The Present

“Elizabeth! Phone!”

“I’ve got it Mom!” Elizabeth called back down the stairs before going back into her bedroom to snatch up her cordless. “Brenda?”

“No, actually it’s Jason.”

Her lips pressed together firmly. “You’ve got about five seconds before I hang up.”

“Look, both of us are going for college scholarships and I know we both need to keep our grades up,” Jason said quickly. “So…let’s just get this project over with. We’ll do the report and then we can just go back to our lives.”

He had a point. She needed that scholarship badly. Her parents may be doctors, but her father was a researcher and her mother was pediatrician. Not exactly the Fortune 500 class. “Okay. When do you want to do it?”

“Tonight?” he suggested. “I can stop by about eight and we can get started. We need to decide on the topic so we can turn it into Murty tomorrow.”

“Make it seven and that’s fine,” Elizabeth replied.

“Well, there’s a basketball game at school–“

“Seven or forget it,” Elizabeth cut in.

“Yeah. Whatever.”

She went downstairs to find her mother holding up a plate for her father to test. “What’s going on tonight?”

“We’re having some guests over tonight. Who was on the phone, honey?”

“Jason Morgan,” Elizabeth sighed. “We’ve got a history report to do and he’ll be here about seven. Can we use the study upstairs?”

“Jason Morgan?” her mother repeated. “I haven’t seen him around here since last November,” Claire Webber trailed off and exchanged a thoughtful look with her husband. “Honey–”

“No,” Elizabeth cut them off. “He’s not the one and…it’s just…it’s not him.” She tucked her hair behind her ears. “I thought you promised you weren’t going to push.”

“I know but sweetheart…the boy who is responsible…” Claire shook her head. “You can use the study. Keep an eye on Danielle though–she seemed to be coming down with a cold.”

“I’ll go check on her right now. Send Jason to the study when he gets here? I don’t…” She hesitated. “You know what I mean.”

“Yeah. We will.”

Elizabeth went up into the nursery and leaned over the side of the crib. Danielle–or Dani–was wide awake and she smiled a little. She waved her arms and gurgled.

Elizabeth picked her up and cradled her close, moving to the rocking chair. “You feeling all right, Dani-bear?” she cooed.

She put Dani’s head against her shoulder and rubbed her back in smooth slow circles. “Hush little baby, don’t say a word…Momma’s gonna buy you a mockingbird,” she sang softly, “and if that mocking bird don’t sing…Momma’s gonna buy you a diamond ring.”

She was on her third time through the song when Jason knocked on the open door. “Elizabeth?”

Elizabeth broke off mid-verse. “You were supposed to go to the study,” she said, thrown.

Confused by Elizabeth’s sharp tone, Dani raised her head and let out a protesting wail. “Shh…” Elizabeth soothed. She kissed the top of her head. “Shh…baby, it’s okay.”

“Sorry…your mom just said you were upstairs.” Jason frowned. “I didn’t know you had a sister.”

“Well…I do.” Elizabeth stood and rocked Dani a little more. “Go to the study. It’s the next room over. I need to put her down for the night, okay?”

“Yeah, fine…” Jason glanced at Dani and just before he left the room, his eyes caught a picture on top of the dresser. A smiling Elizabeth in hospital gown.

Holding Dani.

He picked it up and his frown deepened. “She’s not your sister is she?”

Elizabeth whipped her head around, paling when she saw him near the picture. “Put that down,” she ordered softly. She carefully laid Dani back in the crib and yanked it out of his grasp. “This is none of your business.”

“She’s your daughter,” Jason accused. “Did you even bother to tell Ric?”

Elizabeth pressed her lips together. “He knows,” she said softly. “Can you just drop it and pretend you never saw her?” she pleaded.

Jason hesitated. “If he knew, he’d be doing something. He’d be helping–”

“Oh, please,” Elizabeth rolled her eyes. “Don’t be so naïve. You don’t still have him on a pedestal do you? There’s a lot about your friend you don’t know.”

“He would have told me!” Jason hissed. “If he knew you were pregnant–”

And then something clicked in his head and he shut up. His mind focused on a night he’d chalked up to drunken bragging.

“Man…I wish I hadn’t dropped that Webber girl so quickly,” Ric laughed, uncapping another beer. “She was a wildcat in the sack, y’know? I probably have scratches.”

“Yeah…well, something happened to her when she left your house, man, because she showed up here with her clothes all torn and her arms were covered in bruises and stuff.”

“No shit huh?” Ric shrugged and gulped half of the bottle at once. “Well, the clothes were me. I couldn’t wait to get her out of them. You know, she played hard to get–fought me every step of the way but I wore her down. I wore her down.”

“Yeah, must be that charm. So then why’d you dump her then if she was so good in bed?” Jason asked.

“She got too clingy. Saying anything to keep me around, you know? Wouldn’t put it past her to fake a kid or something. Too much drama. Give me another one.”

