Hope's Chance (30 page)

Chance looked down at the floor. “Yes, I understand those rights.”

I didn’t know what came over me, but I threw myself in front of the officer, preventing them from taking Chance out of the
house
. “No! Please you have to wait! He was protecting me. I was being assaulted.”

Part of it was a lie, well kind of. Trevor might not have assaulted me today, but he did two months ago. They didn’t need to know that.

“Are you saying that you want to come in and make a formal charge against Mr. Thomas?” One officer asked.

“Hope sweetie calm down.” My father interrupted.

“No Dad! I won’t calm down. I won’t let Chance get in trouble like this for protecting me. Trevor should be the one in trouble.” I looked at the officers. “Yes, I will come and tell you all the truth.”

“Officers my daughter is not eighteen. Don’t I have the right to prevent her from perjuring herself?” My father asked.

“Stop it. You can’t take him away. He was protecting me.” I reiterated.

They all seemed to be arguing with me, but as if time froze and left me and Chance alone in the room, I caught his stare and everything stopped. I didn’t hear the arguing. I didn’t hear anything.

“Miss if you would like to
follow us down to the station
to file charges against Mr. Thomas, feel free to do so.” They said as they started taking Chance out of the
house
.

Buffy grabbed me before I could run after them, but the tears came even worse.

Before the car pulled away, my father had a lawyer on the phone. We all packed into the SUV and headed to the station.

At
first,
my father was
quiet
, but after a few
minutes,
he shocked us both. “Hope, I need to know if you have ever been intimate with Trevor. He has a reputation at the club and I need to know the truth.

I was afraid, but I wanted my dad to hate Trevor. “Yes. He was my first Dad. He forced me then too. He would either threaten me or hold me down even when I begged him not to. He cheated on me and lied to me, and if Chance hadn’t been there over the summer, he would have raped me.” I confessed.

I was shocked at myself. I had never said it out loud like that.

My father g
ot all choked up
and then began hitting the steering wheel. “How could I have been so stupid?” He yelled.

Buffy leaned over to grab his shoulder and I leaned in and did the same. “You didn’t know Dad. Nobody knew, well except Chance.”

“I sent him away, away from the only family he has
,
for a fucking business deal, and now he gets arrested for keeping you safe?” His remorseful words touched my heart. He was finally opening his eyes. “Honey I am so sorry.”
He looked to Buffy. “And I am sorry the most to you Hope. God, I can’t believe I put a business deal before my own
daughter’s
safety.”

“Dad,
let’s
just worry about Chance.”

For the rest of the ride to the jail we all remained quiet. Once we got
inside,
we were told that Chance was in intake. My father left Buffy and I to go find out what bail would be set at. After we waited another forty minutes he came back out and said that he couldn’t face the judge for a bail hearing until morning and there was nothing that we could do.

I thought about going straight to an officer and filing a report about Trevor, but I
had
thought of another plan while I waited.

During the drive home, my father and Buffy talked about getting to the court tomorrow morning and how they were going to deal with things. I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and searched for a number I never thought I would be using again.

Chapter 37

Hope

This
was my last resort. I buried my pride and built up the strength to do it. Then I dialed the number.

Rylee we need to talk. ~ Hope

We were almost home before she responded.

We really don’t have anything to say. ~ R

No, there is A LOT to talk about. U owe me. ~ Hope

Look,
I am sorry. ~ R

I am pressing charges against Trevor for sexual assault. ~ Hope

Please don’t!!! ~ R

This is what is going to happen. You are going to bring Trevor to talk to me right now. If you don’t
show,
I am going straight to the police. ~ Hope

What if he doesn’t want to come? ~ R

Then I guess he can call a lawyer. You may want to tell him I have pictures of everything he did to me and witnesses. ~ Hope

Where? ~ R

The park in one hour. ~ Hope

Rylee didn’t write back but I knew she was going to do her damndest to get Trevor there. She had been in love with him since she was little. The last thing she wanted was for her meal ticket out of this town to
be incarcerated or have a criminal record.

Once Buffy and my dad went
inside,
I ran up to my room and changed my clothes. I decided on black capris and a black shirt. I wanted to be invisible when they showed up, in case they weren’t alone. Before heading out, I ran to the pool house and grabbed a bat that Chance kept in his closet. There was no way I was going there without something to defend myself.

On the way
there,
my heart was pounding through my chest. I heard my phone ringing over and over, but knew it was my dad. If I told them what I had
planned,
they never would have let me go through with it.

When I pulled
up,
I realized I was alone. The park was empty and dark, with only the sounds of insects harping in the distance. I exited my vehicle and sat down on a bench located directly in front of where I parked my car. The headlights illuminated where I sat, causing it to be difficult for me to see the
approaching vehicle. I could hear the tires on the gravel road and decided to stand up to see how close the car was getting. When it pulled up beside
mine,
I tried to remain calm
by
holding my head up high and focusing on what I had come there for.

Trevor stepped out of the car first. He looked angry but I refused to fear him anymore. If he wanted to hurt me, it wasn’t going to happen. After what he did to Chance today and the things that he said to me, I wouldn’t care if I killed him myself. When he got about five
feet
away from me I yelled at him. “Stop! Don’t come any further.” I warned.

