Page 2 of The Secret's Out

Chapter One

Josie

Life on my own wasn’t what I thought it would be. Two years of living away from home was getting to me. Two years of independence, two years of finding myself was...hard. Harder than I pictured. Sure, I found myself...in a way. Sure, I had independence. I had a job, had a great friend, and a roof over my head. Still, all I wanted was to be home. Be with the family who had opened their arms wide for me. They had adopted me, regardless of how troubled I was. I missed my sister, Zara, my brother, Matthew, but especially my mum and dad. I even missed my brothers-in-law, the goofy one, Julian, and the sometimes scary one, Talon. Most of all, I missed my nieces and nephews. Their light had helped me through many dark times. They were young and didn’t know the real world could be scary. It was their excitement over little things that I appreciated and missed.

Which was why I had stayed away from home so many times over the past two years, because if I went there, I knew I’d want to stay and never leave again. I’d want back in their world, their open arms and the protection they provided me each and every day. I’d want to be surrounded in it all once more and forever. Never leaving again.

However, I had to stay strong.

I wanted to prove to them, and especially myself, I was able to live in the real world, no matter how scared I was each day, or how my brain screamed at me to stop the ridiculousness and get home. And no matter how much I hated living through the taunting and teasing each day for the past year, my decision was resolute.

Since they found out I was petrified of most men, of human contact, it had all changed.

The first time it happened they enjoyed the reaction they got from me. They thrived on the fact that it unnerved me.

Since then, it happened all the time, just so they could see me cower and cringe.

I was lucky to have found Simone, the sweet girl with shoulder-length black hair and dark blue eyes. It was as though fortune had rained down on me when it was Simone who answered the same ad I had two years earlier. It was an ad in the local paper I’d found before I moved to Melbourne, for two house guests to look after a fully furnished home while the owner travelled for business. When the owner was home, we rarely saw him. He tended to stay in the master bedroom. He was quiet and kept to himself, like me.

The idea of living my life as the local cat lady or hermit had been promising, for the first few months after I had moved in, which was possibly why Simone took it upon herself to get me out and about. She was determined for me to start living my life the way an eighteen-year-old should after flying the nest.

She showed me there was hope, kindness and love in the world outside of my family.

Simone was a great friend, the best anyone could have, trusting, loyal and bubbly. She took me under her wing and showed me how to get drunk, do shots, and dance until my legs wanted to fall from my body, just so they could rest. Dancing was fun.

At least I had that one year respite at uni before my new hell started. Even then, I kept to my shy self, still forming the knowledge of how people went about their day, how they communicated in the different way I was with my family. If it weren’t for Simone, I would have been on my own, and surviving would have been the wrong term.

Everything had been okay...until Cameron Peterson took an interest in me.

At first I thought he was different.

I thought he was nice.

I’d been wrong on so many levels.

To start off, he had been nice, sweet even. He saw that I was shy, but still he approached me slowly and with caution. He said kind things to me and didn’t invade my comfort zone. But things must have been moving too slow for him, because after one weekend, a weekend where we saw each other out at a club, he changed.

He thought he owned me.

He thought I wanted him.

He had been wrong and he didn’t like it.

The night we were out, he was drunk, and he was a mean drunk. I knew that because once he spotted me on the dance floor, he stalked over to me with a feral glint in his eyes, or so Simone explained afterwards when she watched his approach. His hands went straight to my waist. I flinched and tried to move away, but his grip tightened. My breath caught in my throat. For a moment, all but a second, I was scared it was David. The man who took so many things from me, but most of all, my innocence. Even though I knew the sudden thought was ridiculous as he was dead, I couldn’t stop the fear seeping into my body. I stiffened as Cameron rubbed his arousal into my backside. Simone, sensing my fear, like she did every time, came forward and pushed Cameron back. I hadn’t told Simone of my past; however, she only had to watch me, like any other, to see that I was new to physical contact from people I didn’t know. She always did her best to steer people away from me, no matter the situation and slowly, she was teaching me not all contact was bad. Not when it came from people I knew and trusted, so when she hugged me, I only flinched a little when it would startle me. I turned to see Cameron sneer at Simone, until he noticed I was watching and changed his expression to a lusty, drunken smile.

“Hey, baby,” he said.

I cringed. “I-I’m not your baby, Cameron.”

“Sure you are.” He reached for me again. I backed up a step, my hands out in front of me. “Don’t be like that.” He chuckled.

In a loud enough voice so he could hear me over the pumping music, I said, “I’d prefer it if you didn’t touch me, please.”

He rolled his eyes. “Don’t be stupid, Jo-Jo, you know you want me. I see the way you look at me.” Lightning fast, he reached out and snagged my wrist, dragging me forward so our chests collided.

“Don’t. Please, don’t, you’re drunk. I’ll talk to you tomorrow,” I pleaded and tried to pry myself away. Simone stepped up next to us trying to get Cameron off me, but he wouldn’t have it. They started yelling at each other.

Tears formed, and just as quickly, they rolled down my cheeks, leaving a wet trail behind. There was no way to stop the whirlwind of emotions wreaking havoc inside my body. Spotting my tears, Cameron wiped them away. Ignoring Simone, he leaned toward me to get my attention. “You want me, Jo-Jo, like all the girls do. No one says no to me.” Then he slammed his lips down on mine. I struggled and fought against him, but nothing worked, so when he shoved his tongue inside my mouth, I bit him.

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