Ris grabs my hand and pulls me into the "mother's" room. It's a private room for breastfeeding mothers to pump, and it happens to be soundproof. She probably feels we can talk here without anyone hearing us, and we can get much-needed privacy, especially from Brady.
"Ali, please tell me what happened," Ris says, holding onto my upper arms.
I take a deep breath in and exhale before I tell her about what happened last night.
"Brady brought me to dinner at his parent's house," I begin.
Ris drops her arms to her sides and steps back, sitting on the arm of the chair.
"Brady was talking to someone on the phone and kept ignoring me when I tried to ask him where we were going. When we passed all the fine dining and casual dining places, I was quite confused about where he was taking me. We were supposed to talk about the Christiansen account over dinner, and that was it. I had no idea he was going to take me to his parents' place," I continue.
"It was a very nice dinner, a fancy nine-course meal. His parents started belittling him about his love life and how he likes to play around with women. I interrupted them by sticking up for him, as it wasn't proper dinner talk, you know."
Ris is nodding at me in agreement. I continue the story filling her in on every detail that I can remember. Everything is still so vivid and clear.
"After dinner, he took me on a tour of his parent's house and their backyard. The entire place is immaculate," I say.
"He kissed me, and I yelled at him for it. He claimed that he was caught up in the moment and all the wine we had at dinner. I said there wasn't a moment at all. He freaked out on me, saying that I wanted him to kiss me. I told I'm that I didn't."
"I kept asking myself time and time again, whether I led him on or not," I resume.
I can see the anger build up in Ris's face as she sits there, silent. I progress.
"He demanded that I kiss him, but I told him that I didn't want to. He grabbed me and tried kissing me again, but I moved away. I rushed back to his parent's house, and he came after me apologizing," I say as I stop and take a deep breath.
Replaying everything is so overwhelming that I need a breather.
Ris stands up, rubbing my arm and telling me it will be okay. She asks if there is more. I nod and continue.
"I made it to the door of the house, but he threw me up against it, holding my hands and face demanding that I kiss him. I end up slapping him, then he violently threw me to the ground, threatening me. Saying I would regret having done that," I tremble as I start to tear up.
It is so painful recalling it all, but relief sets in as I tell Ris.
"He carried me to the pool house and threw me on the floor inside. I tried to run from him, but he caught me. Throwing me back onto the floor," I sigh as a few tears release from my eyes.
I take a deep breath.
"He climbed on top of me and pulled my pants down. I tried to fight, but he was too strong. H-H-He," I manage to get out but lose it.
Ris brings her hand over her mouth, and a tear trickles down her cheek.
"He raped you," she says through exhaled breaths.
Ris is in shock and unable to control her tears. I look up at her, tears flowing down my cheeks as well, and I nod. She grabs me, pulling me into a hug, and we both cry hard.
"Ali, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry that happened to you," she murmurs in my ear through her sobs.
We talked about how I took the morning after pill that night and that Brady should be clean. Ris mentioned that he sleeps with a lot of women, but he's always been cautious. She said they only had sex unprotected once or twice in the millions of times they've been together. She said she's heard of him forcing women to sleep with him but never anything to this extent. She also never expected that Brady would stoop so low.
She asks if I want to do anything about it, and I say no, because I don't want to jeopardize my job for this or cause any drama, and I'm sure it was most likely my fault. Ris assures me that what Brady did was wrong, and I didn't deserve it or what he did to me at the meeting. She says that no girl deserves to be raped. It's a crime. She tells me she saw his hand in between my legs under the table. She says she is a horrible friend for not making a scene and removing his hand herself. She wishes she would have done that, but she didn't know what to do.
She apologizes and hugs me, telling me how she wants to castrate Brady, then promises to keep quiet about everything. We fix each other's faces and head back to our offices. Ris holds tightly on to my hand the entire way. I am so glad she's by my side through his. Now, I wonder whether I should tell Luke or not.
Chapter Fifty-Seven
The rest of the day goes by rather quickly, considering all the events from this morning. I feel a lot better after telling Ris what happened. I cried my heart out to her, and she comforted and cried with me. She's been working with me in my office on the Christiansen case. We did leave briefly for lunch with a few others to the cute little deli
