Chapter 49 Lily
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
LILY
When I woke up, something crinkled beneath my face.
“What the …” I grumbled, reluctantly lifting my head. Forcing my eyes open, my bleary sleepy vision cleared, and I was suddenly very aware of the ache in my neck.
Oh, bloody hell.
I’d fallen asleep studying last night.
I was still fully dressed. My iPad screen and laptop were black, having probably lost charge, and I’d fallen asleep on an open textbook. Said page was now wrinkled and covered in spots of drool.
“Lovely.” I wiped my mouth as I hesitantly arched my neck from side to side to work out an aching kink.
Sounds from downstairs filtered up to my childhood bedroom.
My family was awake, and I could smell bacon.
My stomach grumbled because I hadn’t eaten much in the last thirty-six hours.
I’d been too worried about January, even though she assured me she was fine.
She’d been in a black cab when a white van ran a red light and smashed into the side of them.
Unfortunately, because the cab was going to pull over once it was through the lights, Jan had removed her seat belt.
When the van smashed into them, she went flying off the bench seat and broke her wrist upon trying to catch her fall. It could have been way worse.
The thought of anything happening to her had plagued me and my parents. Eventually, assured by her grumpy insistence that she was fine, I tried to get some studying in and spent most of last evening doing just that.
I reached for my phone. It thankfully was charging on my bedside table. I swiped the screen to check the time.
It was after nine in the morning.
Noting a couple of text notifications, I frowned when I saw one of them was from Zac. Since we rarely texted, I clicked on it.
You need to know who he really is.
The words were attached to an image that caused the room to start spinning wildly.
My heart raced in this fluttery panicked way that made me jittery and nauseated. It also made it hard for me to think clearly. I watched my sister study the image on my phone and tried not to hyperventilate as I revisited the photo in my mind. After all, it was burned on my brain now.
It was a photo of a half-naked woman straddling Sebastian while they kissed on the bed we’d made love in, in his family’s villa.
Poor Jan, with her broken wrist and bruised ribs, had come into my room to wake me up for breakfast only to find me near to passing out at the evidence Zac had sent that the man I loved was cheating on me.
“Did you look at this properly?” Jan asked, expression dead serious for once.
“It’s imprinted on my bloody brain,” I gritted out, nausea rolling in my gut. “I feel sick.”
“Okay, let’s take a minute. Before you saw this photo, would you believe Sebastian would cheat on you?”
No! I believed if Sebastian no longer wanted to be in a relationship with me, he’d break things off first. He might have been a player, but he wasn’t some horndog, as my mum would say, who couldn’t keep it in his pants. The man had self-control and decency. He was more honorable than that!
Oh.
Jan gave me a toothless, grim smile. “That’s what I thought. Look at it again. Really look at it.”
I shakily and reluctantly took the phone from her.
Jan had zoomed in on a portion of the photo.
The strange female with her mouth on Sebastian.
My pulse increased. Suddenly, the photo told a completely different story.
It looked like she was kissing him, and he was screwing his face up, his hands pushing her away, not pulling her close.
“Your boy doesn’t look like he’s enjoying himself. Your boy looks like he’s trying to push her off him.”
So many questions roiled in my head. “How did she end up in the room with him half-naked? How did it get that far? Why would Zac send me this?”
“I have no answer for you.” Jan gave me a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. “But I wouldn’t go jumping to conclusions. If you trust your guy, you should talk it out with him.”
I didn’t know if I was brave enough to. Having been cheated on multiple times, it was extremely hard for me to not trust the obvious tale the photo told. “Maybe I should call Sierra and Maddie. See if they know anything. Before I call Sebastian.”
“Sounds like a plan. I’ll be downstairs eating your bacon roll since your appetite is probably gone.”
I grimaced. “I’m sorry. I didn’t even ask how you are?”
“Eh, forgiven, considering the circumstances. And I’m okay. I promise. Come find me if you need me. I won’t tell Mum and Dad what’s going on.”
“Thanks.”
She gave me an awkward one-armed hug because she was still wary of moving her left arm with the cast on. I hugged her back, trying to hold in my panicked tears, and waited until she’d left the room before I shakily called Sierra.
My friend picked up on the tenth ring with a groggy, “Ullo?”
“Sierra, it’s me.”
“Lil?”
“Aye. Can you wake up, please? It’s important.”
“Is Jan okay?”
“Jan’s fine. It’s something else.”
“Okay. One sec.” I heard rustling and then a male voice lazily demanding, “Come back to bed.”
