Chapter 38
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
CADENCE
I’m in the kitchen, foraging for snacks to take back to Drake’s room, when I hear a car pull into the driveway. Through the side window, I watch a middle-aged woman emerge from the driver’s side.
Her face is vaguely familiar and I’m still trying to place it when Hudson gets out of the passenger side. Their shared resemblance is what I see. She must be Hudson’s mum.
My stomach muscles tense.
During last week’s apology, he said she was a high-powered lawyer and, judging from the way she hammers on the door, she’s not in the best mood.
I sneak halfway across the lobby as Arnold answers the door, sticking close to the wall where they’re less likely to spot me. The woman’s voice is strident enough to carry, and it doesn’t take a brainiac to work out why they’re here.
As I inch closer, Drake comes into view, sitting at the top of the stairs. He rolls his eyes, smiling. “Your little boyfriend is heavy on the drama.”
I raise my middle finger at the first part, my eavesdropping abruptly ending when Arnold shouts out, “Cadence? Blaine? Can you come down here?”
His face is rosy with anger, but it doesn’t leak into the controlled calm of his voice. Despite his injuries, Drake hustles downstairs, manoeuvring until I’m behind him.
Hudson is furious.
Crimson blotches mottle his face while his hands are balled into fists.
His mother isn’t much better. If they were cartoons, clouds of steam would pour from their ears.
“You’re Blaine?” she asks, stepping straight into his personal space. “I don’t know what you thought you were doing, torching my son’s car, but it’s the last—”
“Stop right there.” Arnold puts a hand in her face, not allowing any room for misunderstanding. “I said you could ask my son and stepdaughter questions. Not yell accusations.”
“It’s what happened,” Hudson insists, backing up his mother. “Your son poured a chemical accelerant inside my car and set it alight.” When his eyes meet mine, they’re hard but as he keeps staring, his expression gradually softens. “Can’t you tell him, Cadence? You know what happened.”
“I know your car was on fire but Drake—sorry— Blaine tried to stop it spreading.”
It’s the truth but as Hudson stares at me, I see the disappointment etched in his face. He gives a bitter laugh. “Is that what he told you?”
“That’s what I saw.” I think of Gretchen trying to give him an alibi and Drake’s immediate dismissal. “What about the cameras? They’ll show you who was involved.”
“Someone hacked into the closed-circuit hub and manually replaced the footage of the incident.”
Hudson’s mother turns her glare onto her son. “We were keeping that information quiet.”
“Right.” Arnold folds his arms, looking far taller than his five-foot nine build. “So, you already know there’s no evidence showing my son was involved, but you thought you’d drive over here and make wild accusations.” He clicks his tongue. “What were you hoping? That he’d drop to his knees and beg forgiveness? You’ve come to the wrong house. Waste police time with your wild theories, but don’t waste mine again or I’ll send you a bill.”
He moves to close the door and Hudson steps forward, hands out to stop him. A pleading expression back on his face. “Come on, Cadence. You know what happened. It’s the only logical explanation.”
“There were hundreds at the party,” I say, stepping to stand shoulder to shoulder with Drake even as my stomach pits at another confrontation. Especially so soon after the last. “Any of them could hold a grudge and you know it. Drake was standing in the back yard when the fire started, and I had eyes on him the entire time. We were talking to Ben. ”
Hudson launches himself at me, snarling. “You bitch. I guess if you’re happy fucking—”
“Bingo,” I say between gritted teeth, cutting off his diatribe. His gaze flicks to his ill-informed mother who appears to be understanding there’s more to it than he said.
Buoyed by the reaction, I step forward, letting the full anger of last night come back to the fore.
“Do you know what your sons engineered?” I ask, meeting his mother’s gaze with my fury. “Are you aware of the secret camera in your guest shower? Perhaps you should school your sons on the harmful digital communications act because they sure need a lesson.”
Hudson licks his lips, fury overriding his caution. “And now you’re spreading shit about me as well. You know damn well that’s not what happened last night.”
“Except,” I push into his personal space, forcing him back a step, “some of us have evidence to back up our accusations.” My lip curls. “And some of us don’t.”
“Hudson? Is this true?”
“If they’ve got anything, it’s fabricated.”
“You keep spreading that bullshit,” Drake snaps. “And the next time you try something, it won’t be an inanimate object that goes up in flames.”
“Are you listening to this?” his mother demands of Arnold. “Your son is standing there, threatening mine, and you’re still pretending he didn’t do anything.”
“Sounds like the pot calling the kettle black. Make sure your son stays away from my stepdaughter in the future, or I’ll have the police investigate her complaint.”
