The Secret (North Woods University 3)

“All right,” he sighs and scrubs a hand down his face. “He used to be my business partner, we had a small law firm together back then. Rick, myself and Larry, Emerson’s father. We split after a few years, deciding to go our own ways and up until recently, I haven’t talked to him. He moved here a couple weeks ago and reached out to me, just to catch up.”

That piece of fucking shit. He must have followed her.

“Is there anything shady about this guy? Anything you know about him that I could use against him?” Anything that I don’t already know I should say.

His brows pinch together, and he frowns at me. “Clark, I wanna help you, but I need you to tell me what the hell is going on. How do you know Rick? Are you in trouble?” For once in my father’s life, he sounds concerned about someone else besides himself.

“No, I’m not in trouble, not yet at least.”

“What do you mean not yet?”

“I mean… I know about him hurting someone. He raped someone and covered it up, and I’m going to make sure retribution is served.” I can feel the rage inside me intensifying.

“You mean Amber?”

I stare at him dumbfounded. “Amber? Who the fuck is Amber?”

“Our intern, well, she was our intern at the firm. She accused him of assaulting her. He denied it, swore he never raped her, even came up with emails of her asking him for money. It looked like she had set him up. Trying to blackmail him after sleeping with him.”

“So what happened? People didn’t believe her?”

“There was no proof against him, everything looked like she was the one lying. A few days later, Amber was gone, moved out of town. I even wrote her a recommendation letter for a different firm.”

That son of a bitch… it wasn’t his first time and to think maybe none of this would’ve happened to Emerson had they believed this Amber chick when she told them. I’m so angry I wanna punch something, destroy something, hurt someone.

“Wait… you still wrote her a letter of recommendation? So you didn’t think she lied?”

“Honestly, I just felt like there was something fishy about the whole thing. Soon after, we all parted ways. I think Larry and he ended up working together on a few cases a couple years back.”

There’s a long pause and I clench my fist so tightly the veins in my arm bulge.

“Why? Is everything okay? Who does this have to do with?”

I stare him straight in the eyes wondering if I can trust him, if I should even tell him. If I don’t, then he won’t help me, so my options are pretty slim, but I also don’t want to tell him a story that isn’t mine to tell.

Leaning forward with my forearms against his desk, I grit out, “He hurt someone else, you need to help me put this guy behind bars. Promise me you’ll put this guy away for a long time.”

Frustration mares his face. “Son, I’ll do what I can, but I’m going to need all the details before I can promise you anything.”

Shit. Of course I’m going to have to tell him. I shake my head, torn in two, between wanting this guy behind bars and keeping Em’s secret. What the fuck am I supposed to do here? What’s the right thing to do?

“Clark, listen… whatever you tell me is going to stay between us. Tell me what you know, and I can give you an idea of what we can do about it.”

Deep breaths. You’re doing this for her.

“It’s Emerson, he abused her when she was fifteen. She never told anybody besides me. Not even her dad knows.”

“Christ… that sick bastard,” my dad says, disgust dripping from each word and I know he believes me, so I tell him the rest, everything that I know, hoping to God that I’m not making the biggest mistake of my life by sharing this with him. My father listens intently to every single word. Once I’m done, he leans back in his leather office chair, looking out the window with his gaze trained on some spot in the sky. “I’m going to be honest with you, Clark. This is going to be a tough one in court.”

Fuck. This is exactly what I didn’t want to hear. “But you believe me? You have to believe Emerson, she’s not lying. I know it. Remember how she reacted to you when you came home? How scared she was?”

“Yes, I remember, and I know she isn’t. But in a court of law, it doesn’t matter what you know, what matters is what you can prove and from what you’ve told me there is no proof. Don’t get me wrong. You have a case, she can press charges right now and I’ll be happy to represent her, but the reality is that the chances of getting him convicted are slim. Also, Emerson would have to give a detailed statement and I doubt that’s something that she wants to go through.”