The Marks You Made

By Amy Fillion

It was a Thursday evening when the police came for her son...
One word spoken. A word that held an abundance of meaning. A word that sent Brooke Weatherbee’s head spinning with unwanted memories…

Her sixteen-year-old son, Jace, was being accused of rape. And when Brooke learned who the accuser was, it sent her over the precipice. Madison Crawford. Brooke’s best friend’s daughter.

Jenny Crawford was angry. No, not angry. Incensed. How could Jace have done this to her daughter? She’d known this boy since the tender age of ten, when he and his family first moved in down the street. He had spent countless hours in her home with Maddy, both alone and with their friends. She’d thought she knew him. But she couldn’t have known him, right? Not really. Not if he was capable of such atrocity, of causing so much torment and pain. Jenny knew one thing, though: she was going to make Jace Weatherbee pay.

Piper was confused. Confused, hurt, angry. She’d never felt so many concurrent emotions in all of her fifteen years of life. Never. Jace? Could he really have done such a thing? But of course he had. Maddy was Piper’s best friend, had been since the girls were in kindergarten. Piper loved Maddy with her entire being, and she’d borne witness to the unbearable pain the assault caused. But when she looked at Jace, she was filled anew with confusion and sadness. And she was left to question all the details of that fateful night that had changed their lives so irrevocably. Because although Piper loved Maddy, she loved Jace too.

One fateful night.

Three points of view.

Families altered.

Friendships shattered.

Nobody is left unscathed…