Meg sucked in a breath of air and began saying, “Oh God, no.” She turned toward Noah and walked up to him. She began hitting him on the chest as she screamed over and over, “How could you, you dirty rotten bastard? She was a baby!”
Marie stood there, stunned. Tyler let go of me and grabbed Meg, who was still screaming at Noah.
“Meg! Meg, what are you talking about?” Tyler held on to Meg as she dropped to the floor, crying.
I just noticed that she was wearing her wedding dress. She had been minutes away from getting married.
“Reed, if we let you go, will you please stay calm until we figure out what is going on?” Steve said.
I nodded my head and stared at Noah, who looked scared shitless.
Tyler was pushing pieces of hair out of Meg’s face as she cried. I looked at Courtney. Sissy was still holding her, and I thought Sissy was the only one who had put two and two together because she was now crying.
“He’s a monster. I’ve tried telling you so many times, but he kept threatening me,” Meg said in between sobs.
“Who, baby? Noah?” Tyler looked up at Noah.
Tyler looked back at Meg when she said, “Yes. He said you’d hate me if you found out.”
Tyler’s head snapped back to Noah. “What did you do?” Tyler hissed through his teeth.
Noah stood there in silence.
Tyler pulled Meg’s chin up and whispered, “Baby, please tell me what is going on.”
Meg looked at Courtney, who seemed to be in shock.
Shit. Her whole family is about to find out what happened to her.
“Noah…he…he forced me…and Courtney…to have sex with him. Oh God, Tyler…Courtney was only sixteen! I was at least older. He threatened…he said…he would hurt you if I said anything.”
Courtney let out a loud cry and began falling to the floor. I quickly ran to her and grabbed her as Courtney began crying hysterically.
“Baby, I’m here. I promise you, he will never touch you again. I promise you,” I said as I held her to me.
Tyler tried to stand up but stumbled backward. “Noah, is it true?”
Noah wiped the blood from his mouth and said, “Courtney wanted me. I saw it in her eyes.”
I was about to go after him again, but Courtney grabbed me tighter, and before I knew it, Tyler was on top of Noah, beating the hell out of him.
Steve pulled Tyler off of Noah while Tyler screamed, “That’s my baby sister! You motherfucker! What did you do to my sister and Meg? I’ll kill you!”
“Get Tyler out of here now!” Steve yelled at the other guys standing there in shock. “Marie, get Meg and Courtney out of here.”
Marie had tears running down her face as she and Sissy helped Meg up. I slowly picked up Courtney and carried her out of the room. She was crying so hard that she seemed to be having a hard time breathing. I followed Sissy into the living room and set Courtney down on the sofa.
I placed my hands on her face and made her look into my eyes. “Angel, I need to go back into the library, okay?”
She grabbed my hands and shook her head.
I wiped her tears away with my thumbs and brought her forehead down to my lips. “I promise you, I will be right back, but your father cannot be alone with Noah, okay?”
She just continued to cry as she looked into my eyes.
“I promise you.” I looked up at Sissy and said, “Will you stay with her?”
She quickly wiped away her tears and sat down next to Courtney.
I turned to head back to the library when Sissy called after me. “Reed?”
I turned around and looked at her.
“Please don’t let my father do something stupid.”
I nodded my head as I gave her a weak smile. I spun around and headed back toward the man I wanted to kill more than anything.
As I walked by the kitchen, Tyler was arguing with a few of his friends. “Just let me go. I just want to go see Meg and my sister. Please just let me go.”
My heart broke for him. His fiancée and his sister were both victims of this fucker.
The library door was open, and when I walked in, I saw Noah sitting in a chair as Steve was talking to some guy I’d never seen before. The guy looked up at me and then nodded before he started walking out. Steve turned and saw me. As the guy passed by me, he placed his hand on my shoulder and gave me a caring look. I smiled back and gave a quick nod in return.
“Reed, shut and lock the door, please,” Steve said.
I glanced over at Noah. He had a terrified look on his face, and I almost wanted to smile. I did as Steve had asked. I stood back away from both of them. If I got too close to the asshole, I’d just want to beat the shit out of him again.
Noah looked at me and smiled. I balled my fists together and looked at Steve before glaring back at Noah.
“What in the fuck are you smiling at?” I asked Noah.
Noah’s smile faded as he looked everywhere but at Steve.
“I want to know what you did to my daughter,” Steve said through gritted teeth as he sat down in front of Noah.
“Nothing she didn’t want,” Noah bit back.
I started making my way over to him. “You motherfucker! She was sixteen, for fuck’s sake!”
Steve held up his hand to stop me. “Don’t worry, Reed. I’m going to make sure you have some alone time with this lowlife. Just give me my time.”
I stopped and barely said, “Yes, sir.”
“I’m going to ask you again. What did you do to my daughter?”
Nothing.
Noah wasn’t saying a word.
I cleared my throat and said, “I know what he did to her, Steve.”
Without ever taking his eyes off of Noah, he said, “Tell me.”
I swallowed hard and took a deep breath. “Court just turned sixteen, and Noah had asked her to the prom. He snuck into her room and told her he was going to have sex with her because he saw the way she would look at him, and he had waited until she got older. He threatened her by saying he would hurt Tyler, you, Marie, and worse yet…he would go after Sissy.” I stopped talking when I saw Steve making fists.
“How long did it go on for?”
“Three months.”
Steve’s head dropped, and his shoulders began shaking. I fought like hell to hold back my tears. I tried to place myself in his shoes, but I couldn’t. As much as I wanted to kill this fucker, I couldn’t imagine how Steve felt.
I sucked in another breath and continued, “One night, Courtney went down to your gun safe. She got out a pistol and waited for him. When he came into her room, she told him she would kill him, and if she had to sit outside Sissy’s door every night, she would. She told me Noah stopped staying over, and Tyler would instead stay at Noah’s house when his parents were out of town.”