“Leaving the way I did was the wrong thing to do,” he admitted. “But what did you expect me to do after what I saw?”
Her brow furrowed. “What you saw?” Now she was the one who seemed confused.
“That weekend I came home to surprise you.”
All the color drained out of Teresa’s face, and if she hadn't already been lying down, he was pretty sure she would have fallen. “Y-you w-were there?” she whispered, her voice barely more than a breath of air.
He was hurting her, and it wasn't what he wanted, but Micah also knew they had to have this conversation. It was better to just do it and get it over with. “The door was open when I got to your place. When I saw … I didn't stay. I got in my car, drove right back to college. A couple of days later, I decided to join the military. My parents were shocked at my sudden decision, but I never told them it was because of you.”
“Y-you were th-there,” she stammered once again. “And y-you didn't s-stop them.”
“Stop them? Did you find out I was coming? Did you want me to see it? Were you trying to get some sort of message across?” That didn't sound like the Teresa he’d known, but what else could she mean? If she’d wanted him to see and stop them, stop her, then why hadn't she come after him? She’d have to have been watching for him, and he’d seen her on the couch with the four young men, there was nothing stopping her from having seen him in the open door.
“You l-left me w-with th-them.” Teresa’s eyes filled with tears, and she sounded so heartbroken that his heart cracked along with her, but he still wasn't sure why she would want him to see her having sex with other men.
It made zero sense, and he hated things that didn't make sense.
“I didn't know what else to do.”
“Didn't know what else to do?” she hissed, anger shoving away the devastation. “How about stopping them? How about calling the police? How about doing something to make them stop hurting me?”
The bottom dropped out of his world.
It felt like it literally disappeared, and he was falling.
Falling.
Falling.
Finally, everything clicked into place.
All the pieces snapped together to form a picture.
A terrifying picture.
What he’d thought he’d seen was wrong.
So very wrong.
He hadn't walked in on his girlfriend cheating on him with four other men, he’d walked in on his girlfriend being gang raped.
“Tell me it’s not true,” he croaked.
It couldn’t be.
Because if it was, he’d wasted the last twelve years being angry with the woman he loved for no reason. She’d done nothing wrong. He had.
Teresa hadn't betrayed him, he had betrayed her in the most sickening of ways.
“It’s true,” she whispered, looking away.
Micah couldn’t breathe. All the air had been sucked out of his lungs, and he couldn’t seem to find more to drag in.
What had he done?
Why had he ever believed for a single second that Teresa would cheat on him?
It had always felt wrong, the opposite of what a girl like Teresa would do, but he’d never considered another possibility.
