Page 47 of Catch My Fall (Catch)

I went to sleep wrapped safely in his arms secure in the knowledge that I was exactly where I was supposed to be.

We stayed with my Mom, Neil and baby Nate for two days, and they doted on us both. Uncle Jesse was right there with them spoiling us both. Tristan felt bad at first, but I sat him down and told him that they all just needed to see that we were okay and there way of doing that was by doing what they were doing. I fell in love with him all over again when he let them practically take his temperature every five minutes the entire time we were there.

By the time we left, Tristan was firmly established as a part of my family.

Chapter Twenty-Five

A few months later

Naturally Brady said that my father made him do what he did, and Teresa and her lawyers managed to keep him out of jail when even I had to admit that my father had been the one calling the shots that day. Brady’s explanation for why they were there at all was that my father was angry with me because Brady had gotten himself kicked out of his University ‘for no reason’. According to Brady, my father had been convinced that it had something to do with me because it happened after I severed all communication and returned the car. Brady claimed to be innocent, insisting that he had only come with my father to try to talk some ‘sense’ into me. Not surprisingly, he took responsibility for nothing.

Once Brady and his mom turned on my father, things happened fast. Teresa filed for divorce immediately and my father was held without a bail option. The charges against him for what he did to me are very serious and he’s facing twenty years in prison. As far as I’m concerned, he can rot in jail.

It weighed on me that Brady was getting away with everything. He’d violated my best friend, assaulted me, drugged us both and had taken photos of us while he did it all. He might not have been calling the shots the day he and John showed up at Tristan’s and attacked me, but he hadn’t had any problem bringing John that knife.

I spent about a week discussing it with Macy before we decided that we had to go forward with child pornography charges against Brady and Chad. Considering the size of our hometown, it was inevitable that not long after the charges were filed word got out. At first we were both upset, but as it turns out it was the best thing that we could have done. Within six weeks of our charges being filed, seven more girls came forward to reveal that Brady and Chad raped them as well, and had also taken photos of them in the process. Of the seven girls, five were minors, and one of them was only fourteen when it happened. In addition to that, it came to light that Brady had been expelled from his University for attempting to assault someone.

The police department in my hometown was investigated for ignoring evidence, and anyone that was involved in disregarding my statement that day in the hospital when Macy had her breakdown was fired. Brady and Chad are both in jail and are being charged with multiple counts of rape, assault and child pornography.

Most people back in my hometown have turned their backs on Teresa entirely. It came out that she’s damn near broke because my father was busy gambling it all away, and whatever she has left is likely going to be sucked into Brady’s defense. Word on the street is that she’s already attached herself to an eighty-year old retired executive from Dallas. True to form he’s old and rich, and I’m sure that she’ll be married again as soon as her divorce from John is final.

My father made three attempts to ask Uncle Jesse for help, and every one fell on deaf ears. John blames the whole thing on Teresa and Brady and swears that if he had known how serious things were, he would have protected me. Once a liar… Always a liar.

I hope it doesn’t seem petty that I find it amusing that my father, Teresa and Brady have all turned on each other like rabid dogs, but if it does, oh well. They all treated me like garbage and I’m not going to pretend I have any empathy for them.

The two people that had the hardest time with what my father and Brady did that day are my mom and Tristan. My mom was devastated that my father had hurt me and said such horrible things to me, and she felt responsible for his anger toward me because she’d stayed married to him even though she knew he was bad. She’s been seeing a therapist for the past few months and she’s definitely getting better, but I know it will always upset her that my father did what he did. My mother is the strongest woman I know and it’s her strength and resilience that was a constant reminder for me that being knocked down didn’t mean I had to leave the ring forever.

Whenever the need arises, I talk to Tristan, Neil and Uncle Jesse about how hurt I am by what my father did. The things he said and did aren’t the kind of things that you just forget about, but as time passes, I am able to deal with it better.

