3: 3
3
I wiped the rain off my face and finally made up my mind to get in.
Only when I pulled the door open did I see Mabel was already there, in the back seat.
I sat down beside her.
A tissue appeared in front of me.
"Maisie, dry off."
I didn't take it.
"When did the two of you first meet Rita Fox?"
Mabel sighed.
"Freshman year. We went to celebrate Eric's birthday. It was the time you had a fever and couldn't come."
"Rita was working part-time at a bar and got harassed by a bunch of thugs. We stepped in and helped her."
"She's incredibly strong, really. Both her parents were seriously ill, she had a little brother in grade school, and she'd been diagnosed with cancer herself. So all through college we took turns supporting her."
My eyes went hot.
"And all of it, you kept from me."
My brother sighed.
"Maisie, you've been spoiled and headstrong since you were a kid. If you'd known we were helping Rita, you'd have made a scene."
I let out a short laugh.
"So that's who I am, to the two of you."
"But here's what you don't know. Back in high school, I supported three or four girls myself. One of them was Rita Fox."
Mabel and my brother froze at the same time.
I watched the color change in their faces, and something in me turned bitter.
"My guess is, Rita put herself in front of you on purpose. She knew who you were, so she planned out every single step."
My brother slammed on the brakes.
"Maisie Pruitt! How can you say that about her!"
I sneered.
"You sound more like her real brother than mine."
"You and Eric worked together to lock me in the psych ward, over and over. Amazing, the things you people can come up with."
Mabel's face went cold.
"Maisie, Rita is kind, she's a good person, you don't need to smear her like this."
"We took you to the hospital because we didn't want to watch you humiliate yourself. But now you're making me feel like you're not worth one of Rita's fingers."
I said it quietly.
"That's right. Not worth a single finger. Because my fingers are the ones people like you ruined."
My brother hit the brakes again and spoke coldly.
"Get out."
Without a second's hesitation I opened the door, and the downpour soaked me through all over again.
By the time I got home I'd started to run a fever.
I collapsed onto the bed, and the past kept turning over and over in my head, spinning like a lantern that wouldn't stop.
I remembered how Eric had said, since we were children, that he was going to marry me. I remembered all the years we grew up together.
Back then I thought he was the one, for the rest of my life.
Now everything had changed.
The fever left me hazy, and when I woke my whole body ached.
Eric was sitting at the edge of the bed. When he saw my eyes open, his lit up.
"Maisie! You're awake!"
I frowned at him.
"Eric, what are you doing here?"
He blinked.
"I'm in my own home. Is there a problem?"
He folded my hand into his palm.
"Maisie, hear me out. Rita and I signed the marriage license, yes, but the wedding, I'll only have with you."
"Rita's generous about it. She said from now on I can spend half my time here with you."
"I love you, but I can't let her go either. Maisie, can't you understand the position I'm in?"
I stared at him, unable to believe it.
"Eric, have you lost your mind?"
His brow knotted, and he looked as if he were in more pain than I was.
"I can't give you up, but I can't wrong Rita either. When she got sick, all I wanted was to grant her wish. But she's pregnant now. I can't just walk away from that."
The tears came.
"Eric, you want me to be the mistress in your marriage?"
He grabbed my hand, urgent.
"Of course not! It's only a piece of paper."
His tone turned pleading.
"Our wedding goes ahead just the same. Rita's soft-hearted, she won't mind any of this."
I clenched my teeth.
"But I mind."
"Get out!"
"Years ago, for Rita's sake, you people ruined my fingers. And now, so I wouldn't find out you'd registered the marriage, you sent me to the psych ward again and again. If you loved me, you'd never have put me through this kind of pain."
He sighed and stood up.
"You're upset right now. We'll talk later."
The door closed, and I drifted off again into a hazy sleep.
When I woke, Rita Fox was standing beside the bed, looking down at me.
"Maisie Pruitt, you really are pitiful."
"You may come from a good family, but all I have to do is lift a finger and everyone around you comes running to me. Everything you have is mine."
I drew a deep breath and asked, my voice hoarse, "Rita, I supported you back then. Why repay kindness with this?"
She blinked, all innocence.
"Because I envied you. When I was a child my father beat me half to death, threw me out of the house half-naked. School was a luxury I could only dream of."
"But you? One bracelet you tossed off without a thought was more than I could earn in ten years, even if I never ate or drank. So the rule I live by is: fight for it, and if you can't win it, take it."
I coughed.
"You've won. Whatever. I don't care anymore."
The corner of her mouth curved.
"Don't worry. There's still something better waiting for you."
...
Late that night, I suddenly heard sounds outside the room.
"Honey, let's do it right here, all right? She's asleep anyway. She won't hear."
Eric made a low sound in his throat, and the intimate noises grew louder and louder, deafening.
On the other side of the door, my stomach heaved.
Just then, Rita spoke up.
"Honey, who's better in bed, do you think? Her, or me?"
Eric was silent for a second.
"You, of course. She's got issues in that department. Never once let me touch her."
Every string in my mind snapped clean through.
"Oh, come on. A young lady like her, it's not as if she wanted the thing that happened to her."
*
There's a secret I can never bring myself to speak.
Once, I was kidnapped, and violated by a group of people.
It was the deepest, most hidden scar I carry in my bones.
I only ever told one person. Eric.
And he handed it to Rita Fox, just like that.
I gasped for air, yanked open the drawer, grabbed a fistful of sleeping pills and shoved them into my mouth. I didn't want to hear anything, ever again.
When I woke the next day, they were gone.
And one piece of news set the whole internet on fire.
【The Pruitt Daughter Kidnapping Case: the secret from back then is finally exposed!】
