13

When I woke up, there was no one in bed with me. You would think panic would have set in, that I'd wonder if Tucker had seen the error of his ways and realized I was too crazy to hedge his bets on. You would think that I wondered if him staying long enough to hold me until I fell asleep had been about making sure I was okay before he left and found the quickest way to ditch me. You would be right.

Insecurities were a bitch like that, and they didn't just go away because you wanted them to. My whole whirlwind thought process was quelled somewhat by finding the note that was left for me on the dresser though.

Mina,

Got called into work and needed to go home to get some clothes to wear. We will talk later, don't forget, dinner tonight. It's our starting point.

Yours,

Tucker

Well, I guess I couldn't really complain about that. And no, I was not going to think too much on his salutation either. Then again, what exactly did 'yours' mean? Shit! Nope. I wasn't hopping the train to crazy town again. I was going to get up, shower, wash the remnants of tears from my face, eat something, and find my roommate so I could apologize to her. Not only did I bring drama to her doorstep, but she missed extra work for me last night, and I'm sure her boss didn't think too highly of that after she told him she'd be there.

Once I was clean and clothed, I moved into the kitchen to get the food portion of my morning going. Luna was seated at the little two-person table we had as our breakfast nook. It was also the dinner table, but it's all that fit in the space allotted.

"Morning," she offered up before sipping at the steaming cup in her hands. Luna was sort of an oddball. She only drank tea, but she fixed it like I would make coffee with plenty of other flavors. I had yet to try it, and today was not going to be the day. Instead, I grabbed the orange juice – pulp free because I wasn't a monster – and took the seat on the other side of the table.

"I'm sorry you had to come back last night."

Her head snapped up, so that she was staring at me as she sat her teacup down on the table. "You think I care about having to come home?"

"Well, your job," I insisted.

"Screw my job, Mina! You were in a bad place last night, it was my brother's fault for putting you there, and you're my best friend. There is nowhere else in the universe I would rather be. Besides, it's a good thing that I did come back. Wes panicked and wanted to take you to the hospital. He didn't understand that you were just having a PTSD episode."

"PTSD?" I asked. The word grated on my nerves, and I didn't even understand why. It wasn't like I begrudged other people who had post-traumatic stress disorder, but those people had been in war zones. They had seen others die, or had been gravely injured, or…"

"You do realize that's what happened, right?" Luna asked.

I shook my head. "It was just a panic attack."

"No, it wasn't. That might have started as a panic attack, but you had a full-blown flashback that you had a hard time pulling out of." She reached over the tiny little table that sat between us and grabbed my hands. "I know you said you never told anyone, but did you ever get help?"

"Therapy?"

"Yeah, Mina, therapy. Did you ever talk to a professional about what happened to you?"

"No."

"I think maybe it's time you did." I wanted to argue, to fight with her, because seeing a therapist about what happened to me three years ago felt like admitting defeat all over again. After what happened yesterday, I knew it was necessary too, even if it felt a little like giving up.

I nodded my head. "You're probably right. I'll try to find someone."

"I think that the University should have to pay for it," she added. I glanced up at her, wondering why she would suggest that. "Hear me out. They're the reason that some of those people got away with what happened. I don't think it's easy to let go of something like that when the people responsible got to walk away without issue. And it wasn't right for the University to put their finances ahead of your victimization. That's essentially what they did when they protected their football team. Do you know what they did? Every single person who was there, and did nothing to help you or to get help, were responsible for you being kidnapped, being held prisoner against your will, physically assaulted, sexually assaulted. You can probably throw in sex trafficking too, since they allowed an audience to see what they did. Torture, Mina. They tortured you for their own entertainment."

Her last statement hit me hard. "All those things are crimes. Every person there could have done some serious time in prison for what happened to you. They should have done time in prison," Luna reiterated.

"I wouldn't even know who to speak to about it now."

"I'll go with you, to make sure you have someone in your corner who can call bullshit on them, because they'll fight."

"You blamed Wes," I mumbled.

"What?"

"You blamed Wes, but this wasn't his fault. He couldn't have known what he was saying would trigger that kind of reaction. It wouldn't in a normal person."

"First of all, you are a normal person. You are a normal person who had something terrible done to you and no one was in your corner fighting to help you. The fact that you've managed this long without something seriously bad happening is a miracle."

