“What happened—and it’s not what you’re imagining I assure you—was as much my fault . . .”

“Your fault? What the fuck . . .!”

“Rachel—”

“Okay, okay, okay!” Rachel, who had never sworn in front of her mother, tried to stomp down all the bewildering emotions encircling her. “Explain to me how I shouldn’t be concerned to come home and find you bleeding all over the place, lying to me when I ask about it, and then find you’ve been combing the net about sexual assault!”

“Because it has nothing to do with you,” her mother quietly responded.

Rachel pointed to the hallway outside the door. “What about the person who did whatever they did to you in there?”

“What about him?”

“How about who the hell is he?” Rachel felt her fury rising again. “Is it someone you know? Someone that I know?”

“I’m not going to tell you anything more, Rachel. It’s over and done with. And that’s all you need to know.”

“But you were bleeding . . .”

“Like I told you, things got a little out of hand. That’s all.”

“Then why were you looking up all that stuff on the computer?”

“Consider my situation, Rachel. I’ve just been diagnosed with cancer. I’m going to get poked and prodded by more doctors than I’ve seen in my entire life. I simply want to know if they’d find any sort of bruising I’d need to explain away . . .”

“Bruising? I thought you said you weren’t raped!”

“I told you I wasn’t, didn’t I? Do I need to spell it out more than that for you?”

Rachel started to respond, then stopped. Between the total embarrassment and shame her mother was feeling, and the imploring look on her face, Rachel started to piece the rest together.

“He tried—but then stopped,” Rachel realized.

Her mother nodded slightly, then glanced at her bandaged arm. “That’s when I stumbled backwards into the table and cut myself on your figurine,” Allison said. “He realized things had gotten out of hand and was gone moments later.”

Rachel sat there in stunned silence and stared at her mother.

How much is this poor woman supposed to endure? First, she’s given a practical death sentence and now this?”

“What are you going to tell Daddy?”

Rachel watched her mother go totally pale. “Absolutely nothing.”

Allison sat a bit straighter, reached out, and took her daughter’s hand.

“And you can’t say a thing either.”

“Mom . . .”

Allison stopped her with a plea in her eyes that Rachel knew right then would haunt her long after her mother was gone—probably the rest of her life.

“You have to promise me that, Rachel. You can never breathe a word of this to your father. It would absolutely kill him.”