Page 76 of The Moment You Know

“I mean you’re in it.”

“What did she say about me?”

Valerie hesitated before answering, which immediately had him on high alert. “Mom—”

“Nothing bad, I promise. But there is some personal stuff in there about your marriage.”

“What?” For a moment, he felt ripped wide open. Their marital secrets—and problems—were in a book for the entire world to read? “Like … sex stuff?”

He could absolutely hear the panic in his voice.

“A little,” she admitted.

“You read about our sex life? Are you kidding me?”

“Calm down, David.” Valerie took his hand and held it firmly. “It’s not pornographic, or anything like that.”

“Then what is it like?”

“You’ll just have to read it and see for yourself. It will explain a lot.”

“What do you mean? What will it explain?”

“You’ll just have to read it. Trust me. It’ll answer all of your questions. It’s also going to break your heart. It broke mine—especially the part where she tells her mother.”

“Tells her mother what?”

Valerie reached out and pointed to the short blurb at the very top, which he had overlooked: I was molested by my Uncle Carter from the age of five, until I turned eighteen. I just didn’t know it until I was thirty-two years old.

When he was done reading, he looked up at his mom. His skin suddenly felt ice cold, like he had an all over body chill. “She was molested by her Uncle Carter?” He almost couldn’t get the words out. “And she didn’t know it?”

His mom shook her head and he could see she was close to tears. “No, she didn’t know. You’ll understand when you read the book, honey.”

“I can’t believe this is real.”

“It’s brutally real. You’ll need to be prepared for that when you read it.”

He leaned back in his chair and rubbed at his face. “Jesus Christ. Why wouldn’t she tell me about this?”

“I’m wondering that myself. She must have had a reason, though,” Valerie said, before telling him gently, “You should find out what it was.”

“After what happened at Bender’s, that won’t be easy. She never even responded to a single one of my texts asking how she was doing. Not that I blame her, but …”

“You’re just going to have to try. You need to talk to her—and soon. This, as they say, is a game changer.”

Chapter 28

After dinner, on the drive home, David kept glancing over at Paige’s book sitting on the passenger seat like a ticking bomb. He hadn’t read one word of the book, except for the blurb, but even without reading anything else, he didn’t doubt that she’d been molested. Even not knowing any of the details, it explained things.

It actually explained everything.

He thought about the part Paige’s molestation had probably played in the deterioration of their marriage. He thought about everything that hadn’t made sense before—her reluctance, her reserve, her inhibitions—and how everything now made complete sense. The only thing that didn’t make sense was Paige’s not knowing. How did she not know what had been happening to her for thirteen years?

But, apparently she hadn’t known, because she’d thought she was a virgin when they met. She hadn’t been faking that.

“How was dinner with your mom?” Ashley asked when he and Jacob arrived home.

“Fine,” he replied absently, knowing she didn’t care one way or the other.

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