Fake Billionaire Friends

Chapter 13

Ava P.O.V.

I lay in bed all weekend thinking about everything that had happened. My excitement about my date with Jake had turned to annoyance. On a first date, no one tells anyone that they've been accused of gang r**e, but I still felt hurt and lied to. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised, after all, he had a bad reputation. While in college I had heard rumors about the Divine Four, but I thought most of the stories were made up. Unfortunately, from what Ralph suggested, it was all true. All that remains to be seen is whether the accusations were legitimate or if they were just saved from prison by their rich dads. I wasn't sure if I could trust anyone anymore.

I tried to find some information on the Internet, but it was scarce. It was obvious that someone had made sure that information about their misdeeds disappeared from the web. I was only able to find a forum from Harvard where several people wrote about their r**e accusation. Some of the people writing about it were convinced that they had done it, but there were also several people saying that the girl was being set up and was making it up to get money from them.

Ralph's behavior was also strange. He said he had loved me for a long time. I had never given him any indication that I felt anything for him beyond friendship, and yet he took it a step further. His kiss seemed awkward and completely out of place, which only reinforced my belief that we would not become a couple. I didn't know what I should do with him. He was right about being the closest person to me since the murder of my family. I didn't want to lose him, but I also didn't want to change the relationship. In those two days, I got a ton of messages from Ralph and two from Jake. The boss just wrote to say he was thinking about me on Saturday, and on Sunday to ask if I was okay. I didn't write back.

I started thinking about what Victoria would do if she were me. Even though she was two years younger, she always seemed more emotionally developed. Everyone loved her. She was sociable, funny, kind. She changed boyfriends like a glove and had lots of girlfriends. My parents always told me to follow my younger sister's example and hang out with other people more. She laughed that I should stay the way I am - she is the social one and I am the smart one. We were going to conquer the world together. The year of her murder, she was graduating from high school. In the evenings, lying on my bed, we'd think about how to get her money to go to Harvard with me... I had a scholarship, but Victoria didn't have a chance at it.

She'd probably send Jake and Ralph to hell, drop everything and change her surroundings. The more I thought about it, however, this idea seemed more my style. I had to stand up and confront Jake and then Ralph. It made no sense to run away.

I wasn't sure I could still be Jake's assistant after what had happened. I regretted it, but I considered quitting my job.

On Monday we behaved professionally as usual during work. In the middle of the day Jake called me into his office and asked me again if everything was ok between us. I asked him to talk to me in the evening. We agreed to meet at 8pm at a small bar near my apartment.

After work I met with my therapist. She welcomed me and I, as usual, laid out comfortably on her couch. She asked how things were going with the boyfriend I mentioned. I confessed that we had a pretty good date, my first in ages, but then I found out something about him and that I didn't know what to do next. She was very nosy. She asked a lot of concretes about Jake but I didn't admit that he was my boss. She gave a lot of criticism about dating someone who was hiding something. I felt like her judgment about my love life had changed 180 degrees. While she had previously urged me to take a step forward and try, she now pronounced that I couldn't trust him, that it was pointless and that I should find someone I could trust implicitly. She lightly asked about my friend and whether something could come out of it, but I quickly dropped the subject.

This session seemed pointless to me. I came out of it more upset and pissed off than I was when I went in. I didn't think that a therapist could be so biased and make such straightforward judgments about her clients' actions.

When I got home I took a hot shower and tried to relax but I couldn't reach peace. By 7pm I was on my way to the bar. I sat in the darkest corner and sipped my beer waiting for Jake. When he showed up I had the impression that all eyes were on him. It was the first time I had seen him not in a suit. He was in jeans and a white t-shirt, and his hair was slightly messy. He looked like a magazine model and not an ordinary man. In fact, he wasn't a regular guy off the street. As he approached my table and sat down next to me he kissed me gently on the cheek.

The waitress immediately appeared at our table and asking him what to serve she leaned over him almost pressing her cleavage into his face. Jake looked at her meaningfully, then at me:

- What's my companion.

The girl straightened up and looked at me reluctantly. She unnaturally started to wiggle her hips as she walked away, but Jake didn't even look at her, just stared at my face.

- So what happened? Why the change in attitude?

I bit my lip and looked at him shyly. There was no point in wrapping my mind around it. I met him here to hear his side of the story.

- Is it true that you participated in a gang r**e in college?

Jake furrowed his eyebrows and started staring at me.

- How do you know that?

- Never mind. Just tell the truth.

- Ralph. What an asshole," he said, shaking his head, "I was accused of that with my friends. It's true, but we didn't do it. The court confirmed it. We were cleared of those charges.

- But because you were innocent or because of your friends' fathers?

- Do you think if we did this they'd let us go?

- Money can do a lot of things - I shrugged my shoulders.

- Not that much. If we did this and my friends' fathers had to use their influence, I would become the scapegoat. Maybe they would protect their sons, but not me.

- Thanks to you, they made a lot of money," I said, still looking at him.

- Yes, 8 years later and not in my 3rd year of college. I was a nobody, just a scholarship kid who hung out with rich kids. No one would stick their neck out for me. You should know how this works. You have an influential friend yourself, did it give you something?

- A little bit," I smiled lightly, remembering what Ralph had done for me.

- But would his father cover up a murder for you?

- No...

- That's right - he cut off sharply - The chick who accused us only wanted to extort money. She testified that at a party the four of us dragged her into a room and r***d her there. Luckily, there were other witnesses. Ralph shouldn't be telling you things like that.

- How do I know if it's true?

- You have to trust me. Do you really think I'm a r****t?

- Ralph also told me about other things your friends did that they got away with...

- Ava, I'm not my friends. I wasn't a saint and neither were they. But my offenses were not serious enough to put me behind bars. As for my friends, they are not me. Of course they got away with a lot of things because of their parents' influence, and I'm not going to discuss that with you now. I'm not them, they're not me. If you think I'm a bad person, maybe we shouldn't hang out.

He wanted to get up from the table, but I grabbed his arm.

- You stay. I believe you. Or rather, I want to believe you.