I frowned. His father had died years before I met Ryan, and everything I had ever heard about him had been positive. Teacher. Coach. Volunteer. One of those men everyone admired.
Ryan laughed bitterly.
“That’s the version everyone remembers.”
A knot formed in my stomach.
“Sloane accused him of something.” He stopped, swallowed, and tried again. “She said he’d crossed a line he never should have crossed.”
“What happened?”
Ryan looked directly at me.
“The town destroyed her.”
The words landed heavily.
“Nobody believed her.” His voice became quiet. “Not me. Not my mom. Not anyone.”
I felt sick.
“We called her a liar.” His eyes drifted toward the window. “We called her worse things, too.”
For the first time since I had known him, Ryan looked genuinely ashamed of the person he once had been.
“I was a kid,” he said. “But that’s not an excuse.”
Silence settled between us.
Then I asked the question I already knew the answer to.
