Chapter 24
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
The limo ride back to the hotel is quiet but not awkward.
Eli and Sweeny had already left in pursuit of other entertainment by the time Callie and I returned to the table, so it’s only the three of us now.
A pensive aura hangs over the inside of the car, as if we have a mutual understanding that we each have our separate internal demons to sort through.
My cheek still smarts from its collision with Jana’s palm, but not nearly as much as my heart.
There’s no point in waiting any longer.
“I have to tell you something,” I blurt out. “It’s about Jana.”
Callie stiffens against me and sits up straight.
Luke shoots a concerned look from the seat across from us. We don’t do the pretentious limo thing very often, but thought Callie would find it fun. She did, of course.
Well, until this moment, I guess.
Luke’s gaze practically pleads with me not to ruin our new-found serenity with drama from the past, but we can’t have true peace until those ghosts are cleared from the present. We definitely can’t have a future. He should understand that better than anyone .
Callie’s pained stare scours my face, and I can’t meet it. I’ll just have to plow through to the end, or I’ll get derailed and make a bigger mess than I already have.
I check the privacy window to make sure it’s secure, then lower my gaze to the leather seat below it.
“Another story is going to break in a couple of weeks,” I say in an even tone. “In order to fix the narrative about you two, I had to trade something.”
“I thought you gave him the Penchant reveal,” Luke says in confusion.
“I did. But it wouldn’t have been enough. I had to give them something else, so I told them the truth about me and Jana.”
The air turns stale as I try to pull in a deep breath. I feel their stares burning into me, but I still can’t meet them.
“What truth?” Callie asks, an edge in her voice.
My lungs constrict as my fingers curve around the edge of the seat. “The truth that the whole thing was fake. It was a setup by our PR teams.”
Before I lose my nerve, I launch into the rest of the story. I tell them about the agreement, the terms, and how she broke them almost immediately. I explain how everything they saw and thought was real was , even though it was based on a lie.
I can’t guess what they’re thinking as the truth pours out, but it feels good to finally come clean. Luke probably won’t care except for the fact that I told Orin before him, but Callie…
She’s impossible to predict. Her ability to read people and scrape at the core of their actions is frighteningly strong. Her compassion, her grace for mistakes when accompanied by sincere regret—it’s part of what makes her so special.
But she also doesn’t know our world, and has shown unfiltered disdain for the ugly aspects of fame and fortune. There’s no question this story falls into that category.
Then again, so does my sincere remorse for doing something stupid .
When I finish, I dare a look.
Neither of them said a word the entire time I was talking. I thought it was better that way, until now.
Luke releases a breath. “Damn, dude. Let me guess, this was Vince’s idea?”
“Barry’s, but Vince made it happen.”
He huffs a dry laugh and shakes his head.
I have no choice anymore. I’ve put it off long enough and force myself to confront Callie.
Brows knit in thought, her hazel eyes glisten with a mix of emotions I can’t read.
“So let me get this straight,” she says finally.
I squirm in the seat beside her and brace for the bombshell. The only question is, will we be able to salvage the pieces?
“You pretend-dated Jana, but she wanted to turn it into real dating?”
I chew on the inside of my cheek as I think. “Yeah, I guess that sums it up pretty well.”
“And then because she was acting like you were ‘real’ dating, you broke off the pretend dating with a real breakup.”
I nod.
“And now there’s going to be a huge blowup about the fact that your pretend relationship was fake but your real breakup was real, and the guy who’s going to do all of this is the dude we caught snoring on the couch after Luke’s party?”
“Um… yeah. Right.”
She shakes her head and leans back to face front with a baffled expression. “Wow.”
“I know. Cal, I feel terrible about it all. I just… God, I don’t…”
I have no idea how to finish that sentence. Luke’s silent warning urges me not to. Callie’s going to need time with this. How long, I don’t know. Hours, days, weeks? Whatever it is, I’ll wait. She’s worth a lifetime if it comes to it .
After a long silence, she crosses her arms and blows out a breath.
“Well, this is almost as confusing as the time in ninth grade when Abby Hennox and I pretended to be best friends so Josh Sherman would date Amanda Thompson. But it turned out Amanda didn’t even like Josh, we just thought she did because Abby saw them kissing at the football game.