When we got back home from my mom’s house, it became obvious right away that Tristan couldn’t stand to be in the house anymore after what happened. I couldn’t blame him at all because it definitely bothered me to walk through the living room every day. A few weeks later Tristan and Trace put the house up for sale and for now they’re renting a big house not far from where my mom and Neil live. This was not a coincidence—Tristan and my Mom have a mutual admiration society going and he loves spending time with her.

It took us some time to find a house with that split ranch layout so that both Tristan and I and Darby and Trace could have privacy, but eventually they found something that was even better than the original house because we’re further apart. Since we moved I haven’t woken up to the sounds of Trace and Darby having sex even once, and that’s a big improvement. Darby says that the same thing holds true for her as far as hearing us goes. I’d be mortified if Darby weren’t so awesome, open and easy to talk to, but the truth is that there’s nothing to be embarrassed about. We’re lucky to be in love with two really amazing guys, and hitting the good-sex lottery is the cherry on top.

* * *

Coming home from visiting with my brother, I found Tristan sitting in the living room yelling the answers at the TV while he watchedWheel of Fortune. Chocolate Eyes has brains and it’s HOT. Climbing up onto his lap, I wrapped my arms around him and kissed him like I hadn’t seen him in days.

Darby and Trace are away for the weekend, which left me free to take my shirt off. I smiled when he inhaled sharply and groaned because I wasn’t wearing a bra.

“Babe, how about we christen this new recliner?”

He nodded his agreement immediately. “Did you lock the door when you came in?”

“Of course. We’re all alone in the house for the next forty-eight hours and I plan to use each and every one to our advantage. Now we just need to cross our fingers that no one shows up to visit between now and then.”

“Baby, if this chair’s a rockin’, no one better come a knockin’.”

In addition to being hot, my boyfriend is hilarious. I’d say I got pretty damn lucky the day I walked into that math class and he asked me for a pen.

Epilogue

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.

Lao Tzu

I get to take the hottest girl I’ve ever known to bed every night and then to top it off, I wake up every morning with her wrapped around me like an additional appendage. Being with Mimi is the best fuckin’ feeling in the world. She’s the most incredible girl alive and she’s mine, all mine. I ignore that Mia leaves her Chucks all over the house and she ignores that I eat too much sugar, which is the way a real relationship is supposed to be. She isn’t just my girlfriend; she’s my best friend. I fought for her and if it ever came down to it, I would die for her. There is nothing that I wouldn’t do for this love.

I never saw myself with kids or a family because I didn’t want to pass on my biological father’s DNA, but watching Mimi with baby Mia calls on every caveman instinct that I have to procreate. She’s on the birth control shot so that won’t be happening anytime soon, but someday, I hope to make that girl my wife. She stood her ground when I wanted to run, and that act of faith changed everything.

We’ve built a life together that is the happiest thing that I’ve ever had. Having Trace and Darby living in the house and seeing how happy they are now is huge. The addition of Macy and baby Mia in our lives is something else that makes me happy. Seeing my girl light up for that baby is just another reason that I love her so much. I’m in awe of what a great friend and aunt she is, right on down to the fact that now that Macy’s taking classes at Evermore, Mimi insisted that they coordinate their schedules so that if Macy has a class, Mimi has the baby. There are many, many days that I come home from work or school to find baby Mia, baby Nate and some mix of Mimi’s family and extended family or Darby’s family in the house, and I love it. I never thought that I could have something so perfectly normal, and it feels fuckin’ amazing.

The scars of my upbringing are still there, and it will always weigh on me that I was conceived by rape. Having my grandmother tell Trace and me that we had to stay on constant guard so that we didn’t unleash the evil within us definitely fucked us both up, and I don’t think that either of us will ever stop trying to be the exact opposite of the man that forced himself on Lynette. She won’t ever see or speak to us, but I hope that at the very least it helps her to know that the children she gave birth to didn’t turn out like her attacker.

What I’ve learned from Mia is that I can’t let the past take away the happiness of today. My father was a monster but I’m not. The love that I thought I didn’t deserve has turned out to be my salvation.

What were the odds?

* * *