Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
Abby
I think I may have royally fucked up.
Could this whole situation have been a huge misunderstanding? Did I walk away too easily?
But there is no way—I know what I saw. Pictures and phone calls do not lie. And I heard them with my own ears.
Lying in bed, staring at the ceiling of my room, I’m unable to sleep as my mind replays the conversation with Landon about the content for View4U. How he agreed to do it on one condition: that I finally tell him the truth about why I ghosted them.
I grab my phone and scroll through my old messages, the ones I never deleted because I couldn’t bring myself to erase the proof of what happened. I don’t know why I’m torturing myself like this; as soon as I open the thread, the memories hit me like a punch to the gut.
5 Years ago
I have been jittery all day. Landon and Levi are supposed to get the call today. The one that will change everything and define their futures, their careers, and their lives. I’m excited for them and can’t wait to see them smash their dreams.
My phone buzzes with a text from an unknown number. My stomach tightens—nothing good ever comes from an unknown number.
Unknown: Do you know what they do when you’re not around?
Before I can process what that means, another notification pops up. A picture from the same number.
My hands shake as it loads.
It’s a photo taken in what looks like a locker room.
Levi is completely naked, his muscular body on full display.
Anastasia is standing in front of him, fully dressed in a short skirt and a white blouse, so sheer I can see right through it.
Her hand is placed on Levi’s abs, and she’s looking at him like he’s the only thing in the world.
I recognize that look. It’s the same one I give them both.
Behind her, Landon’s hand is wrapped firmly around the back of her neck.
I can’t breathe. I can’t think. All I can do is stare at that image, feeling my entire world crumble around me. Without thinking, I call Landon’s number. It rings, but he doesn’t answer. My heart pounds so hard I think it might explode out of my chest.
I try Levi’s phone next, and he picks up on the second ring, but the moment it connects, I hear heavy breathing and moaning in the background.
“Hello?” I whisper, my broken voice barely audible.
A woman’s moans fill my ears, and dread sinks to the pit of my stomach.
“Are you coming, Ana?” I hear Levi say, and my blood runs cold.
“Yes, I’m coming,” Anastasia’s voice moans out, then the line disconnects.
I sit there for what feels like hours, staring at nothing.
All I can see is that image.
All I can hear is Levi’s voice, asking if she’s coming.
All I can feel is the overwhelming sense of betrayal.
I was so stupid and na?ve. I believed we could have a future together. That the three of us could really be together and they loved me the way I loved them.
I was wrong about everything.
The anger sets in first. How dare they humiliate me like this?
How dare they make me feel like I was crazy for not trusting Anastasia when my instincts screamed that something was wrong?
But beneath the anger is something worse: my heart is broken.
It’s shattered into a million tiny pieces, and I’m not sure I will ever be able to recover.
I block them on everything—every single way they can reach me—phone, text, social media, email.
I don’t leave a note and I don’t explain. I vanish because if I tried to have that conversation, I would have fallen apart completely. And I tell myself I’m making the right choice. Those assholes aren’t worth my time and I’m better off without them.
But what if I’m wrong about what happened that day? What if there’s more to the story than what I saw and heard?
I squeeze my eyes shut, trying to remember the details of that day more clearly. The photo, the call where Levi asked her if she was coming—those are facts.
But what if—what if Anastasia orchestrated the whole thing? What if it was some kind of manipulation to get rid of me? Surely no one would go to such lengths. It all sounds so fucking crazy; there is no way.
I roll over in bed and stare at the wall, feeling the weight of years of resentment crushing down on me. Tomorrow, Landon and I are supposed to film some content, and I’ll have to look him in the eye knowing I might have destroyed our future based on a misunderstanding.
The worst part? I don’t know the truth, and I’m terrified of what will happen when I tell my side.
I reach for my phone and call Leila’s number before I can reconsider. It rings three times before she picks up.
“Abby?” Her voice is sleep-filled, and guilt twists in my chest for waking her. “What’s wrong? It’s late.”
“I know. I’m sorry, but I need to talk to you.”
“Okay,” she says, and I can hear her moving around, probably getting comfortable. “What’s going on?”
