Chapter 34
THIRTY-FOUR
HANNAH
Holy shit.
Holy fuck.
I’m frozen in place, trying to make sense of what the fuck is happening.
Rye hovers over my father, a shard of porcelain to my father's skin.
Okay, don't judge me, but this is kind of hot. Casually psychotic in the best way, and it’s doing it for me.
Something swells in my chest as I push myself off the floor. He’s helping me do the thing I’ve been dying to do my entire life: take my father’s power.
My knees wobble as I stand over him, this time, without a threat to me or my safety. Not when Rye’s here.
“Le-let—” My voice comes out hoarse, so I clear my throat. I need that confidence to come through. “Let mom leave.”
“I’m not leaving.” My mother pipes up from her spot in the solarium. “I didn’t ask for that.”
Turning to her, my head aches. “Ma, c’mon, you can’t—”
“I will.”
“You want to stay with him?” My father chuckles as I try to wrap my head around what she’s saying. “Is it the mansion? Is it The Hill? You can make your own way. We can make our own way. There’s alimony. There’s spousal support. I’ll be back in school making a career for myself. You’ll be—”
“Hannah, enough!” she yells. “This is ridiculous. Look what you’ve done!” A tear rolls down her face when she looks at my father.
Was all this for nothing?
“What now, son?” My father asks, his attention back on Rye. “You think you’ll get away with what you’ve done? I’ll ruin you.” His eyes move to me. “And I’m not done with you, you selfish, privileged brat.”
“Too late for that.” Rye taps on his phone, a slow smirk creeping across his face.
“I’ve been a disgrace. But you? Your downfall only starts now.
” He turns his screen to my father, the features in my father’s face tightening.
That scowl grows before my father swipes for the shard in Rye’s hand, twisting it around on him.
“Don’t!” I scream, my hand reaching out to him.
Rye takes enough steps back to put distance between them as my father starts to rise from the floor.
“Wait a minute.”
A familiar voice comes from he doorway and all our heads whip to it.
Krystal.
She stands by the door, matching me in her dirty white tank and shorts. Phone in her hand, she points it around the room.
“I’m live,” she says. “And I don’t think you want everyone to see you hurt my brother. Or your family.”
My father freezes when he's halfway to his feet. His eyes bore into Krystal’s phone.
Rye looks at her, a small smile coming across his face. “She's not joking."
To prove her point, she turns around, like she’s taking a selfie with my father.
“Hello again, Paradise. I’m here live at the Alfonso’s.
You know Hannah, right?” She pans the phone to me.
"I’m with her father, who looks like he’s…
attempting murder?” She moves the phone to the shard in his hand and gasps.
“Get out,” he says, pulling the shard behind his back, out of view. “Now. Or I’m calling the cops for trespassing. And you?” His eyes land on me. “You don’t belong here. Ever again."
Rye reaches his hand towards me. When I take it, he pulls me close, wrapping an arm around me.
Krystal keeps filming. She’s gained some popularity, so I can only imagine how many people are actually seeing this: me, under Rye’s arm, my father with blood on his skin.
There’s no coming back from any of this.
“That’s alright,” Rye says, turning for the door with me still under his arm. He looks at me like I’m the only thing in the room. “I got her.”
Rye
“Did we really just do that?”
"We did,” I respond, glancing at Hannah back in the passenger seat.
My hands grip the wheel of the van again, the Alfonso mansion behind us.
Krystal continues to record in the back, and it feels like I’m the star of one of those shitty reality shows.
“I’m with your Crown and your queen,” Krystal says.
“Fresh from ruling together.” Her phone appears by my face.
“How are you feeling, bro?” Keeping one hand on the wheel, I take her phone and end the stream.
But not without seeing the number of viewers.
All the students on campus had to be watching.
Likely more. “Message received.” Krystal reaches for her phone, sinking into the backseat.
“Did he hurt you?” I glance at Hannah again as we cruise down Paradise Row, giant homes I grew up around passing by.
Hannah’s busy scrolling through her phone, her fingers moving quickly. My eyes drop to her screen. We didn't leave her house that long ago, but an article has already hit a big publication.
The headline’s easy to read when I glance over.
The Biggest Scandal in Paradise - Hill Herald
“Embezzlement. Trafficking. Offshore accounts,” Hannah says. “It’s all here and— there goes my cell service. Father’s quick.”
