Page 237 of Hide and Keep

“So it’s my fault?”

I mean, yeah, it is.

Isn’t it?

“Is it?” I ask.

Her head shakes but she doesn’t say anything either way.

Which, unfortunately, isn’t fucking unusual. She opens up to me now, but only so much. Despite us being nearly inseparable lately, she still hasn’t confided in me about Arthur abusing her. Even when I’ve pointed out the absence of those mysterious bruises, she’ll lie and say she was right, they must’ve been from cheer. Except we still do stunts together, almost every evening before our run, and I haven’t made a single mark on her in those spots.

“Ever?” I sit in front of her. “Tell me.”

When she speaks, her voice is distant. “Before you got here, Chef Ryan stayed in the guesthouse. You remember what it was like in there?”

I nod. I wasn’t in it for long but it left an impression.

“You remember the glass over the pool?”

“Yeah.” It’s how I saw Ryan in the pool house.

“I used to see him up there, watching me. It was…” She wobbles her head. “Disgusting.”

I don’t like that word, not from Ever. I don’t like how this story is turning. I’d rather Ever have fucked him willingly than…where I think this is going.

“I tried to ignore it, ignorehim. But it was difficult because he would stand right over me sometimes.”

“And just watch you swim?”

“That’s not what it looked like he was doing.”

“What? What did it look like he was doing?”

She finally lifts her eyes to meet mine. “Take a guess.”

I’m shaking my head. “No. I’ve already jumped to enough incorrect conclusions. You tell me. What was he doing up there?”

“Jerking off.”

“You saw his fucking dick out?”

“I didn’t have to. It was obvious.” She mimics a guy masturbating, and yeah, it’s unmistakable.

He had a private viewing spot above the hottest girl in Sea Haven, in nothing but a bikini, and he sexually assaulted her by jerking off right in front of her.

Goddamn it. God-fucking-damn it!

“Why didn’t you tell your dad?”

“I did.”

“You did? And he didn’t fire him?”

“Obviously not, Crue,” she sneers, making me feel like an even bigger dumbass than I already do.

“What the fuck? Why?”

“Because ‘Chef Koch is a world-renowned chef. His food is a delicacy we should be so privileged to experience.’ And ‘if I didn’t like the attention, I shouldn’t seek it out.’”

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