I take a deep breath and tell her everything. From the text from the unknown number, to the photo, and the phone call. All of it.
There’s a long silence on the other end when I finish.
“Oh my god,” Leila breathes. “So that’s the real reason you broke it off with them.”
“Yes.”
“But you never told me the truth,” she says, and I can hear the hurt in her voice. “You said it wasn’t working out and that you couldn’t do it anymore. You made me promise never to bring it up again.”
“I know, and I’m sorry. I couldn’t talk about it, not to you, not when they’re your brothers.”
“Abby,” Leila says quietly. “Do you understand what you just told me? I’ve spent five years watching my brothers hurting while trying to move on, and I didn’t even know why. They never told me what happened either. They only said you left, and you didn’t want contact with them anymore.”
Tears prickle at the corners of my eyes. “I’m sorry, but I was trying to protect you. I didn’t want you to feel like you had to choose between us.”
“Well, I did,” Leila says. “I chose to respect your wishes. To let my brothers suffer in silence because you wouldn’t tell me what the hell happened.”
“I’m telling you now,” I whisper.
There’s another long pause, then Leila sighs, and her voice softens. “Okay. Tell me everything again and don’t leave out any detail, no matter how small.”
I go through it all again, and when I finish, Leila is quiet for a long moment.
“Abby, before I say anything, I need to ask you something,” she finally says. “Did you ever try to talk to them about this and give them a chance to explain?”
“No. I was too hurt and embarrassed. I blocked them and tried to forget they existed.”
“Jesus,” Leila breathes. “Okay, so here’s what I’m going to tell you.
I want you to really hear this. Anastasia is a complete and total snake, and I’ve never trusted her.
There was something off about her from the beginning.
I couldn’t put my finger on it, but my gut said she couldn’t be trusted.
When Knox, Jagger, and Riven needed an agent, I made damn sure they didn’t go anywhere near her, and thankfully they trusted me.
Landon and Levi signed with her early on, and even though I tried to warn them, they didn’t listen, as they thought I was being paranoid.
She had this way about her, manipulative and vindictive, and I could feel it in my bones that she was bad news. I could never prove it. I just knew.”
My stomach drops. “What? Why didn’t you ever tell me this?” I ask.
“Because I didn’t want you to feel paranoid about my brothers’ agent.”
I felt like an idiot, to be so suspicious of her. I even warned Landon and Levi, but they said it was nothing more than a professional relationship, that she was the best in the business. It was an honor to work with her, apparently.
“Do you think it’s possible Anastasia sent me that photo? And set up that phone call?”
“It sounds like that’s exactly the kind of thing she would do.”
“Oh my god.” I bring my free hand to my chest and fist my pajama top. “I’ve been so angry at them for five years, and they probably didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Honestly, I don’t believe they would have done it. They loved you,” Leila says.
I stand and pace my room, the phone pressed to my ear, my heart breaking all over again. “Leila, I don’t know what to say.”
“Say that you’re going to talk to them,” Leila says firmly. “That you’re going to give them a chance to explain.”
“I plan to. Tomorrow.”
“Okay, good. But don’t make it into some big production. Tell them what you saw and heard, then listen to what they have to say.”
I want to, I really want to do exactly what she’s telling me to do, but I’m terrified.
“What if I can’t?” I whisper.
“Abby,” Leila says, using her mom voice on me.
“Do you know what I wish? I wish you had told me what happened five years ago. I wish you had trusted me enough then to let me help you. If you had, I would have fought for you and I would have fought for my brothers. Made sure you all knew the truth and fixed this mess instead of watching all three of you suffer, thinking the worst of each other.”
Her words hit me like a physical blow.
“My brothers would never have hurt you like that,” Leila continues, her voice breaking slightly. “They loved you.”
I can’t speak; I can only listen.
“You need to talk to them,” Leila says, “and you need to be honest about everything. They deserve that much.”
After we say goodbye and hang up, I lie back in bed and stare at the ceiling again. If I’m wrong about what happened, if Anastasia really manipulated me into believing something that wasn’t true, then I’ve wasted years hating two men who might not have deserved it.