“Did he hurt you?” I repeat, my hand coming to her thigh.
“I promise I’m okay,” she answers, a knot loosening in my chest. She turns to me, her hand coming on top of mine. “Thanks for what you did for me back there.”
“You can’t pin being the hero on me this time,” Krystal chimes in. “We all saw you save her.”
My eyes meet Krystal’s in the rearview. “How long were you recording?”
“I followed you in after her maid left. I wasn’t sure if Hannah’s dad would be anything like ours, but something told me I shouldn’t leave you guys alone.”
Hannah turns around to Krystal, the smell of her strawberry-coconut strands making my gut spin. “If you thought my father was like yours, you risked it to have our back?”
“That’s what families are for,” Krystal says with a shrug. “Ryung stood up for me my entire life. It’s the least I could do.”I always knew Krystal wasn’t the problem. I hope our mother sees that, too.
“You’ll stay with us.” My grip tightens on Hannah’s thigh, her skin warm under my palm. Despite the chaos, despite how tired I am, I just want to spread those legs apart and make things better.
“How? I know I can’t go home, but you can’t either,” she says. “Not after all this. Your father’s name was all over that document. You didn’t take anything out.”
“My father’s dead.” Silence takes over the car when I say those words. Too silent.
Catching my sister’s eyes in the rearview, she brings her hands to her arms. I give her a small smile before turning up the radio.
Hannah’s hand lands on my lap. Light. Gentle. It stays there for the rest of the short ride to our home. And I don’t dare move it.
“Rye? Do you know what's going on?” Krystal asks when we pull into the driveway.
A small white truck sits parked outside the front door, a couple of men moving large brown boxes into it. “Is that Dad’s stuff?” My eyes narrow in on the open entrance.
What the fuck is going on now?
Getting out of the car, Krystal and Hannah follow behind me. When I get to the front door, I hear wheels rolling against our marble floors.
“Oh, you’re here.” My mother appears in a white tee and matching pants, a white suitcase pulling behind her. “Congrats, kids, you win.”
Putting my hands in my pockets, I don’t have to ask what she’s talking about to know. “It wasn’t my intention.”
“I’ll be spending some time in New York.
” Typical, our father just died and our mother is already out the door.
“Things have gotten way too out of hand in Paradise Hill, and I have a brand to salvage. You’ll receive your inheritance in three to seven business days.
” She brings her hand to my face, and I almost recoil.
It’s a touch I haven’t felt from her in a while.
Her eyes water when they lock with mine, but she pulls away.
Pulling her sunglasses up her nose, she walks out the door.
My mother stops in the driveway as a black Bentley pulls up to her. She says something to Krystal, a hand on her cheek, before she gets in the car and closes the door.
“Is she really leaving?” Krystal joins me by the door, both of us watching as the car goes through the gates.
Hannah joins us, standing on my other side, and this time, she’s the one to take my hand. I grasp it without hesitation, a warmth spreading through me that’s both unsettling and comforting.
New.
“New York,” I respond to Krystal. “What did she say to you?”
Krystal’s head lands on my shoulder. “To look out for each other.”
“Holy fucking shit!” Krystal yells.
Hannah’s shriek fills our cinema, a horror movie projected on the wall.
“You both wanted to watch this,” I remind them, the three of us sitting on the long sofa at the back of our cinema. Hannah sits on one side of me, Krystal on the other.
“No, I wanted a distraction,” Hannah says, hiding her face on my shoulder. “Krystal is the one who suggested… this.”
“You agreed,” I remind her. Leaning back, I stick my hand into the big bowl of popcorn in my lap between us and pour a handful into my mouth. “Now you can’t handle it.”
“I promise you I can handle it,” Hannah says.
“I’m hungry and my nerves are all messed up.
” Hannah reaches into the bowl at the same time I reach in again, our hands colliding beneath the layer of warm, buttered popcorn.
Her hand lingers before pulling back. “Sorry.
" She pops a finger in her mouth, and I can’t look away.
The way she sucks on the tip is like the way she sucks on my—
“Don’t go outside, you idiot!” Krystal reaches into the bowl, throwing a handful of popcorn at the screen.
I scoff, “I’d go outside.”
“Then you’d die,” Hannah says, a slap on my arm. “Don’t be cocky. If this were real life, you’d be the first to go.”
