Page 97 of Serpentine Valentine
My phone started buzzing in my pocket, and I was glad for the distraction.
“Hello?”
“Lune,” Pierce’s panting, excited voice came over the phone. “Lex is giving a press conference in the quad. Have you seenThe New York Timesthis morning? She did it.”
“Did what?” I asked, but I was already standing, tugging Haley’s hand to take her with me.
“She exposed them all.”
The conference had already startedby the time Haley and I jogged into the fringes of the crowd. Lex stood in front of the podium flanked by the Provost and a handful of other women, including Professor Diana Strong. She was dressed in her requisite black ensemble: a short skirt over sheer dark tights, chunky heeled boots, a cable knit sweater over a button-up visible beneath an ankle-length black overcoat that flapped in the cold breeze. Her hair was a riot of curls writhing like serpents in the wind, mimicking the bright green and black snake tattooed on her neck. Bold and confident, her face a little pale to my trained eye but firm with resolve. It was my first time seeing her in over a week, and the impact of her beauty was like a punch to the solar plexus.
Haley steadied me with a hand on my lower back.
“Are you okay?” she whispered close to my ear.
Lex saw me then, pausing almost indecipherably in her speech as our gazes caught and snagged on each other. Those stone-gray eyes flared and narrowed as they took in how close Haley was to me, holding me almost.I thought she would be angry, lips flatlining, jaw tightening. Instead, her mouth went soft and supple as it did before we kissed.
“What did I tell you?” Haley whispered again. “Hundreds of people before her and the only one she sees is you.”
I shivered so hard my teeth rattled, but I didn’t look away from Lex. Not even when I realized what she was saying.
“As my lawyer said, I will not be taking any questions after this, but I wanted to make a statement in order to finally and hopefully clear the air on Acheron’s campus. Last Halloween, I became one in five women sexually assaulted on a college campus, according to the statistics from the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization. It happened here on this campus, first in the office of a well-renowned professor, and then again in the forest, where he left me like a carcass. Maybe, if this had been an isolated incident, I could have held my tongue. But it became increasingly obvious to me as I spoke with other students that sexual assault was rife and frequently covered up by the people in power at this university. People like President Mina Pallas, who threatened my academic standing and future if I continued to accuse my assaulter of his crimes. People like Professor Morgan himself, who has a history of assault that was covered up by the university because of the funding his popularity brought to the school.”
She paused, eyes moving from me to sweep over the crowd before finding me again.
I felt trapped in that gaze, solidified by the power of it.
Listen to me, she seemed to whisper just for me.I’m doing this because you taught me it was the right thing to do.
I swallowed thickly.
“Thanks to the investigative journalism of Quinn Harper, the monsters lurking in the shadows of Acheron University have been brought into the light. A police investigation has been instigated intothe actions of both President Pallas and Professor Morgan along with a few other faculty and board members who were complicit in these cover-ups. All I can ask for now is that the university reconsider its sexual violence policies. Escort systems set up for women walking alone after dark on campus, a hotline to call in misconduct, and most of all, a 24/7 support system for victims of sexual assault. Speaking from experience, it is not easy to return to the scene of a crime and flourish on the same path you were taking before. If we want students to succeed, we need to destigmatize being a victim of sexual violence and provide a safe place for them to seek help. I was lucky enough to find my own support system on campus, friends and a girlfriend who helped me see that I was worthy of love even when I felt like I couldn’t get past my trauma.”
Her eyes glistened, but no tears fell. Voice strong, shoulders squared, that chin canted at an angle like a pugilist daring to be punched, she looked exactly like that first day I’d been drawn to her in the quad. My heart hammered so madly that I was light-headed and swaying on my feet. Each beat seemed to tattoo the same words into my flesh:I love you, I love you, I love you.
And I did.
I loved this beautiful, brave woman standing before everyone and opening a vein so they could see how damaging what had happened at Acheron was. I loved her strength and her feminism, even her viciousness and rage. I loved that she could also be soft and romantic, sweet as strawberry wine.
And I loved that little oldme, Luna Pallas, had helped her battle back her demons so she could take the entire system on.
“I hope this is the first step in many toward making this campus, and every campus across the country, a safer place for students, especially women, to pursue their dreams and higher education. Thank you very much for your time.”
There was a flurry of flashes and murmurs as the photographers and reporters closer to the stage hastened to capture the last moments of Lex Gorgon making her stand. I watched as she stepped away, and her lawyer replaced her at the podium to take questions. Diana Strong slipped an arm around Lex’s shoulders and squeezed.
Lex didn’t look at me again.
And when I went to look for her through the crowd after the conference was done, she had disappeared.
“What are you going to do?” Haley asked, having wedged through the crowd beside me. “You know she was talking about you.”
I did know.
But I didn’t know exactly what that meant or what she wanted. Being thankful for my part in taking down my own mother was one thing. Loving me and wanting to be with me was another matter entirely.
And for the duration of our relationship or whatever you wanted to call it, I’d been the one to capitulate, to float on the tide of Lex’s magnetic currents. This time, I wasn’t going to seek her out. I wouldn’t make it easy for her.
Some things were worth fighting for, yes, and Lex was one of them.