She took a deep breath and then continued. "As for my brother, he had no business sticking around here last night when he realized I wasn't home. Just because he has a key, and you live here now, it didn't give him free rein to badger you; and I am so sorry that happened. I want you to know that I confiscated his key so he can't get in without knocking anymore."

"That's not right. He's your brother and should have a key for emergencies. Wes is your person."

"My brother might be my person, but he took advantage of that, and I no longer trust him with it. That's not on you. I could have been stashing a secret boyfriend here who I didn't want him to know about. The key was for emergencies, not so he could bypass having manners and knocking, or calling before he came over." She smiled at me to let me know that her reasons for taking his key ran deeper than just having provoked me into a complete mental breakdown.

"Now, since we're on the subject," she insisted, "what exactly did he say to cause the flashback?"

"Honestly, I couldn't tell you, because everything leading up to the panic is kind of a blur now. We were talking about Tucker and he kept saying things that were totally contradictory to what I had experienced, or even what Tucker had said to me personally. I started spiraling when it felt like they were playing some game. They're best friends, so they had to know what the other was doing right? It couldn't have been that far off, and then there was you, and the fact that he was in the apartment, and I thought maybe you were in on it for some reason. I'm sorry for that, by the way."

"Don't be sorry for feeling that way, I completely understand, but I want you to know that's not the case. I'm on your side, even if that means I need to kick my brother in the balls for making you feel that awful."

"I promise, it wasn't like he was sitting there calling me names or pulling my hair. It just… I don't know… I can't explain why I reacted the way I did."

"That's why I think you need to talk to a professional. They'll be able to help you understand, and maybe even keep the flashbacks from happening, or at least know what triggers them so you can maybe prevent it."

I nodded my head absently as I thought about the prospect of being able to control the panic attacks. I might not have had a flashback type episode in a long time, but the nightmares and anxiety that I'd suffered from since that night had never gone away. It would be nice to be able to not have to hide myself away from people because I was trying to keep it a secret.

A few things happened when Luna went with me to see the Dean. One, we realized that no one in the upper administration even knew about what happened. The sorority being shut down was blamed on something else entirely. The footballers who were taking up residence in the dorm, had been overlooked by the admin. It was as if the event never took place for them, because they hadn't been told.

My request to receive therapy, and the reasons for that, were met with skepticism and disbelief until I asked them to call the coach in as well as the one football player – who was now a senior – who had helped me that night and called campus police and his coach.

Thankfully, the boy was honest and told them exactly what he had walked in on that night and the actions he had taken to get me help. The coach was then forced to come clean, as were the campus police officers who had responded to the situation and failed to do their duty. It turns out, the scholarship I had been receiving for free tuition and books had been pilfered from the athletic department, off the books, and the coach who swept everything under the rug and made that happen, was about to have to face the consequences of those actions.

I won't bore you with the details, because what's the point? It was all in the past, or at least mostly in the past. When the coach was made aware of the problems I still had as a result of what happened to me, he surprisingly broke down and cried. It didn't save his job though. He was relieved of his duties pending an investigation into his actions. The campus police officers were also relieved of their duties. The students would not face any further action unless I pressed charges against them. Considering two of them were now playing professional football with the national league, my pressing charges would have far-reaching consequences, and be the subject of too much press for my taste.

Instead, I settled for the people who were supposed to help me, and didn't, being held accountable. I also pressed the school to give me the therapy I needed. There was no need for furthering the scholarship I had received, since I was at the very end of my last semester in school.

Therapy was to be conducted off campus, by a professional who specialized in trauma therapy and PTSD. My first appointment was scheduled for the following Tuesday. By the time we got back to the apartment, it was almost 6 pm, and I was wiped out. I thought about canceling the dinner plans I'd made with Tucker, but for some reason, I wanted to fill him in on how everything had gone. I guess, on some level, I needed him to know that I was getting help to deal with the issues I had.

A knock on the door at 7 pm, startled me out of my thoughts, but I figured it was Tucker, who I hadn't heard from yet. Instead, it turned out to be a courier who asked me to sign for some papers before telling me, "You've been served."

"What the hell was that?" Luna asked as she quickly donned her shoes. Her shift started in an hour, so I hoped she was able to beat traffic to get there on time, especially since she had left last night to come back home and deal with me.

