Page 88 of Tears of Gold

“If you are honest. Truthful. You have nothing to fear.”

“Right.”

“So, if you are okay, then maybe we can start at the beginning.” He motions for the sofa in a kind of 'sit down and spill your soul' way.

“I’m okay.” I’m not okay. Not at all.

I’m guessing Reggie can sense my enormous discomfort because he says with the tact of a charging bulldozer. “Would you rather Elijah wasn’t here?”

If I could dig a hole and avoid answering I would. “No. It’s okay. We have no secrets,” I say. But only a fool would believe me.

Eli sits by my side and picks up my hand, his thumb rubbing along the inside of my palm.

“So, Faith.”

Oh Lord.

“Yes?”

“Can you tell me when you first thought something was amiss? I believe from Eli, your stepbrother moved in when you were eleven?”

My throat tightens.

“Yes.” Eli’s hands massage my knee. “I was eleven. He was never officially my stepbrother though.”

“No?” Reggie scratches a note on his legal pad.

“No. My father never married his mother, but we lived like a family for a while.”

“How long?”

“How long what? How long did I think he was my brother?”

“That’s interesting? So, there was a moment you knew he wasn’t your brother?”

I shake my head. “I knew he was never my brother. He lived with my father until I was seventeen.”

“And what happened when you were seventeen?”

“I told my father what had happened to me.”

“And when did he start to become inappropriate?”

“I first noticed it when I was fourteen.”

“It took you three years to realise?”

My blood runs cold. My skin clammy and sticking to my beautiful blouse. “No.”

“But you didn’t tell anyone? In three years, you didn’t mention it to anyone?”

“No.” The word chokes me on the way out.

“Why when you were seventeen did you speak out?”

The questions won’t end. “I didn’t. I slept with someone else, and it spread around school. I knew it was him who had told everyone I was easy.”

“How did you know?”