“What do you want Hope? Why have you drug me out here in the middle of
now
here
? What do you think you are going to accomplish?” Trevor yelled.

“I have a proposition for you.” I replied.

Even though I knew I was in quite a predicament, it felt good to be calling the shots.

“Okay, let’s hear it.”

“I want you to drop the charges on Chance.” I declared.

“Hell no! Why would you think I would do such a thing? Do you think I owe you some kind of favor? Everything I did to you was because you wanted it Hope. Stop acting like you didn’t like it. Everyone likes it.” Trevor argued.

I snickered. “It’s so
funny that you ask that.” I held the bat tightly in one hand, but began circling around Trevor. For some reason I felt like I had someone standing behind me, ready to attack Trevor if he made any moves. “I never enjoyed it Trevor, in fact being with you was like giving myself thousands of
paper cuts
. You disgust me.”

“You expect me to do you a favor after you claim I disgust you? Are you fucking insane?” Trevor asked.

I pointed the bat at his head. “No, I am not crazy, but I can be if I need to. Now, here is my deal. You are going to drop the charges against Chance, or I will
notify
the police of how many times you sexually assaulted me. Included in that confession would be the documented phot
ographs to prove what happened.”

“Anyone could have given you those bruises you little bitch. Are you really trying to blackmail me right now? Nobody is going to believe that story coming from you Hope. Everyone knows how poor your mother is. They will just assume it is some coy to get money from my family.”

I hadn’t considered that Trevor would be smart enough to turn things around on me. The truth was that everyone in town knew my mother, it was a small town. The fact that he brought her into this made me more angry.  “We have video
surveillance
at the house Trevor. How do you plan on getting your way out of that one?” I lied.

One minute Trevor was standing five feet away, but in a matter or only a second he had jumped on top of me, causing the bat to fly out of my hand, choking me. “You stupid littl
e cunt! I am going to kill you.”
He
roared as his hand squeezed harder, constricting my
air flow
.

I tried to claw at him, kick with my legs, and even punch him, but I could
n’t
free his
adrenaline-fueled
hands. Just as I was about to lose
consciousness
, I felt his hands being removed.

Rylee stood over me with the bat in her hand. Next to me rolling around in pain was Trevor. He was holding his side, screaming in pain. Rylee extended a hand to me as she kept a close eye on Trevor. “Are you okay Hope?”

My throat was in immediate pain, but I managed to get out a “yeah”.

Rylee walked over to where Trevor was still curled up. “Get up you son of a bitch!” She ordered with
tear-filled
eyes.

I had gotten myself up and leaned against the car. My throat felt like it was scratched from the inside and just out of natural
movement,
I held the outside of my neck.

Rylee pushed
Trevor
with the tip of the bat. “Sit down on your ass Trevor. I can’t believe you were going to actually hurt her, maybe even kill her. I thought that you had changed. I thought you finally wanted a life with me, but your anger ruins everything.”

Trevor scrunched up his face and spit at her feet. “You were never anything but a common whore Rylee. You knew damn well that all I wanted from you was some easy ass. My father would never let me get serious with someone like you.”

I couldn’t see Rylee’s face because her back was to me, but I knew what Trevor said was like a kick in the stomach for her. The park was silent for at least a whole minute. Rylee never backed away.

Finally, she moved closer to him, poking him with the bat. “This is how things are going to go.” She pushed the bat into his side, causing him to squeal in pain. “You are going to get up and get into my car in the backseat. I am going to climb in beside you, to prevent you from moving an inch. Then we are going to drive to the police station, where you will be dropping all of the charges against Chance Avery. If Hope’s evidence isn’t enough to convict you, I am sure that an eyewitness testimony will.” She threatened.

Trevor didn’t say a word. Instead, he held his head down and finally got up and started walking toward the car. Rylee had the bat pushed into his back the entire time. When I got into the
driver’s
side,
I handed her my keys with my pepper spray attached. I didn’t have to tell her the
reason;
she nodded and faced the bottle at his face.

While I began our drive back to the station, I heard Rylee saying
,
“
I am so sorry Hope”, from the backseat.

Maybe I could forgive her, but for right now all I wanted to do was to see Chance, nothing else mattered to me.

Trevor reluctantly made his way into the station and immediately began pleaded his case. He told the officers that Chance had reacted in
self-defense
and that he didn’t wish to press charges. A detective came and did a thorough interview with him, in which I have no idea what was said, but Trevor seemed satisfied. As he walked back toward Rylee and I, she grabbed my hand.

“If I never see either of you again, it will be too soon.” He said as he walked out of the police station doors.

I started to get up and go after him, but Rylee pulled me back when she saw Chance emerging from a closed door. Our eyes met and I couldn’t help but run toward him. We embraced and I immediately started to cry. “I am so sorry.”

“How did you get me out Hope? What did you do?” He asked.

No
part of me wanted to be mad at him for assuming I had to do something shady, but wasn’t that what I HAD done? “It doesn’t matter Chance. Trevor will never bother us again.” I promised.

Rylee gave Trevor the finger
and we all walked out to her car. On the
way
back to get my vehicle, Rylee drove, while Chance and I stayed locked in each other’s arms in the backseat. When we finally reached the park, I leaned into the car and thanked Rylee, before getting into my own car and driving us home.