“I know.”
“You do?”
Rory nodded. When Taggart still seemed skeptical, Rory tentatively placed a hand on his knee and said softly, “this has absolutely nothing to do with s*x. Everything to do with power and control.”
“Yes. It is. Darren was afraid of being gay, but I wanted to come out from the start. I never saw it as bad. It was…”
Again, Rory squeezed Taggart softly. “It’s okay.”
After a while, Taggart went back to his story—which was, he assured Rory, almost done now. He skimmed over much of the time period where he’d become a ghost, and how he’d gotten to a somewhat decent road of recovery. “I ended up finishing most of my degree through online courses. I got a new job, went to work. I talked and lived with Joseph and his family, and only his family, for years. This was before he