Krystal snorts out a laugh.
“No, I’d be the last guy standing,” I say, munching more popcorn as I sink further into the sofa. Three of those edibles from Gray finally start to work. “And what’re you laughing about?” I toss a piece of popcorn at my sister’s head. “You’d definitely be the first to go.”
“May I remind you, we just escaped a high-security facility?” Krystal says.
“Not without my help,” I remind her.
Krystal rolls her eyes, but she doesn’t argue, her attention back on the film in front of us.
“Thank you,” Hannah whispers. “I thanked you for putting my dad in his place, but I didn’t thank you for saving us.” And now it’s even harder to focus on the movie.
It’s harder to grasp where we are.
We're more than nice with each other, sitting in our cinema, damn-near cuddled together after I risked my life for her. Movie nights with the girls are definitely not my thing. But after everything that’s happened, it feels… right. There’s a calmness in this house I haven’t felt before.
If you walked in on us at this moment, you’d think it was something we do all the time, the three of us like a family. If you walked in right now, you’d think my attention is on the movie. But it’s not.
My attention keeps drifting to Hannah, curled up beside me in nothing but my old SBU hockey t-shirt.
She sits in a way that our knees brush, her scent mixing with the leather of the seats and popcorn in the air.
It’s always been something deeper than that YSL perfume she wears. It’s something that’s just Hannah.
My abs twitch, my finger taking a walk over to her thigh.
I could reach out and wrap my hand around that shirt and pull her close to me.
I could pull her lips on mine, and something tells me she wouldn't pull away.
I can fuck the past few days out of her.
I know we can bring each other to bliss and forget our tiny place on this fucked up planet.
Instead, I let all those thoughts taunt me. I let the little space between us feel as painful as the throb between my legs.
Turning to her, she’s already looking at me as our eyes lock. She doesn’t say anything. No sassy remarks. No quick jabs. She just stares, those honeyed eyes melting mine.
“What are you thinking about, Alfonso?” I fire first.
Her cheeks redden before she smirks. “You couldn’t handle what I’m thinking about.”
Fuck…
The bite of her lip makes me want to wrap my hand around her throat and claim her with my mouth.
“Uh, should I leave?” Krystal asks, breaking me out of whatever trance Hannah has me under.
I turn to Krystal, but not without another glance at Hannah’s glossy, pouty lips. “And miss this Academy-worthy masterpiece?”
Krystal rolls her eyes. “The only thing more disturbing than this is watching you two eye-fuck each other.”
“That is not what we’re doing,” Hannah leans forward, catching Krystal’s gaze. Then she flips her hair. “But, if it was, it wouldn’t be my fault that I'm such a distraction.”
“Oh, you are,” Krystal says. “Rye hasn’t looked at the screen for thirty minutes.”
“The movie’s shit.” I give a playful wink to Hannah and… fuck, wait, did I really just wink?
“Then I’ll help you.” Krystal grabs the bowl from my lap and pours it over my head. “Better?”
Hannah laughs, almost melodically, as she steals some popcorn from my head. Has she always laughed like that?
A smile creeps on my face. “You’re gonna regret that when you have no one to save you from the zombie vampire outbreak.”
“We all know you’re a hero, Rye.” Krystal leans against the other side of the sofa, her eyes on the screen.
Her last word echoes in my head, a slight clench in my jaw. But it’s accurate.
Neither of them makes another sound for a while, the events of this semester spinning in my head. The plan was revenge. Retaliation. Ownership. Not this.
It's not long before a snore sounds from Krystal, shortly followed by another. My eyes move to her, her head resting on the arm of the sofa, her mouth wide open, and her eyes shut. I turn to Hannah, and she laughs before bringing a finger to her lips.
We don’t say a thing, letting the screams and slashing sounds from the film blend with my sister’s loud snoring.
My hand still sits on the edge of my lap, and I know how far away it is from hers, but I don’t move it.
It feels different choosing to hold her hand this time.
Last time, she needed me. Hell, I needed her. But this time is different.
Isn't it?
Hannah lets out a soft moan right before her head dips on my shoulder. It’s a light fall, like she didn’t mean to let herself get that comfortable. But she stays. And I don’t fucking breathe.
I don’t budge when she falls deeper into my shoulder, her breathing getting heavier.
I don't offer that she go to bed. I don't take this as my cue to go.
I stay.