Saving Riley

Chapter Eleven

I was upstairs reading a magazine when the doorbell rang. I wrinkled my eyebrows, curious as to who it was. August never used the doorbell and he wasn’t home today anyway. Elise always called ahead before she came and she hadn’t called that morning. I untangled myself from my sheets as I heard Beth open the door and begin to talk to someone.

“Who is it, Beth?” I called at the top of the stairs.

“It’s James,” Beth relayed. I could hear the tension in her voice. James wasn’t exactly at the top of Beth’s list of people she liked. Elise had explained how James had refused to testify at the first trial and how it would be easier to convince Daniel to testify against himself than convince James to testify against his father.

I stood on the bottom stair, watching James warily. As usual he looked agitated, but not specifically at Beth or me. In fact, I think he smiled a little.

“Riley,” he said, taking a step toward me, “we need to talk.” His fingers were nervously toying with the fabric of his shorts.

I stepped into the foyer and stood beside Beth, resisting the urge to slip my hand in hers. “What about?” I asked, my voice cracking and betraying my anxiousness.

James glanced at Beth and then back at me. “Can we please talk alone? I’m not going to yell at you.”

Knowing that he wasn’t going to yell eased my mind a little. James was terrifying when he yelled. “Beth, is it alright?” I questioned, half hoping that she would say no.

“I have some things to work on outside, I’ll be out back if you need me. Ok, Riley?” Beth asked. I nodded, biting my tongue to keep myself from asking her to stay.

Beth slipped her feet into her sandals and left the house. James stood for a moment, awkwardly, before he went into the living room. I followed behind him.

“Do you remember that boy that you used to date?” James inquired, his fingers still pulling at his shorts.

I let out a halfhearted laugh. “James, I dated a lot of boys, you’re going to have to be a little specific.”

“Brady,” James said, as if he’d suddenly recalled his name.

I dropped onto the couch. I knew this was too good to be true. There wasn’t any way my life would let me happy, there just wasn’t. Sure I’d suspected there was something up with Brady, but at worst I thought he just wanted to get laid. But James showing up could only mean that something way bigger was going on.

“What about Brady?” I asked, dropping my head into my hands.

James waited a few moments before responding, probably afraid that I was on the edge of a mental breakdown. “I went to see Dad the other day, just to you know—“

“James, you don’t have to justify why you went to see your dad. Not to me, at least.” I sighed.

“His name was in the book. Brady went to see Dad.”

I looked up, probably looking like a deer caught in headlights. James ran his hands through his curly brown hair, a nervous habit.

 “He could have—been visiting someone else.” I stuttered.

James nodded his head understandingly. I could already tell that he’d been hoping for all the things that were currently running through my head. “I considered that, but I asked Dad.”

“What did he say?” I whispered. It suddenly struck me that we’d had this conversation before. Not involving Brady, but something very similar.

It was years ago, shortly after Daniel began to abuse me. James had walked into the kitchen to find his father with his hand up my shirt. Daniel didn’t say anything, he just walked away. James however, had a thousand and one words for me. He spent twenty minutes convincing himself that he hadn’t seen what he’d seen. Eventually, he decided that the only way to find out for sure was to ask Daniel himself.