The Captain's Dirty Little Secret

Chapter 56: Chapter 56 - Betrayal

Zac moved like he was about to stand, but Roxie grabbed his arm.

Claire’s eyes narrowed. ”Who is he?”

Roxie sat up, pulling the blanket tighter around herself even though she was fully dressed. ”Mom.”

”Don’t Mom me.” Claire looked around the room, taking in the chair against the window, the knife on the floor, Zac’s bruised hand. Her face tightened, but the first thing she said was, ”Where’s Steve?”

Roxie stared at her.

That was the first thing she asked.

Where’s Steve?

When she saw her daughter crying and shivering in the bed?

Something in Roxie’s chest went flat.

”I don’t know,” she said.

Claire stepped farther in. ”What do you mean you don’t know?”

Zac’s voice was rough. ”He was outside last night.”

Claire looked at him like he had no right to speak. ”I wasn’t talking to you.”

Roxie’s hand tightened around Zac’s sleeve.

”He was at my window,” she said.

Claire blinked.

”What?”

”Steve was at my window.”

Claire stared at her.

Roxie’s voice started shaking, but this time she did not stop. ”He tried to get into my room.”

Claire’s mouth opened, then closed.

”He was trying to come through the window,” Roxie said, louder now. ”I screamed for you. I screamed and screamed, and you didn’t wake up.”

Claire’s face hardened.

”Don’t you start.”

Roxie went still.

”Don’t you start?” she repeated.

Claire pointed at Zac. ”I wake up and find some boy in your bed, and you want to make this about Steve?”

Zac stood then.

Roxie grabbed his wrist, but he stood anyway, putting himself slightly in front of her.

”She called me because she was scared,” he said.

Claire laughed once, sharp and ugly. ”I’m sure she did.”

Roxie felt like she had been slapped.

”Mom.”

Claire looked at her with something mean and tired in her face. ”You think I’m stupid?”

Zac’s jaw tightened. ”Ma’am, he tried to climb through her window.”

”Don’t talk to me like you know anything about my house.”

”I know what I saw.”

Claire’s eyes snapped to Roxie. ”Is this what you do now? Sneak boys into your room and then make up stories?”

Roxie could not breathe for a second.

Then everything hit at once.

The window.

The knife.

Steve’s hand inside her room.

Her mother asleep on the couch.

Zac’s arms around her all night.

And Claire standing there like Roxie was the disgusting part of the story.

”He nearly raped me,” Roxie whispered.

The words cracked through the room.

Claire froze.

Zac went still beside her.

Roxie’s whole body shook again, but this time it was anger too. ”He was at my window. He had his arm inside my room. I had a knife because I thought he was going to get in. And you were passed out on the couch.”

Claire’s face twisted. ”You’re lying.”

”It’s true.”

”No, it’s not.”

Roxie let out a broken laugh. ”You weren’t even awake.”

”I know Steve.”

”No, you don’t.”

”I know he wouldn’t do that.”

Roxie stared at her mother.

There it was.

The choice.

Right there, in the middle of her bedroom, with the chair still shoved against the broken window and Zac’s blood still dried on his hand.

Claire was choosing him.

Again.

”He did,” Roxie said.

Claire shook her head. ”Did you drink last night?”

”I’m not.”

”You were probably sneaking around with this boy and got scared I’d find out.”

Zac’s voice went low. ”Stop.”

Claire ignored him. Her eyes stayed on Roxie, wet now but angry enough to hide it. ”I knew this would happen. Walking around in those skirts, acting grown, staying out late, lying to my face.”

Roxie’s face went cold.

Zac stepped forward. ”Do not talk to her like that.”

Claire finally looked at him. ”Get out of my house.”

”No,” Roxie said.

Both of them looked at her.

Her voice shook, but she forced the words out. ”He saved me.”

Claire’s mouth curled.

”Saved you,” she repeated. ”Is that what we’re calling it?”

Roxie’s throat tightened.

Claire looked at Zac again, then back at Roxie. ”You think I don’t know girls like you?”

Roxie stopped moving.

Zac’s whole body went tense.

Claire’s voice got louder. ”Sneaking boys into your bedroom while I’m asleep, then crying when you get caught. Acting like some victim. You really want people to think you’re innocent?”

”Mom,” Roxie whispered.

But Claire did not stop.

”You want to act like a little slut, then don’t stand there pretending—”

Zac moved.

Roxie grabbed him with both hands.

”Don’t,” she said quickly, voice breaking. ”Zac, don’t.”

He stopped, but barely.

His eyes stayed on Claire.

Claire looked shaken for half a second, then covered it with a hard laugh.

”Oh, look at that,” she said. ”He’s got you trained already.”

Roxie felt the words hit somewhere too deep to answer.

Her mother turned toward the hallway. ”I’m finding Steve.”

Roxie stared at her back.

”That’s what you care about?” she asked.

Claire stopped in the doorway.

Roxie’s voice cracked. ”After everything I just said, you’re going to look for him?”

Claire did not turn around.

”I’m going to hear the truth,” she said.

Then she walked out.

Roxie sat there, frozen, listening to her mother’s footsteps move down the hall.

The house felt quiet again.

Zac turned toward her. ”Roxie.”

She shook her head.

Her mouth trembled, but no sound came out.

She had thought the worst part was Steve at the window.

She had thought the worst part was the knife shaking in her hands.

She had thought the worst part was screaming for her mother and getting nothing back.

But this was worse in a different way.

Her mother had heard her this time.

Her mother had looked right at her.

And she had still walked away to find Steve.

Roxie covered her mouth with both hands.

The first sob came out small.

The next one broke through her whole chest.

Zac crossed the room and pulled her into him before she could fold in on herself. Roxie grabbed him again, not because Steve was outside this time, but because her mother had just left her standing in the wreckage and called her the kind of thing Roxie had spent her whole life trying not to become.

”She chose him,” Roxie whispered into Zac’s shirt.

Zac’s arms tightened around her.

”She chose him.”

”I’m here,” he said.

Roxie cried harder.

This time, even Zac’s arms could not make it safe.