Chapter 1
2016
Lucy sat staring at the screen for what seemed like forever. She was looking through the pictures from her latest photo shoot. As she was on a deadline for the magazine that had commissioned them, and she needed to make the final selection of which photographs she was submitting.
“Hey, Lucy,” Alison, her assistant said as she breezed into Lucy’s studio. “Have you selected your photos for Gloss yet?”
“I have narrowed them down,” Lucy sighed, looking up from her computer at her assistant, who was holding out a cup of coffee for her. She smiled gratefully as she took it from her. “Thank you, Ali, I so needed this. I feel like I’m seeing dots instead of photographs. They have all become one big blur. Right now, I have no idea what the hell I’m going to send the magazine. I hate this part.”
She took a long, welcomed sip of the coffee before she turned back to her screen and set her mug down next to her.
“Lucy,” Alison said as she sat down in the seat next to Lucy and stared at the screen. “You know you are overthinking this too much. You always do this to yourself. Your photographs are all amazing. It doesn’t matter what you send them; they are going to love it, so stop worrying.”
“You always say that, Ali,” Lucy laughed.
“And I’m always right,” Alison replied with a sigh. “You are way too hard on yourself. At times, you are your own worst critic.”
“I just want things to be perfect; that’s all.” Lucy shrugged.
“Trust me,” Alison said as she stood up. “They will be. You just need to relax.”
Lucy smiled to herself as her assistant turned and left the room. Lucy knew Alison wasn’t wrong, but she was a perfectionist, and that was just how it was.
She had just pressed send on the email to the magazine when her intercom sounded. She reached for the speaker on her desk and pressed the button.
“Hey, Ali,” Lucy said as she closed down her computer and opened her laptop. “If you are checking up on me, you will be pleased to hear I have sent the damn email. You can stop stressing now.”
“That’s good to hear,” Alison said, but Lucy could hear an edge in her voice, and she instantly knew something was wrong.
“What’s wrong?” Lucy blurted immediately, then held her breath. “Has something happened?”
“Lucy,” Alison began nervously. “There is a call for you. It’s a nurse in a hospital in River Springs. She says it’s important.”
“Put her through,” Lucy said as she could feel the blood drain from her face. Lucy knew there was only one reason she would be ringing her, and it was a call she dreaded. She picked up the receiver of her phone and waited for Alison to connect the call, the whole time chanting in her mind. Don’t panic, don’t panic.
“Hello, is this Lucy Chance?” The woman asked when the call came through.
“This is she,” Lucy replied, blowing out a deep, steadying breath. “It’s my dad, isn’t it?”
“Ms. Chance,” the woman said, as Lucy held her breath once more. “My name is Clare Warren; I’m a nurse in Mercy Hope Memorial, in River Springs. Your father was admitted to the emergency room this afternoon. He was involved in a shooting and was wounded.”
“He was shot!” Lucy exclaimed, as hot tears stung her eyes and her heart hammered rapidly in her chest. She quickly blinked back the tears, now was not the time for crying.
“Please don’t panic, Ms. Chance,” the nurse quickly said. “Your father has been taken to the OR, but his condition isn’t believed to be life threatening.”
“So he is going to be okay?” Lucy asked as she breathed out a sigh of relief. “He isn’t going to die, right?”
“We believe so, yes,” the nurse replied, Lucy could hear the smile in her voice. “Ms. Chance, before your father was taken to surgery, he requested that I call you. He asked that I let you know what was happening but said there is no need for you to come here, that he was fine. However, as a nurse, I must tell you, that even though your father’s injuries aren’t’ life threatening, he still faces a long, difficult road to recovery and I think he really could do with the support.”
Lucy could feel her heart race in her chest once again. It had been nine years since she had left River Springs. Nine years since that night. She had tried to go back many times over the years, but in the end, she just couldn’t face it. Now her father needed her; she had no choice.
She remembered the day she left as if it was yesterday.
It was ten days after the football party. She hadn’t left the house since her father took her home from the hospital six days earlier. She had been given sedatives to help her relax, and she had spent the morning sleeping, as she had every day since she had come home.
She was woken to her father’s raised voice coming from downstairs. At first, she couldn’t make out what he was saying, but when she got up and quietly made her way to the landing, she could hear him, and he wasn’t happy.
“I don’t understand,” he snapped angrily. “You have the rape kit; you have the moulds from the bite marks on her body. The cuts and bruises, how can you tell me you aren’t going to press charges?”
Lucy could feel her legs buckle beneath her. She sat down on the top step and held onto the banister rail to try and keep herself grounded. They weren’t going to charge Trent? She could feel her stomach heave.
“Trent doesn’t deny he had sex with Lucy,” Huge Bowman, the Assistant District Attorney explained. “Hell, Tom, he even admits he got a bit rough…”
“A BIT ROUGH!” Her father yelled. “He bit her eleven times, some of the bite marks needed stitches. He is a fucking animal.”
“I know, Tom,” Bowman tried to appease her father. “I know Lucy, and I know she isn’t that kind of girl. But we have a party full of witnesses that said Lucy was a willing participant. They say she walked upstairs with Trent. Hell, one girl said she walked in, and Lucy was performing oral sex on the boy.”
“And it’s all a fucking lie,” Tom insisted. “What about Riley? Surely he was able to tell you what happened.”
“I spoke to him,” Bowman replied, and Lucy lifted her head at the mention of Riley’s name. “He said he didn’t see anything; he was out back with the coach.”
Lucy had heard enough, she stood up and returned to her room. When she reached her room, she packed her bags. She couldn’t stay here any longer. She would never be allowed to forget what had happened to her. Trent would still be here, and she could never walk the streets in peace again.
That was the day she went to stay with her aunt in Nebraska until she started NYU in the fall.
“Ms. Chance,” the nurse said down the phone, as Lucy realised, she was still talking to her. “Ms. Chance.”
“Yes, sorry,” Lucy said, shaking the ghosts from her mind. “Yes, of course, I will go there. Just, just don’t tell anyone I’m coming, please. Especially not my dad.”
“Certainly, Ms. Chance,” the nurse replied.
“Thank you,” Lucy said as her mind went into overdrive as she began to make plans for her trip home. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”