Chapter 190

Rhodes POV

Lake absorbed this, his fingers tracing patterns on his coffee mug. “I keep trying to figure out if I resent Ramon. If I hate him for what happened. But I can’t—I can’t make myself feel that way. Even knowing what I know now.”

“Maybe you’re not supposed to hate him,” I suggested gently. “Lake, what happened five years ago—it was traumatic. It was wrong. But it wasn’t malicious. Ramon didn’t set out to hurt you. He was d***ged, confused, not in control of his actions any more than you were.”

“But he remembered,” Lake said. “He told me he remembered that night. That he enjoyed it. Rhodes, how am I supposed to reconcile that? How am I supposed to believe it wasn’t malicious when he admitted he got pleasure from—from being with fourteen-year-old me?”

I chose my words carefully. “Lake, memory is complicated. Especially memories formed under the influence of d***s. What Ramon remembers might not be accurate. His feelings about it now—the guilt, th