The Ripple Effect

Lunch was absolutely delightful, as were Orion’s parents. Melissa left most of her food untouched, spending her time chasing the boys throughout the house instead of eating. Orion’s father, Stephen, demanded to hear how we met and then mocked his son at every available opportunity before tossing a mischievous wink my way. He even offered to help move Brian here when the time came.

When I asked when that time was, I was told that it all depended on me. Orion said we would move here when I was ready to move in with him. I had originally thought maybe Orion just didn’t want a big, empty house; but then I saw him give his father that stern look when I asked why it depended on me. I immediately knew it had to do with his secret. This secret was clearly hereditary, for his family walked on pins and needles around me.

After lunch, Stephen and Orion took me on a tour of the house that would “soon be mine” while Melissa continued to run around with the boys. The master bedroom was very impressive, but I was more interested in seeing the other rooms; after all, Stephen told me that Orion had lived his entire life in this house until moving out six years ago.

I knew when we reached Orion’s room: he ran inside and threw himself onto the twin-sized bed before locking his eyes on mine and wiggling his eyebrows. Ignoring his antics, I stepped inside and glanced around.

It looked just like any boy’s room: blue walls, green and blue plaid comforter, a computer pushed into the corner on a small wooden desk… I stepped up to his dresser and picked up a fallen picture frame.

“Orion, who is this?”

The picture showed two boys, and I knew one was Orion. He was grinning a toothy smile at the camera, and an older boy had one arm thrown over Orion’s shoulders while the other one was pushed out and offering a peace sign. The boys were looking at each other happily. It was so endearing.

Orion snatched the picture from me, pulled open a drawer, and threw it carelessly inside. His eyes were narrowed, and his body seemed to be shaking with…rage?

“My brother,” he spat, glowering at the drawer that hid the offending image. “He used to be my best friend, I guess.”

“Oh… So Luca?”

He nodded, his eyes softening. “I’m sorry, but it’s not a fun topic. He raped Lorena, Sophie. That’s all I can figure; why else would she have been so broken when he brought her here, toting her around like some damn doll hanging on his arm. The woman was terrified of him, and his only defense when approached was ‘I didn’t have much of a choice, look how perfect she is.’” Orion shook his head. “He was kicked out of this place when he was twenty-five, when Jonathan was hardly one year old. I lost my best friend when I was nineteen… But I sure as hell wouldn’t want him back, especially not anywhere near Jonathan.”

I wrapped my arms tightly around him, giving him a quick kiss.

“You go ahead and see the place. I just need some fresh air,” he apologised, smiling painfully. “I’ll come find you if you get lost.”

“Okay…”

Once he had gone with Stephen trailing behind him, I hurried to pull the picture back out of hiding. They looked so happy, it was hard to imagine what had transpired. They were both spitting images of one another, both with those blue eyes and auburn hair. The only difference was height, age, and Orion’s hair was cut short while Luca’s was a shaggy mop.

I tucked away the frame carefully and continued on. Most of the bedrooms were clearly just guest rooms, but then I walked into what was surely Luca’s.

The walls were a hunter green, and the comforter on the bed was the same as the cover on Orion’s. It tugged at my heart, it did. I stepped farther inside. This didn’t look like the room of some awful rapist. There were framed posters of typical rock bands and movies, books scattered about a desk, and a computer sitting innocently on the bed. The same picture was on his dresser, but it was facing perfectly upright.

I wanted to believe so badly that there was a misunderstanding and that Luca was innocent.

I felt pain for Orion and decided I’d had enough, so I turned quickly to scurry out of the room. Only, I tripped over a book precariously thrown on the floor and tumbled into the wall. A painful moan rumbled past my lips as I rubbed my head.

A framed poster crashed down beside me, shattering the glass and clipping my cheek. I heard a lot of movement downstairs; surely Orion was leading the cavalry to see if I was safe.

I sputtered nonsensical comments under my breath before reaching over and dusting glass from the poster.

Only… There was something on the back of the poster. I flipped it over carefully.

There were a few pictures of a French woman and of Jonathan, but they were all X’ed over. Things obviously didn’t end well, so I just scoffed.

But then my eyes drifted lower, and my blood froze as my hand rushed to cover my mouth before I could scream.

There were…at least thirty pictures of me! Particularly, there was one of me sitting in the forest in my blue dress after my eighteenth birthday, on that awful night… But then there were pictures of me and Rein, some taken when Rein was as old as six months. Why weren’t there X’s over these as well?

“Sophie?” Orion called, pounding against the stairs.

I pushed the poster under the bed, scrambling to get rid of the evidence. No, Orion did not need this right now.

Luca had been out of my life for at least six and a half years, and he surely wasn’t coming back. Telling Orion about this… It would only reopen old wounds and hurt him more. So I just sat back down carefully, avoiding the glass, and clutched my head.

“Sophie, what happened!” Orion cried, gathering me in his arms and wiping the blood from my face.

“Remember when I tripped and knocked us over?”

He groaned. “Damn, Sophie. Be more careful; you could have seriously hurt yourself.”

I smiled, trying to keep out the haunting, disturbing images of Luca grinning down at me. I guess that was why Orion had looked so familiar when I first met him…

“You shouldn’t be in here anyway,” he muttered, carrying me out.

“Right. I won’t go in again until it’s cleared out and made into a guest room.”

No way in hell was I going to let any of my boys in that lecher’s room!

“I just don’t want you anywhere near Luca, even if it’s just his stuff.”

I smiled nervously.

If only his wish had been granted.