Terms + Conditions (Strangers #3)

Chapter Five

CHAPTER FIVE

NOW

MICHAELA’S MOUTH HANGS OPEN. Her blue eyes are blown wide. Utter shock is the only way to describe the expression on her face. I can see the wheels turning; she’s trying to piece it all together. The when, the how, the why…none of it makes any sense to her. When I finally look at Finn, his expression is unreadable. His lips are pulled into a thin line, gaze narrowed as his thumb picks at the label on the beer bottle. I’m sure he’s wondering why I never told him. He is my best friend, after all. That’s something I could tell him, right? Should tell him. We told each other everything. Except that one time he was sleeping with my sister and didn’t tell me…But who’s counting?

“Josh.” Michaela chuckles dryly. “You can’t be serious. Please tell me you’re joking.” When I don’t deny it, she shakes her head in disbelief. “You hazed someone? You? Joshua Isaiah Davis. You—”

“I didn’t hurt anyone.”

“But, you hazed someone.”

“I-I guess…I mean, yeah, but—”

“Oh my God.”

“Mic—”

“Who are you?” The shock is replaced with genuine hurt. “My brother would never do that. First, a sham of a marriage, now this? I feel like I don’t even know you anymore.”

If I’m honest, I hate to see her this hurt. I’ve always been protective of my sister, tried to be a good example for her, and tried to be there when she needed me. I hate that I’ve turned into someone she feels like she doesn’t recognize.

“I didn’t hurt anyone, Michaela. I wasn’t the one beating the shit out of the kid. But I was the one who took the kid to the damn hospital while the others just stood there.”

When I close my eyes, I can still see it. Him. His seemingly lifeless body in the middle of the frat house basement, with the rest of them just standing around staring down at him. The boy who had done it still clutched the handle of the paddle. I’ll spare you the details of the rest of the scene, but the sight made my stomach churn and I was starting to get a taste of dinner for a second time that night.

Michaela chews on the corner of her mouth. Her fingers intertwine and she cracks her knuckles. When her eyes lift from the countertop to meet mine, she asks, “How does that lead to the marriage thing?”

I sigh. “I went to Mom when the school suspended us and she tried to find a way to make it all go away.”

“And Brina could do that,” Michaela says, and I nod. “Why would she go to Brina, of all people? She didn’t even know her. Why wouldn’t she and Dad just hire a lawyer and try to—”

“Dad didn’t know anything. Mom told me not to tell him.” I shake my head, swiping the bottle between my hands. “And the Villa name means something. Mom knows that as well as everyone else. I don’t know specifics, Mom just said she knew someone who knew Brina. They were able to put her in touch with her.”

As disappointed as she was, the whole ordeal had worked in Mom’s favor. She had always admired Brina from afar. She heard the stories—we all did—and she had always wanted to get a taste of that world. Who wouldn’t? And in the end, she didn’t get just a taste, she got the whole meal.

“Why would you even agree to something like this?”

“I thought it was my only way out.”

“But if you weren’t involved—”

“We were all going to be investigated. Anyone who was there would be questioned and likely implicated. I knew it was going to get ugly and having something like that on my record…it would be hard to get a job at a decent firm.”

It was something Mom and I had discussed a handful of times since that day in her classroom. Whether the paddle was in my hand or not, I was there. That meant I was just as guilty as the others because I didn’t do anything to stop it. The only way I was going to be spared the investigation and whatever repercussions came with it would be to let Brina work her magic and make my name disappear from the record. The official story was that I was home that night helping my mom move some furniture.

“What about Elijah?” Finn asks. He means Elijah Prince, one of our mutual friends. “He was in your fraternity.”

“He was at home that night.”

“Unbelievable.” My sister sighs.

“I got my name cleared, got to graduate on time, and had a job ready for me when I graduated.”

“And what did Ellie get out of this?” Finn rests his hand on the back of Michaela’s chair, and I imagine he’s gently rubbing circles on her back through the purple dress she’s still wearing. He’s extremely attentive to her, more than her ex-husband, David, ever was when they were married.

“She got her full inheritance before turning thirty and before getting married, and she got to go to SCAD like she wanted. Her parents put a stipulation on her college money that she was supposed to go to Duke.” It was asinine and seemed totally out of character for them, but Elizabeth said they were extremely proud of their alma mater and expected their children to follow in their footsteps if they were going to pay for school. “And she had to be married to get her full inheritance before thirty.”

“All of this just to get out of trouble and get some money?” There it is, Finn can’t hide his shock any longer.

“Seems a little extreme if you ask me.” Michaela laughs darkly.

“Brina was looking for a way to get Liz out of her hair, and Mom was looking for a way to get me out of hers,” I say.

When the Villas adopted Elizabeth, Brina put up a good front to the public, but in truth, she wasn’t happy. Not only did she have one daughter she didn’t want, but now she had two, and one of them wasn’t even hers.

“But an arranged marriage—”

“People do it all the time in other cultures, hell sometimes in our own, and get nothing out of it. At least I got something.”

“So, this is it, then? You’re really going to just let her walk away,” Michaela says.

“She’s made her choice, MJ.”

“And what about you?”

“It’s complicated.”

“What’s so complicated about it?”

My head drops into my hands on the island between us. “It just is, okay?” Looking up at them, I say, “It’s not always black and white. If anyone should understand that, it’s you, MJ.”

Last year was more than a complicated shit show for her. Not only did she hide the fact she had started dating one of my best friends, but she hid her divorce from the family. That’s not even the worst part; after the truth finally came out, she stupidly broke up with Finn because he didn’t tell her why he had started his foundation for foster kids, Sheffield House. Truth be told, Finn used to be a party animal, traveling the world, living off the money his parents put in his bank account weekly…He was a mess until his adoptive father had enough and told him to get his shit together. He had to prove himself to keep his inheritance. Michaela found out, and instead of looking on the bright side of things, she broke it off with Finn and went back to David. Their reunion lasted longer than anyone expected. Five months, I think? David was running for Congress, and in doing so, he tried to turn Michaela into a completely different person. She realized she couldn’t be with him. Not only was he an obnoxious asshole, but she was in love with Finn. We all knew it, she just needed to figure it out for herself.

“I’m sorry for lying to you all these years, but legally, I didn’t have a choice.”

Legally, we weren’t supposed to talk about the arrangement with anyone outside of it unless we agreed upon it, and we never did. Besides, I was scared of what might happen if someone found out the truth.

“You can’t convince me this whole thing was for show. Trust me, Josh, I’ve seen you when you lie, and it’s not pretty.”

“Guess I’m better than you thought.” The words hang between us. I hate that I’m still lying to her, but it’s better than trying to explain the alternative. There’s a lot that has led up to this moment, and it would be hard for anyone to understand. “Elizabeth was always going to walk away at the end. Anything between us was only to fill the void until she could be free. I’ve fulfilled my purpose in her life and now she’s going to live her life the way she wants to.”

That’s what she said earlier, right?

Michaela wants to argue some more, but instead, she shares a glance with Finn before letting out a loud huff and walking out of the kitchen.

“She means well,” Finn says a few beats later when he turns back to me after he’s watched her disappear up the stairs.

“She’s nosy.”

He chuckles. “She’s Michaela. Of course, she’s nosy.” He pulls two more beers from the fridge and passes one to me. “Now that she’s gone, you wanna tell me how you really feel?”