“He all but told me he did it,” Jason said quietly. He took a step back. “He said you fought him every step of the way but I just…I thought he meant that first three months.”

Elizabeth sighed and slowly placed the picture back on the dresser. “I thought he was just joking most of the time. He seemed like such a good guy. And then he was even helping me with my chemistry that night.”

“But then I told him that I would just get you to help…” her lower lip trembled. “I always understood it when you explained it.”

“Elizabeth–”

“He got angry with me…told me that you were his friend not mine. That if he dropped me that night, no one would even talk to me on Monday. I was just a nobody until he picked me from a crowd…I thought he just having a bad night so I wanted to leave.” Her hands gripped the edge of the dresser. “He told me that he could do anything to me and no one would believe me.”

“Elizabeth–”

“I tried to leave but he got to the door before I could get out. He slammed it shut and grabbed me. He kissed me a-and I tried to push him away but he’s stronger a-and I couldn’t. He pushed me on the couch and he tore my shirt. I kicked him and I think that just made him madder and then the next time he kissed me, I bit his lip hard so he hit me.” Her voice caught. “I tried to stop him but I couldn’t…and when it was over, I just…curled up in a ball and started to cry.”

“You don’t…you don’t have to tell me anything. I believe you–” Jason said, desperate for her to stop.

“And then I felt something being poured on me…it was whiskey…just in case you try to tell anyone he told me…” She wrapped her arms around herself.

“He called me that night…he wanted to be sure I wouldn’t believe you when you came over,” Jason realized. “He knew you would probably come to me…either that night or eventually.”

“Would you have believed me if Ric hadn’t called?” Elizabeth asked pointedly. “Would have occurred to you that your best friend in the whole world was a rapist?” she demanded.

“He was setting me up the whole time,” Jason protested. “He told me a lot of things that probably weren’t true. That you liked to party. That you looked innocent but were wild. He was surprised that you were holding out but he knew it was just a matter of time. And…I believed him because he’s never had a problem before–” Jason hesitated. “A lot of his ex-girlfriends don’t talk to him anymore but I just…girls are like that. My exes don’t really talk to me either.”

“Look…it’s over. It’s in the past. It doesn’t matter anymore. Let’s just do this stupid project and we can go back to our lives. Just like you said.”

“Wait a second…why didn’t you ever go to the authorities about Ric?” Jason demanded. “Why didn’t your parents make you?”

“Because I never told them I was raped!” she hissed. “They don’t know who the father is. And I’m not telling them. I told Ric and he laughed in my face. So I just…I don’t tell anyone I’ve got a baby. Please don’t tell anyone,” Elizabeth pleaded.

“Ric has to pay for what he did–for what he may have done to other girls,” Jason argued. “Or who knows what else he’ll do–”

“Look, I don’t care about any of that. I don’t want anyone to know!” Elizabeth protested.

“I can’t just let him get away with this!”

“It didn’t happen to you!” she cried. “It happened to me!”

“But he used me to keep it a secret.” Jason shook his head. “He’s not getting away with it.”

Jason spun on his heel and stalked out of the room. Elizabeth took off after him.

She rushed past her parents and their surprised guests. Jason was getting into his car. She threw herself into the passenger seat just as he started the engine. “Jason, please don’t do this.”

“Look…I won’t….I won’t say anything about you, okay?” Jason promised. “You just stay in the car or go back in the house. But he used me to rape you. And who knows how many other girls he hurt. It makes me sick and I’m not letting him get away with it.”

“Look…you aren’t thinking right,” Elizabeth challenged. “You just realized who Ric really is–you need to take some time to digest this–”

“I guess you’re staying in the car then,” Jason sighed as he pulled the car out of the spot and onto the street.

---

But he didn’t go to Ric’s house or to the high school. He drove to the nearby park and pulled into the parking lot that was next to the lake.

“What are we doing here?” Elizabeth asked as he switched off the engine and just stared at the frozen lake.

“As angry as I am…this didn’t happen to me.”

Elizabeth let out a relieved breath and sat back against the seat, closing her eyes. “Look, I know why you’re angry and I don’t blame you. But you have to promise me that you’re not going to say anything to anyone, okay?”

“I have to say something,” Jason argued. “I can’t be around him. Just the thought of it…”

“Okay…then just…do your best to keep me out of it. I don’t want him anywhere near Dani. So just don’t bring her up, don’t say anything about me.”

“I won’t.” Jason looked over at her. “I’m sorry. For not believing you, for turning you away last year…I should have known better. I wish…” he hesitated. “I wish I could have been there for you.”

“It’s too late for regrets.” She sighed. “I know why you didn’t believe me but it doesn’t mean it didn’t–and still doesn’t–hurt. Can we just go back to my house and do this project?”

“Yeah.” Jason started the engine. “Yeah, sure.”

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