"I don't know. I just got the call about half an hour ago. I'm assuming she tried to hurt herself again, but I don't know for sure."
"Why don't you know? Why haven't you been there? She doesn't need to be alone, Dane!"
I took a step away, unable to deal with a lecture from her of all people. "We're not together anymore. It's not my job to coddle her when she does things like this for attention."
"How can you be so heartless? She loves you! She needs you!"
"No." My voice was so deep I barely recognized it. I leaned into her and pointed my finger in her face, doing all I could to rein in my temper. "She needs help. Help I can't give her. I think it's about time you deal with whatever it is you've got going on, whatever has kept you two apart all these years, and go be there for your daughter."
"I have tried, Dane!" She raised her voice, but it didn't hide the pain in her tone. Nor did it stop the tears from filling her eyes. "She wants nothing to do with me, and I can't blame her. I put other things before her when she was young, thinking it was for the best, but it wasn't. It all fell to pieces, and in the end, I was left with nothing but regret."
I held my hand up to stop her. "This is between the two of you. Not me. I'm not a part of this anymore. I only came here to let you know she's in the hospital and needs next of kin to give them permission to continue treatment. She needs it."
"You know, don't you?" Tears fell in waves down her cheeks, and instantly, I understood what she meant. "Did she tell you?"
"You knew? You knew Sean never raped her and never said anything? You never did anything about it?" I huffed and shook my head, retreating a step. "You both need help. You're both fucked up in the head."
"What did she tell you?"
"That she made the whole thing up. She lied about being raped and put an innocent man in prison because of it. He served time for something he didn't do and then ended up taking his own life because of it. I walked out after that."
"So she didn't tell you everything," Marie replied, sorrow filling her tone.
"What more is there to know? I don't need to know anything else."
"I'm assuming she told you Sean didn't rape her, which is true. And I hate what that lie did to him, to Gabriella, and to me. What it did to our relationship. But that doesn't mean she wasn't raped."
I was stunned into silence. My head grew heavy as the earth began to tilt. I had to force myself to take in enough oxygen to keep from passing out. I didn't want to believe her. Gabi had confessed the truth, and I wanted to believe this was just another lie to keep me by Gabi's side. But there was something in Marie's eyes, in her tone, in the way her bottom lip quivered that told me that wasn't the case.
"She was raped, Dane. It just wasn't Sean."
Bile rose up the back of my throat and I had to hold onto the wall beside me to keep from falling over. I didn't know how much more I could handle, and wasn't sure I could keep listening. But she had my attention. "And how do you know this?" I asked carefully.
She was hesitant as she stood there and wiped the tears from her chin. I wanted to scream, shake her, something to get her to answer me. But I couldn't. I couldn't do anything other than stare at her and ignore the ringing in my ears.
"Because she came to me after the first time it happened."
The ringing in my ears grew louder and only made the pressure in my head worse. I bared my teeth and clenched my fists, refraining from physically lashing out at this woman. My words were clipped as I angrily gritted out, "The first time? How many times was she raped?"
She shook her head while staring at the ground. I took a step until we were toe to toe and repeated my question. The vicious tone I used caused her to flinch. She finally looked up and admitted, "I don't know."
"You don't know? She came to you-her mother-and told you someone had taken advantage of her against her will, and you don't know how many times it happened? What did you do about it?"
"Nothing," she answered in a breath of air so quiet I almost didn't hear it. I had to have misunderstood her. But somewhere deep inside, I knew I hadn't. I was so angry I could have punched a wall. I wanted to strangle Marie. Pure, uncontrolled rage burned in my chest, and I knew if I didn't step away from her, I would've done something I'd never be able to take back.
In a low tone, to prevent her neighbors from overhearing, I asked, "What kind of mother knows her daughter is being abused and doesn't do anything about it? What kind of human being does that?" My words were slow, cautious, and heavy with disgust.
"I know, and that's something I've had to live with. It's something I'll always have to live with. I let my daughter, my only child, down when she needed me the most, and nothing will ever make that go away. I wish I could go back and change it, but I can't. I made a decision that I thought was best, but it wasn't."