Momentarily distracted from my own drama, I asked, “Is that Harry?”
Instead of answering, I heard her speak to the man. “I need to take this.”
“Then come back to bed.”
That definitely sounded like Harry. A few seconds later, I heard a door shutting and Sierra spoke. “Sorry. What’s up?”
“Did you sleep with Harry?”
“We, uh, we’ve kind of hooked up a few times. I’ll tell you about it later. What’s up?”
My heart sped again as I tried to think of the right words to explain the situation. “Did … did something happen last night, Sierra? Was there … was there a girl with Sebastian?”
“What?” Sierra’s tone was sharp. “What do you mean? How do you … Look, I don’t know who’s been talking, but there was this haughty trust fund baby chasing Bastian around the party all night.
” She sounded breathless with agitation.
“He couldn’t have been clearer with her if he tried.
He told her over and over he had a girlfriend and to back off, and it got so bad I had to threaten the crazy, drunk bunny boiler. ”
I stood up, my legs shaking as a tentative relief started to flood through me. “When did you last see Sebastian?”
“Lily, what is going on? You know he would never cheat on you, right?”
Guilt riddled me at Sierra’s absolute certainty. “Is … is he around?”
“I don’t know. You woke me up. Try his cell. Will you tell me what is going on?”
“I will,” I promised. “I need to speak to Sebastian first.”
“Okay. Note that I am worried, though. Please call me back when you can.”
“I promise.”
We hung up and I stared at my phone, trying to catch my breath. Finally, realizing Sierra might go to Sebastian before I could call, I hit his name.
He answered after three rings. “Morning, Sawyer.” His voice was raspy like he was either waking up or he hadn’t slept. “How’s Jan?”
“S-she’s … she’s fine.”
“What is it?” Sebastian was suddenly alert.
“I … I … I’m trying not to jump to conclusions about something.” My tears started to come before I could stop them. I had to take a minute to get them under control.
“Okay, you’re scaring me,” he replied thickly. “Tell me what’s going on.”
“I … I’m s-sending you something, okay? It was sent to me this morning.” Swiping at my tears, I tapped into my messages and attached the photo Zac sent me. “Okay. I’ve sent it.”
“All right. The suspense is killing me, though. Why are you crying, angel?”
Sniffling, I lied, “I’m not.”
“Oh. Well then, you’re doing a very good impression of it.
Okay … got it.” He went quiet a moment and then suddenly burst into loud, furious cursing.
I flinched, switching the volume down on my phone since I had him on speaker.
Finally, he began pleading, “Lily, God, Lily, I swear to God, this is not what it looks like. This woman is an old friend, she was harassing me all fucking night, I thought I’d gotten away from her, and I was trying to get to sleep and she crept in through the fucking slider doors while I was sleeping and accosted me.
I threw her out, like, seconds after this photo was taken.
Who the fuck took the photo? What the … Lily, God, Lily, please tell me you believe me. ” His voice caught on a sob. “Please.”
I squeezed my eyes closed in utter relief and the tears spilled over. “I believe you.”
“Oh hell,” he wheezed out and I heard a thud. “Lily … I’m so sorry this happened. You must have thought … what … who sent this? Lily? Sawyer, please talk to me or I might start to think you don’t believe me after all.”
“I do believe you. I … for a moment there … I’m sorry.”
He was quiet as he processed what I hadn’t said. “I understand, my love. But I would never do that to you.”
“I showed Jan the photo and she asked me if I believed you’d cheat. My instinct was no. Even if one day, you grow bored with me, you would end things before you ever betrayed me. You’re too honorable not to.”
“While I really love most of what you said … I will never grow bored with you. Is that what you think?” He sounded pissed off.
I flushed, having realized I’d unwittingly shared one of my deeply buried insecurities about our relationship. “No one knows what the future holds.”
“I do,” he snapped. “You’re never getting rid of me. Get used to that.”
My lips twitched. “That sounded like a threat.”
“Take it however you please.”
I laughed at his belligerent response, disbelieving I could laugh right now.
Sebastian did not laugh. “Lily, whoever sent that photo … they set me up with Gisele. Maybe even sent her to me.”
Gisele. I wrinkled my nose at her name. If she was in front of me, I might slap her with my thickest textbook. She’d assaulted my boyfriend!
Yet something else pierced my anger. Something incredibly sad and confusing.
Sebastian’s friend had betrayed him. “It was Zac. I’m so sorry, but Zac sent me the photo.”