Chapter 8: Scum Uncovered

Paul drove me to my house even though I’d only started to drink. I was glad I wasn’t drunk and had my wits about me. I was devastated with guilt for what I already put Beth through if Paul was right and she had been drugged.

When I got home, I ran through my broken front door and grabbed Beth as we both cried tears of sorrow, of love, of guilt, of forgiveness, of comfort—we had a lot to cry about.

Beth and I sat on the couch muttering words of regret and forgiveness as we kissed. Melody started cleaning up broken trinkets and Paul worked on a temporary fix on the front door.

As they finished and sat with us, I pulled Beth onto my lap so her head could rest on my shoulder.

“Baby, if what Paul told me is true, it’s not your fault. But I need to know what happened. Just to confirm, you didn’t choose to do this, right?”

“No. You know I would never.”

“Okay. We’re good, we’re calm. I love you. There’s no doubt about that, so please try to tell it almost as if it were about someone else. I think we’re both cried out, and it will help if we can talk facts with as little emotion as possible.”

“Okay. I think can do that. Can you listen without losing it?”

“I hope so, but you know you’re the only one I can count on to keep me under control. Okay?

“Yes. So, here goes. You know about the hospitality suite, and that we were serving about 60 guests over four hours with appetizers and drinks. We also had our entire field sales team there.”

“Right. You told me about that. What happened?”

“My room was attached to the suite just like a bedroom in a house or apartment. As the night was coming to a close, there was a toast made to the show and its success. I hadn’t had anything to drink all night, so one of the men handed me a glass of wine. We toasted, and I drank it. It wasn’t long and I felt woozy as if I had a lot to drink. It was weird, I sort of knew all that was going on, but I had no control and felt limp. I sat on the couch as everyone left.”

“You think you were drugged?”

“Definitely. You know I can share a bottle of wine without getting tipsy. This was a small glass with not much more than a few sips of wine.”

“Okay. Go on.” I looked at Paul, who I had asked to record this without the girls knowing. He gave a thumbs up.

“One guy was left. He carried me into my bedroom, undressed me, and...”

Beth started to cry, so I hugged her.

“Baby, you don’t need to be graphic. I can fill in the blanks.”

“I’ll try. Okay. He asked me to do things and it was if I had no choice but to comply. I was like his puppet. He wanted ... he wanted oral first,” she whimpered. “Then he had ... you know, normal sex. He made me get him hard again with my mouth. Then...”

She was starting to lose control, so I hugged her and kissed her to let her know I was okay, which was true on the outside. Inside, I was feeling murderous.

“Then what, Baby?”

“He ... He smeared a bottle of that hotel skin cream on his penis and jammed some in my behind, and ... you know.” She started to sob a little but could still talk. “It hurt bad.”

“Okay. Rest a minute, Baby.” I held her as she struggled to regain control. “I love you, Beth. We’ll get through this. Is there more?”

“Yeah. The next morning, Saturday, he called me and said that he videoed our little time of fun. If I said anything, it would go public. He told me to watch it, so he sent it to me. I watched enough to know that anybody watching it would think it was consensual. It just looked like he asked, and I did it.”

“Oh my God,” Paul added. That explains last weekend pretty well.”

Beth continued. “After I talked to him a thought hit me. I ran into the party room and it hadn’t been cleaned yet. I found my wine glass, which still had some in it, and covered it with plastic wrap and sealed it in a zip lock bag. It’s hidden in my dresser door.”