Page 99 of Easy Reunion

With a pained gasp, she reels back. “Remember him? I’ll never forget him since I was one of his favorite targets. Why?”

“Because you weren’t his only one.” Aching, I reach up to touch her cheek again. This time, her hand reaches up to hold mine in place.

Hesitantly, she asks, “What…what do you mean, Ry?”

I tell her brutal truth. “Though you were the one Balboni played with publicly, for those of us he had a crack at privately, he dubbed it hazing. And let me assure you, the sick pleasure that bastard found in torturing the people he ‘liked’ almost makes me wish I was someone he despised.”

“No.” She shakes her head back and forth.

“It always started the same,” I continue as if she hasn’t spoken. “There were three of us…” And for long minutes after, I describe in detail what we endured behind closed doors.

And even though I can honestly admit to myself, now, I’ve lived our entire relationship in fear of this very moment. But now the time has come. The truth of my past pours out of me, one helpless episode at a time.

I realize she’s not saying anything, nor is she moving. But there’s a fire in her eyes that sparks an odd caution in me. Maybe in all the bitter despair that’s been darkening my soul, I found the spark of hope I need to light it.