Chapter 11 #4
The silence that followed the engine dying was heavy. Rhys leaned back in his seat, resting his arms on the wheel, staring out into the dark. He didn’t turn to look at me, and he didn’t demand an explanation. He just gave me space.
And honestly, that was the only reason I didn’t completely shut down.
If he had acted like he felt sorry for me, or if he’d pushed me to spill my guts, I would have put my walls up instantly.
But Rhys was just... sitting there. He was an outside party.
He didn’t know my mom, he didn’t care about my family drama, and he wasn’t going to report back to Sebastian.
He was just a guy I was using for a fake relationship who happened to be driving the car.
And strangely, that made him the safest person in the world to talk to right now.
“He left us last July,” I said. I picked at a loose thread on the fleece cuff of his jacket, staring down at my lap.
“He was having an affair with that girl in the booth.” I swallowed hard, forcing the next words out before my throat could close up completely.
“She’s like twenty-five. And she’s pregnant. ”
Beside me, I saw Rhys’s hands tighten slightly on the steering wheel, but he didn’t interrupt. He just listened.
“He hasn’t called me since then,” I continued, the words coming easier now, like slipping into a cold lake.
“Except for one time in December to tell me that Hilary was having a baby girl, and that he hoped I could ‘be mature’ about it. And then, last week, this... this ridiculous, gold-foiled invitation showed up in our mailbox for her baby shower. Like we’re all just supposed to play along. ”
A dry, bitter laugh escaped my throat. I shoved my hair back from my face with cold hands.
“I haven’t seen him in person in ten months. And he was sitting there, laughing, buying her pie at a diner five miles from our house, while my mum is working fifty hours a week just to pay the mortgage he walked away from.”
I stopped, my breath hitching slightly. The air in the car felt quiet.
I stared down at my knees, suddenly struck by how absurd the whole situation was.
I had just laid out the messiest, most embarrassing piece of my personal life to Rhys Montgomery—my brother’s bitterest rival, a guy I barely knew, someone who spent his free time trying to make me uncomfortable.
I waited for the inevitable awkwardness. I waited for him to shift uncomfortably, or to offer some generic, useless comfort like “I’m sure he still cares about you” or “Divorce is just hard on everyone.”
Rhys turned slightly in his seat, leaning his shoulder against the door frame.
“He’s a piece of crap,” Rhys said flatly.
I blinked, turning my head to stare at him in the dim light of the dashboard. “What?”
“Your dad.” His expression completely unreadable and his green eyes fixed on mine. “He’s a spineless piece of crap. You don’t have to look for a silver lining, and you don’t have to try to make sense of it. What he did was pathetic.”
There was no pity in his voice. There was no cautious, delicate sympathy like the kind my friends at ballet gave me whenever my parents came up. It was just a cold, blunt observation, stated like a fact of nature. A weird, breathy laugh escaped me—a sound that was half-relief, half-disbelief.
“Yeah,” I muttered, wiping a stray tear off my cheek with the oversized sleeve of his jacket before it could fall. “Yeah, he really is.”
Rhys didn’t try to hug me, and he didn’t offer any cheesy promises. He just leaned back against his headrest, looking out at the valley lights.
“If he ever tries to approach you,” Rhys said, his voice dropping an octave, “or if he comes anywhere near you... tell me. I’ll make sure he leaves you alone.”
I looked at him for a second, taking in his sharp profile in the dim light.
I didn’t feel some sudden spark or realization that he was secretly a good guy under his arrogant exterior.
He was still Rhys Montgomery—irritating, overly confident, and the bane of my brother’s existence.
But right now, in this stupid SUV, he was also surprisingly useful.
He was a buffer between me and the rest of the world, and for tonight, that was more than enough.
“Thank you,” I whispered, pulling the oversized jacket tighter around my shoulders. “For getting me out of there.”
“Don’t mention it,” Rhys said, reaching out to turn the key in the ignition. The engine purred back to life, filling the cab with warm air. “Seriously. If Landon finds out I have a soft spot for family drama, I’ll never hear the end of it.”
A tiny, reluctant smile tugged at the corner of my mouth. “Your secret’s safe with me, Montgomery.”
“Good.” He shifted into drive and backed the truck out of the gravel turn-off. “Now let’s get you home.”
As the car started the slow drive down the winding mountain road, I leaned my head back against the seat, watching the trees pass by in the dark.
I didn’t like Rhys, and I certainly wasn’t catching feelings for him.
But as I buried my chin into the soft collar of his varsity jacket, I had to admit: having him on my side wasn’t the worst thing in the world.