“You are being obtuse,” I disagreed. “Cerise was tortured in high school by that piece of filth. I had to scrape her up off the bathroom floor too many times to count. He stuffed her in lockers. He stole her clothes out of the locker room, forcing her to dress in lost and found clothes. He sabotaged her car. Roofied her and made her think that he did the unthinkable to her. Trust me when I say, if you can think it up, Taigen did it to her. And the fact that you never believed your own daughter is crazy to me, because I saw how sick and scared she was in high school, and she didn’t even live with me.”
“She was troubled,” Cerise’s dad said, looking confused. “She didn’t have any of that happen in high school.”
“No?” I asked. “Of course not. She was really just as bad as your wife made her out to be. It’s not possible that she swept things under the rug, which you were too busy working to see, is it? And since it wasn’t happening to your sweet, perfect little Jade, it obviously couldn’t be happening to Cerise.”
Done with these people, I headed for the back of the room where I’d left Copper with the greasy gross guy, only to find him gone.
I pulled out my phone and called him, and he answered on the first ring.
“Hey, I’m in the back lot. Follow the signs for the emergency exit,” he reported.
I did, angrily stomping my feet in the heels that had just shown up along with the dress.
They were beautiful, and I loved them a lot, but I feared they’d be ruined after tonight. I couldn’t wear something that reminded me of such a horrible party.
I pushed out the exit at the back of the room and slipped into the shadows.
A soft thump, then Copper’s voice calling “back here” had me moving deeper into the shadows.
When I got there, it was to find several Truth Tellers along with Copper, but none of them were scary to me any longer, even with those awful looks on their faces.
“Boys,” I said. “What’s going on?”
“Takin’ this douche to the clubhouse to get some answers,” Webber answered, not bothering to lie. “You look beautiful, Baker.”
I smiled at him, but my eyes were for Copper when I replied, “Thanks.”
Copper looked to me, his face completely blank, and uttered, “You ready to go?”
Eighteen
Sorry that I blocked you on everything. I overreacted.
—Text from Keely to Copper
COPPER
Tonight hadn’t remotely turned out the way I’d expected it to.
When I’d gotten dressed in my best suit, I’d fully expected to end this night walking into Baker’s house and telling her that I wanted a life with her.
After giving myself plenty of time to think, I realized that I’d never be the man that Baker deserved.
Joey’s words, though annoying, hadn’t been untrue.
Baker needed a man that could give her a perfect life. A life where she could have a house, a mowed yard, and as many perfect kids as she could pop out. She deserved cards and candles, cupcakes on a random Sunday, and to be able to walk down the street on his arm without a random person recognizing him for the murderer he was.
I was a destroyer of worlds, not a creator.
I couldn’t be this selfish. Not with her.
So, when she smiled up at me after I’d walked her to her door and invited me to come inside, I knew what I had to say.
Even though everything inside of me yearned to take her up on her offer, I stayed my ground, and instead said the exact opposite of what I was feeling.
Since we hadn’t gotten dinner, I felt obligated to feed her, and the one and only place she wanted to go was the pizza place around the corner from her house.
“It’s the best food ever,” she exclaimed.