"No clue. He said I was 'served'. That means court stuff, right?"

"Well, if you open the packet, all your questions will be answered."

She was right. We both moved to the kitchen table, where I opened the packet. "Oh!" The exclamation was out of my mouth before I could yank it back.

"What is it?"

"Annulment papers, and they've been signed already."

I glanced up at the clock on our microwave and noticed it was now quarter after seven. I guess that meant we definitely weren't going to dinner tonight. I sighed as I tossed the papers down on the table. Luna snatched them up and read through all of it.

"I thought you had both decided to have a fresh start last night?"

"Yeah, we were supposed to go to dinner tonight, but I haven't heard from Tucker and he's not here picking me up." Instead, I got courier delivered annulment papers. The funny thing is, I shouldn't have been surprised, and yet I was.

"I'm going to call into work," Luna declared.

"Please, do not do that! You missed last night. Don't miss tonight too."

"I don't want to leave you alone after the day you've had," she admitted.

"Well, how about I call my sister. Bea can come eat ice cream with me while I sign those," I nodded my head toward the papers, "and you can get your ass to work before you're late and get fired."

"Fine! You will call me if anything changes though."

"Promise," I told her as I gathered the papers up and slipped them back into the envelope. What a freaking day!

Luna left, but instead of calling my sister, I tucked into the chair in the living room and started writing some more of my book. My characters lived through some crazy things, and the worse my life got, the crazier a direction those two took. I was seriously considering putting them in a threesome or an orgy because it was so over-the-top for what I'd already written. There was no way an alpha like this guy would be down for sharing, so wouldn't that make for a better story? The conflict of him having to do it? Hmmm, puzzling that out took a toll, so I set it aside and got up to go make a cup of coffee. Sure, I should be headed to bed, but sleep was never going to find me tonight anyway. Might as well stay up and write the twisted subplot that was developing.

It was 11:45 pm when the knock on the door startled me out of my stupor. I'd been staring at the screen, or more importantly the entire orgy scene I'd just written, as if the characters were going to snatch me in and make me participate in the completely debauched scenario. Couldn't say that I blamed them.

I got up and went to the door, cursing the fact that there wasn't a peephole or window to look through to see who had shown up that late. "Who is it?"

"It's me," Tucker's unmistakable voice called out. I had half a mind not to open the door since he'd not only stood me up, but had a courier deliver our annulment papers. Instead, I unlocked it and allowed him inside. I figured that I could just sign the papers while he was there, hand them off, and that would be that.

"I have them in the kitchen," I called out as I turned my back and walked in that direction.

"Have what?"

"Your papers," I snipped.

"What papers? I came to apologize because me being called into the office this morning meant getting on a flight and heading to LA. I had to haul ass just to catch the last available plane that would get me here tonight instead of the morning. I would have called, but my phone was broken by someone," he gave me an accusatory look before continuing, "and I didn't have your number stored to the cloud before."

I pulled the papers out of the envelope as I listened to him, and then looked around for a pen so that I could sign them. "Damn it," I hissed. "Never a pen when you need one." I got up and moved to the drawer where I knew Luna threw all the junk that she didn't want people to see lying around on her counters. I swished through it until I found a ball point pen and then moved back to the table where Tucker had the papers I was supposed to sign in his hand.

"I thought we agreed to start fresh?" He asked, eyes accusing as they moved from the document in his hand to me.

"Yes, that was the agreement we made last night."

"Then why do you have these?"

"Because you sent them to me," I hissed and stomped over to the infuriating man. Then I flipped to the back page where his signature was and pointed. "See, that is your signature, right?"

"What the fuck? I didn't send this to you. I didn't sign anything either," he growled and then it was like I could see the lightbulb that clicked on over his head. "Motherfucker!" He yelled as he began to rip the papers up.

"What are you doing?"

"He had me sign some documents this morning," Tucker insisted. "Must have slipped this page in with them and I didn't notice because I was in a hurry to catch that flight so I could make it back in time for our date."

"Who? What are you talking about?"

"My father is the one who called me in this morning. I left you a note."

"I got your note, but how does that explain anything?"