“It wasn’t my—”
Arnold slams the door shut, his glare turning to us. “I don’t want to hear another word from either of you this weekend. You’ve already disturbed my sleep. Now our neighbours are throwing around accusations.”
“Unwarranted,” Drake insists.
Arnold steps toe to toe with him, the act menacing despite him being inches shorter. “Don’t push me, son. Are you sure there’s no physical evidence that’s going to come back and bite me?”
“I’m sure.”
He turns that fiery gaze on me, raising his eyebrow. “There’s nothing. Blaine didn’t do it, and I’ll stand in court and swear as much.”
“Good.” Arnold falls back a step. “But you’re both grounded for a month. This party was a chance for you to socialise, not bring unwanted scrutiny.”
When he stalks into the kitchen, I notice Mum’s expression. After the first week, her worry lines had eased. Now they’re back with a vengeance. Every muscle is tensed. The cords either side of her neck are so defined, they look like marble pillars.
“This isn’t right,” she mumbles, hugging herself hard enough to crack a rib. “You’re going to ruin everything.”
“Mum?” I try to take her arm, but she jerks away so violently, her elbow cracks against the wall.
“You’re going to leave me, aren’t you? You’ll ruin this for me, then go, and I’ll be alone. I can’t be alone. You know what that does to me.” She lifts a hand, twirling hair around her finger, then tugging, dragging the strands out by their root. “I sacrificed my entire life for you. This isn’t fair.”
She pushes past me, trailing after Arnold, the kitchen door slamming shut behind her.
“What’s happening?” Drake asks, reading my concern.
“It’s… She’s spiralling. We just need to reassure her.”
Just.
That word is carrying a lot more weight than it should.
“Would you like to go down to the beach?” I ask, following her. A small dribble of blood is in the corner of her mouth and Arnold is frowning. “We could sunbathe on the platform.”
“And leave me stranded out there?”
She shakes her head, then can’t stop, each turn of her neck becoming more exaggerated until Arnold softly holds it between his palms, staring down at her with a worried frown. “What’s the matter? The woman’s gone and she won’t be back.”
But Mum’s face turns into a rictus mask, the strain etching deep until it looks like carved stone.
“What woman? You’re seeing another woman?” Her hands reach out, twisting in his shirt until a button pops off, the tendons in her wrist corded. “You said I was the only one and now you’re seeing someone else?” Another dribble of blood joins the first as she bites deep into her bottom lip. “You’re going to leave me, aren’t you? You’ll toss us onto the street.”
I tense, expecting him to explode into another bonfire of rage, but his face softens further as he gently peels her hands from his shirt, squeezing them until he pulls her into a hug.
“I’m not seeing anyone else,” he murmurs, rocking her back and forth, his hand splayed across her back to keep her steady. “And I’ll never leave you. You’re the most wonderful woman I’ve ever met in my life. There’s absolutely no chance I will ever let you escape.”
Mum relaxes, then tenses as another thought misfires in her head, the deep-seated need she has for companionship twisted with the utter conviction her mental illness gives her.
The strident internal voice, impossible to evade, which insists that everyone leaves.
Nobody wants her.
No one in their right mind would ever need her to stay.
I could never talk her out of the conviction, but as I watch Arnold, he hits every note with pitch perfect precision. Combatting her fear, talking her down from the precipice.
“You know what,” he says after long minutes of cajoling. “This felt mad to ask so quickly, but I can’t stand for you to go another moment without knowing how much I care.”
He holds up a forefinger.
“Wait right there. I’ll just be a second.”
He dashes from the room, straight past Drake who stands, sporting a bemused expression. When I give him a watery smile, he slips an arm around my waist, standing behind me.
And jumps away when Arnold zips back inside, one hand behind his back.
“I know other people will say this is far too soon but I’m sick of waiting.” His face has returned to the genial smile from when I first met him.
He drops to one knee and Mum covers her mouth with her hands, eyes bugging.
“Two days after you moved in, I went shopping for a ring because I knew you were the only woman for me, then I talked myself out of asking, worried that you’d think I was in too much of a rush.” He leans forward, nudging his head into her belly while she giggles, mood flipped in an instant. “But I should have trusted my instinct and made sure you never had a moment’s doubt.”
His hand moves from behind his back, exposing a ring box and flipping it open.
The diamond ring inside is a gorgeous princess cut. The size of the stone, mind-boggling.
“Raelene Rivers, would you do me the honour of becoming my wife?”
She bounces on her toes, giving a squeal, then flaps her hand in excitement until Arnold catches it and slides on the ring.
“Yes,” she says, sounding breathless as she throws her arms around him. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”
My heart sinks to the floor.
I won’t be able to talk her into leaving, not now.
And if she’s staying with this man who proves more dangerous with each passing day?
So am I.