After Always

When the cops come to R.W. Carpenito’s house, he thinks they’re there for him. Instead, the Winter Park, Florida, police take away R.W.’s dad on charges of sexually abusing several girls with whom R.W. goes to school. The accusations, subsequent media attention, and legal shenanigans leave R.W. and his family torn apart. With the curiosity born of being 13 and not quite sure of himself, R.W. takes it upon himself to investigate his father’s guilt. Or innocence. In the process of trying to uncover the details of his father’s supposed relationship with three girls, R.W. finds himself falling for one of them. And his best friend, Jake, starts to question R.W.’s sanity. After Always is a coming-of-age story, but more than that, it’s the story of one boy’s courage to keep searching for the truth, even if that truth might destroy his whole family.

I wrote After Always after a number of disturbing news stories (and personal experience) about men who stole the innocence of children through acts of sexual violence. Those children, unable to fight for themselves, relied on adults to protect them, yet those adults were often impotent against the abusers. After hearing the stories, I had to find a way to demand justice for the abused children, as well as to show readers the havoc wreaked on families after the abuse was revealed. In other words, the victims of these crimes were not the only victims.