Page 59 of Forsaken
Chapter 24
Eli
Focusing on Caleb’s voice was impossibly difficult since I was still reeling from everything that had just happened. When I’d first walked into the motel room, I’d been stunned by how broken and small Caleb looked. He’d always been quieter than Nick, but he’d always had a smile on his face and he was the type of guy who naturally drew people to him. And while he hadn’t exactly been kind to me when we were younger, he hadn’t seemed as resentful as Nick always had.
I hadn’t had any idea of what Caleb would tell us about what had happened to him from the time he’d left me that message, but I certainly wasn’t expecting him to expose my biggest secret in front of both a virtual stranger and the man I’d hoped would never find out what I’d done. Even now, the knowledge that Mav knew I’d fucked a man I considered a father – my own mother’s husband – was making me violently ill, and I wished more than anything that Mav would stop touching me because my skin felt like there were a million ants crawling beneath it.
“Caleb, what happened after you called Eli?” I heard Mav ask, and I forced myself to focus.
“My dad overheard me leaving that message,” Caleb began. “He took my phone from me and hit me. He said I’d be sorry if I tried it again. I told him I knew the truth about what had happened to Nick and that he wasn’t going to get away with it. I also told him that I had proof of what he’d been doing to me and Nick and Eli and that if he ever touched me again, I’d give it to the cops and the press.”
“What?” I whispered in disbelief as his words sank in. “No,” I said as I shook my head. “No,” I repeated and I looked at Mav in the hopes that he would tell me I’d heard Caleb wrong.
“Caleb, did your father…did he touch you and Nick?”
Caleb’s gaze shifted to Jace who nodded his head and then reached up to tenderly brush Caleb’s hair from his forehead. My stepbrother turned his attention back to Mav and sucked in a deep breath before saying, “I don’t know exactly how old Nick was when it started for him, but I was thirteen the first time my father touched me.”
“Oh my God,” I said as I got to my feet. “No,” I repeated dumbly before looking at Caleb. I did the math in my head and felt the bile rise up my throat. When Caleb had been thirteen, I’d been eighteen.
“I left for college,” I whispered and I closed my eyes.
“It started before that, Eli,” Caleb said softly. “It had nothing to do with you leaving.”
I opened my eyes to look at him and shook my head.
“It’s true,” Caleb said. “He started doing it to Nick long before he married your mom.”
“Baby, come sit back down,” Mav said gently as he held out his hand. I took it and let him settle me in next to him again, but my mind was racing. My stepfather had told me I’d been the cause of his obsession to be with another man. Except I hadn’t been a man. Not really. And I hadn’t been his first. The sick fuck had gone after his own kids.
“I’m sorry, Caleb, I didn’t know,” I said as tears flooded my eyes. “I would have tried to stop it, I swear.”
Caleb dashed at his own eyes and nodded. “I know,” he said. “He was good at keeping secrets. We all were.”
“Caleb, you said something about what happened to Nick,” Mav said.
“Um, yeah, he was going to college, but still living at home. One of his classes got canceled so he came home early. Eli’s mom was at lunch with friends. Nick…he walked in on me and my father…”
Caleb’s words trailed off and I saw Jace give his hand a little squeeze. The move seemed to settle the younger man. “Nick pulled him off of me and called him a liar and said he was going to send the proof to the media. I didn’t know what he meant, but he and my father started fighting. My father pushed Nick hard and he fell backwards and hit his head on the edge of the coffee table. He didn’t move after that,” Caleb said, his voice sounding dull and lifeless. I knew he was going someplace else in his head to escape the memories.
Just like I always had when I’d been a kid. With my customers. With my stepfather.
“My dad started flipping out. He grabbed me and told me that it was an accident. I was crying and told him that we needed to get Nick help, but he wouldn’t let me call 911. He told me that he’d go to jail if anyone found out what had happened.”
Caleb’s eyes shifted from me to Mav and then to Jace. “I know the stuff he did to me was fucked up, but he was still my dad,” Caleb whispered in earnest.
Jace nodded in understanding. “It’s okay,” he reassured Caleb.
Caleb nodded shakily and then dropped his eyes to his hands. He focused on the one Jace was holding. Jace’s thumb was rubbing over Caleb’s and as Caleb continued to talk, his own finger began to stroke the other man’s.
“My father left me alone with Nick for a couple of minutes and I sat down next to him. I went to hold his hand when he suddenly opened his eyes. I began screaming for my dad saying that Nick was still alive. I told Nick to hold on, that help was coming, but he kept talking about the proof…said it would keep me safe. He…he told me to call Eli for help and to tell him he was sorry.”
My chest hurt at hearing that and I realized how little I’d really known my stepbrothers…both of them.
“Nick closed his eyes again just before my father came back into the room and I started telling him that Nick was still alive. I told him we needed to call for help, and he knelt down next to Nick and put his fingers against his neck to check for a pulse. He finally told me to go call 911. I did, but when I got back, Dad was leaning over Nick and checking his pulse again. And then he looked at me and said Nick was gone. I was so messed up, I didn’t really pay attention to what happened next. This cop started asking me all sorts of questions, but I couldn’t make sense of anything he was saying.”
“You were in shock,” Jace murmured.
“Yeah,” Caleb said. “I didn’t even realize until the funeral that my dad had told the cops I’d been the one to find Nick’s body. That was when I started hearing people say the Coroner had found heroin in Nick’s system and that was what had caused him to pass out and hit his head on the table.”
