My Stepfather, My Ruin

21

Roxy

The ride home was completely silent.

I hadn’t called for a car. Someone had sent one anyway, and David sat behind the wheel as if this were any other morning.

He didn’t ask where I had spent the night, which meant he already knew. And if David knew, everyone in the house probably knew by now.

I leaned my head against the cool glass of the window, trying to piece the night back together. The glass of juice. The waiter. A furious voice in the hallway. Strong arms lifting me. A bed.

After that, nothing. Just a burning heat, and my own voice saying yes.

The city was waking up outside. Delivery trucks, early joggers, a woman unlocking a bakery door. Everyone out there was starting an ordinary morning, but I felt sick to my stomach.

The ceremonial paper for the company shares was still folded inside my bag. Just yesterday, I had thought that piece of paper was the biggest problem in my life.

My phone battery was down to twenty percent. The screen showed four missed calls. Two from my mother, two from Anna. I tapped to play the voicemails.

The first was from my mother, bright and impatient. “Roxy, where are you? The photographer wants a picture of you with the shares. Come find me.”

The second was Anna. “Roxy, where did you go? I can’t find you anywhere.”

The third came an hour later, from my mother, and her voice had gone entirely flat. “Where are you? Call me back.”

The fourth was Anna again, speaking fast and low. “I have been looking everywhere for you. Where are you?”

Nothing from Evander. Even if he’d left first, he should have at least sent me a message.

My chest tightened, but I forced myself to push the feeling down. I told myself it didn’t mean anything. He was probably exhausted, or trying to stay away from Dorian’s watchful eyes.

By the time the iron gates of the estate came into view, my thoughts had gone around in circles so many times I was dizzy.

The house was quiet when I walked inside. Mary was waiting in the foyer, her eyes moving over me quickly, from my hair down to my shoes, as if she were checking for something specific.

“Welcome back, Young Miss. Your mother asked to see you as soon as you got back.”

“Later,” I said, keeping my pace steady as I walked past her.

I went straight upstairs, bypassing my own bedroom, and walked down the hall to Evander’s door. I wanted to see him before I lost my nerve, before my mother or Dorian could interfere.

I knocked once, but received no answer. I twisted the doorknob and pushed the door open.

“Evander? Are you in here?”

No one answered. The room was empty.

Where was he? I kept asking myself that as I walked back to my own room. I locked the door behind me and walked over to the full-length mirror. The pale, exhausted face looking back at me didn’t feel like mine.

Confused and desperate for answers, I slowly unzipped my dress and let it pool on the floor.

I took a deep breath and unclasped my b*a, letting out a sharp hiss as the movement caused pain in my bruised chest.

I stared at the marks on my body. My skin was covered in dark bruises. My chest was sore, marked by deep, aggressive bite marks. No wonder my body had felt so bruised and sore.

Why was he so rough with me? When we were together, he had always been gentle. Or was it not him?

A bitter laugh slipped out of me and turned into tears. It was him, I told myself. It couldn’t be anyone else. The thought of anyone else touching me was more than I could stand.

I stood there, covered in marks I couldn’t remember getting, and felt like a stranger in my own skin.

Before I could spiral further, my phone rang. I picked it up on the second ring.

“Anna.”

“Thank goodness you’re okay!” She sounded relieved. “I couldn’t sleep a wink all night.”

“I’m sorry—”

“Enough of your apologies, girl. Where the hell did you go? Everyone was looking for you.”

“I don’t know,” I choked out. “I don’t remember what happened yesterday.”

“You don’t know? What do you mean?”

I quickly explained the blurry details over the phone.

“What kind of sick bastard would do something like that?” Anna hissed angrily.

“You mean someone drugged me?”

“You still don’t get it?” Anna said. “Evander told us he saw you being taken away.”

I went still.

“We all rushed to look for you,” she continued, “but we couldn’t find the room.”

“Y-you couldn’t find me?”

“No, I was terrified. Eventually, we found Jessica in a room nearby, messing around with three strange men.”

“What?!”

“I don’t care about her right now,” Anna said firmly. “Listen to me, Roxy. You were drugged. That is the only reason you don’t remember anything.”

“But I was with Evander,” I whispered, my voice shaking. “I spent the night with him.”

“Are you out of your mind?!” Anna yelled through the speaker. “Are you still trying to hook up with him? He is your stepbrother! He is completely off-limits!”

For a second, everything went silent in my ears. My heart plummeted into my stomach, then leaped back into my throat. Cold sweat broke out across my forehead.

Evander wasn’t the man in that bed.

If it wasn’t him... then who the hell had I spent the night with?

I spun around and stared at my reflection in the mirror again. My eyes blurred.

Then whose marks are these on my body?

“Roxy? Hey, are you still there?”

Was Anna lying to me, trying to trick me into believing I had slept with a stranger?

“Roxy! Can you hear me?”

“Y-yes.”

“Whatever you and Evander had in the past, it’s over, Roxy. You need to let it go.”

“You’re telling me it wasn’t him?”

“I don’t know what game you’re playing,” Anna said, “but I know for a fact Evander was right beside us the whole time, searching the venue for you.”

“I have to go. I’ll call you back.”

“Wait, Roxy—”

I hung up before she could finish.

Who?

I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to pull a face out of my memory, but all I found was a blank wall and a blurry shadow. I needed to find Evander. I needed to hear the truth from him directly.

After taking a long, scalding shower to wash the feeling of the night off my skin, I picked a high-necked, long-sleeved dress. I wrapped a thick silk scarf around my neck to hide the bruises.

When I stepped out into the living room, I found my mother and Dorian sitting together.

“Good morning, sweetie. You’re back!”

My mother stood up from the sofa and pulled me into a warm, affectionate hug.

What is happening? I stared over her shoulder in disbelief. I expected her to scream at me, or demand to know where I had slept.

“Mom,” I said, pulling back abruptly. “You aren’t going to ask me where I was last night?”

She blinked, confused. “Dorian told me you stayed over at a friend’s house after the party. You were just celebrating your graduation.”

My eyes drifted to Dorian, who sat quietly in his armchair. His face gave absolutely nothing away.

Am I losing my mind? Anna had told me they spent the night searching everywhere for me, but my mother was acting as if everything was completely normal.

“I don’t understand—”

She pressed a finger gently against my lips before I could finish.

“You are twenty-three years old, Roxy, not a child. You’re an adult now. You don’t need to report every single movement to your mother.”

What kind of mother are you? I wanted to scream the words in her face, but my throat locked up.

“I have a meeting to catch,” my mother said smoothly, picking up her designer handbag. She leaned down and pressed a bright kiss to Dorian’s cheek. “Don’t miss me too much, honey.”

I froze.

What on earth is going on in this house?