The room seemed to tilt.
“One year?”
He looked away.
“Almost two.”
Claire whispered something behind me.
I couldn’t hear it.
“Why?”
Ryan rubbed both hands over his face.
“I don’t know.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“I liked having videos of you.”
“You could have asked.”
“You would have said no.”
There it was.
The most honest thing he said all night.
You would have said no.
“So you knew.”
His eyes filled.
“Vanessa—”
“You knew I wouldn’t consent, so you removed the part where I got to decide.”
He began crying.
I didn’t.
Not yet.
I packed clothes and went to a hotel with Claire.
Around midnight, Ryan’s grandfather called.
I almost ignored it.
Claire said,
“Answer.”
I put him on speaker.
His voice shook.
“I’m sorry.”
I said nothing.
“I need to tell you something before Ryan talks me out of it.”
My chest tightened.
“What?”
There was a private group chat.
Ryan.
His grandfather.
Two cousins.
An old college friend.
My skin went cold.
Grandpa explained that the men usually exchanged jokes, sports clips, and stupid videos.
And sometimes photographs of women.
Girlfriends.
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