdown, brought on by severe depression following my divorce and my mom latched onto that as evidence there was something wrong with me, and I was lying.”

“Jesus fucking Christ.” David rubbed at his face again.

“Ironically, part of my therapy was supposed to include my mother—for my healing as well as hers—but that never happened, for obvious reasons. And after the shitshow at her house, I actually had to spend quite a bit of extra time dealing with her rejection and the feelings of anger, betrayal, and even the hatred I was left with.

“I thought about sending her the bills for those extra sessions and that isn’t a joke. Therapy isn’t cheap, especially when your shitty health insurance only covers twenty-five percent and you’re in therapy for almost two years.”

“Almost two years? Holy shit.”

“It takes a little while to work through fifteen years of abuse,” she said with a What can you do? shrug and he knew she was trying to lighten the moment.

“Have you had any contact with Claire since then?” David asked, even though he figured it was unlikely.

“Yes. She called me last December, the day Carter died.”

Chapter 48

David blinked at her. “Carter’s dead?”

“Yes.”

“Well, fuck,” he muttered, frowning. “That’s too bad.”

“It is?”

“There goes my fantasy of choking him to death with his own dick.”

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