"He had me sign some legal documents for the company. THE COMPANY," he emphasized again. "There were no personal documents, at least, not that I had been aware of. Then he sent me to LA to finalize a deal we had going there. When I got there, I found out that it wasn't even necessary for me to show up in person. They were going to forward the necessary paperwork. So, I caught the first flight out, but then it was delayed." He moved to the trashcan and tossed the paperwork inside.

"Why would they send me annulment papers? Your family is the one who wanted this marriage to happen."

"The merger already went through," he suggested. "And you refused to play nice with my grandfather's post-nup. I imagine if we looked at that lengthy document, there's something of serious interest in there. Your father's company didn't have any clauses about who could inherit, right?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "How would I know?"

"Well, in our prenup, it stated that you would retain a certain amount of your father's portion of the business and any profits directly related to it. That would mean you get profits from products in my family's company too, so long as they used components…" he must have seen how my eyes were glazing over, because he shut up and chuckled. "Bottom line, I think my family is trying to screw you out of what's rightfully yours, and since you wouldn't play the game their way, they tried to weasel you out while I was out of the picture and unable to do anything about it."

"Well, they screwed up then, because those papers weren't even delivered here until just after seven tonight."

"Were you home all day?"

"No. Luna and I went to the University and took care of some things."

"Regarding?"

"What happened to me. The school is paying for therapy for me starting next Tuesday."

"That's great, Mina. I was going to suggest seeing someone but didn't want to do it last night when you were in the thick of things."

"I appreciate that." I took a breath and then explained the gist of what happened with me today. "The coach is under investigation and on suspension right now and the campus police who responded were both fired," I told him.

"Good. They should be held accountable."

I laughed. "I think the only reason they're holding the coach accountable is that he was stealing money from the athletic department to pay for my scholarship, which was basically my hush money."

"Well, shit. You didn't know that's where it was coming from?"

I shook my head. "I had no clue the rest of the administration didn't know. Since it was a scholarship fund, I thought the Dean had to put his stamp of approval on it, but he didn't know. He wasn't aware of any of it."

"That's crazy. Come here," he insisted as he pulled me into a hug. "I'm sorry you had to deal with all that today, but considering the stunt my family tried to pull, I guess it was for the best so you couldn't be served with those papers sooner."

"Yeah, I suppose so."

"You thought the worst of me again today, didn't you?" Ah, damn it, that made me feel a little bit guilty for what I'd been thinking of Tucker for the past few hours. His light laughter let me know he was more amused by my lack of response than anything. "It's okay. I don't blame you for feeling that way. I haven't exactly shown you that I could be trusted, yet. One day though, something will happen, and you'll just know that there was no way I was involved in that horrible thing – whatever it happens to be."

"Hopefully, there isn't a horrible thing to worry about, but I get what you're saying."

"Did you already eat?"

"Yeah, I tossed pizza rolls in the oven and munched on them while I worked."

"You had pizza rolls for dinner?"

"Mmmhmm."

"I don't know whether to be envious or feel bad for you," he teased.

"You should feel bad. They were sad pizza rolls."

"What if I said I would make it up to you with dinner tomorrow?" He pulled back so he could look me in the eye. "And I promise that I won't let anything, not even my family, stand in the way of making that happen."

"Then, I guess it's a date."

Tucker glanced at the clock, and cringed. "I need to get home, and you need to get to sleep." He leaned in and kissed the top of my head before making his way to the door and turning abruptly. "Unless you want me to stay again."

"I think yesterday was necessary, today would be frivolous and fly in the face of trying to make a fresh start. We haven't even been on a date yet." I winked at him to let him know I was being playful, but I also meant what I said. We had not been on a date, hadn't been dating at all, or in any form of a real relationship, despite what our marriage certificate claimed. If we were going to make a go of this, I wanted it to feel real and not rushed.

"Tomorrow, for dinner, then." He was out the door already when he turned back that time. "Wait, I almost forgot again," he nearly shouted as he pulled his new phone out of his pocket. "I need your number."

Tucker got my number programmed in his phone, and once again promised to show up for our first date tomorrow, or rather later that evening since it was already after midnight when he left. Before I crawled in bed, I sent a text to Luna, so she wouldn't worry.

Mina: Headed to bed.

Then I thought better of just leaving it at that.

Mina: Tucker showed up. He wasn't the one who sent the courier. Will explain tomorrow when you get up.

Luna: Can't wait to hear all about it. Sleep tight.