” She turns a grave look on me. “Turns out, she was only kissing Josh to make Marlon Torres jealous because he was the guy she liked.”
I stare at her.
“Crazy, right?” She lifts a brow. “You don’t even want to know what happened at Homecoming when all of this came out.” She shudders at the memory. “So many balloons. So many.”
Luke snorts a laugh.
Her grin breaks.
Color explodes back into my world.
I’m exhausted and ready for bed by the time we return to the suite.
Callie and Luke appear beat as well, but when the three of us converge on the couch, there’s revelation in the air.
Maybe my limo confession opened a vault in all of us, because the way Luke keeps looking at me, I know there’s something he wants to say.
And I will pump my veins with caffeine until he does.
Callie curls up beside me on the couch, her warmth infusing into my tired body and soul. Luke stares into a glass from the couch across from us.
“I told her some things,” he says, casting a fleeting glance at me.
I tense, more surprised at the speed of the unsolicited confession than the words themselves.
“Yeah?” I say to confirm he’s got my attention .
He nods and focuses back on the drink in his hands. “About how we got started, about that time with your father and Molly. Just thought you should know.”
My insides constrict from an involuntary chill. Memories surge back, my teeth clenching at the sting of old pain.
“Fun story,” I manage beneath their probing stares.
Callie slips her hand into mine and entwines our fingers.
“I want to know all the stories,” she says quietly. “Fun or not.”
A hungry silence pulses around us, demanding more information.
I squint at the coffee table. “I don’t talk to him anymore.”
The voice sounds like mine, but I don’t really hear it. All I hear is my sister’s sobs. The sickening thud of flesh on flesh.
Physical assaults aren’t like the movies.
There are no dramatic sound effects announcing each blow.
They just come, rapid and random, landing in scattered chaos.
You can’t even see much when it happens.
It’s just swatches of moving color through the gaps of your arms. Gasps of air leaving your lungs.
Even the full extent of the pain comes later.
That moment is for fear and fear alone.
“I’m the only one who doesn’t,” I continue in a distant tone. “But he always hated me more than the others. I wasn’t as afraid of him as he wanted.”
Not until that night anyway.
That night changed everything. So many things broke—literally and figuratively—but that wasn’t the lasting legacy of those few horrific hours. In a sick, twisted way, the very monster my father was trying to beat out of me was born into reality by his actions.
“He hates that he was wrong about you, Case,” Luke says gently. “He hates your success. I saw him when I went home a few weeks ago. He’s a bitter, miserable man.”
The reminder of Luke’s mysterious trip triggers a sudden shift in my attention.
Luke’s right about my father, but it’s the casual confession about going home that’s twisting everything inside me.
I don’t want him to know I was already aware of his trip.
I want to hear his version of his story, not get sidetracked by the gossip.
“You went home?” I ask. “Why? Why didn’t you tell me?”
When he winces from the answer in his head, my world goes dark.
My heart races as he studies the carpet.
Please tell me. Please let me in.
“I was… putting things in order. Preparing for…”
Oh god.
He stops speaking, like the words are burning his throat the way they’re scorching my ears.
I thought I wanted to hear him say it, but it’s so much worse out loud. My lungs feel frozen. His eyes drift to mine, and just that brief flash of pain is unbearable. He quickly diverts his gaze back to the floor.
Callie is rigid in my arms. If this is how I feel with the benefit of a warning, I can’t imagine what she’s experiencing right now.
A glossy sheen obscures Luke’s eyes as they stare blankly toward the floor.
“A month ago I was ready. I was done.”
His words form a toxic mist in the air. I breathe it in, paralyzed by its painful truth.
But that’s exactly why he needs to release it. Tear open the wound and let it seep out. Or that poison will pump through your veins until you can’t live with it anymore.
“That’s why I started visiting Jemma’s. The chair,” he continues in a fractured voice. “To say goodbye with one final punishment for what I was. What I’d done. To force myself to confront my failure…” He swats at his eyes. “A month ago was supposed to be the end. ”
Callie chokes on a sob and bursts up from the couch. She rushes toward him and throws her arms around him. His tighten in return, like she’s the only thing tethering him here. A few weeks ago, she was.
It was supposed to be the end.
Supposed to be…
Fuck, I can’t breathe.
I rub my chest, blinking through a veil of stifled tears.