Chapter twenty seven
SIERRA
Every single one of us just unraveled in the worst way possible. Mia and Sebastian have stormed off, as well as Jenny. I know there's no use trying to reach any of them right now. Everything is still too fresh, and all of us need to get calm in order to talk this out properly.
Anxiousness is gnawing at my heart, and the feeling is disturbing me to the point where I can't stay in place.
"I'm telling you, she did this," I say, pacing around. "What's taking so long?"
"Calm down." Elias brings his arm around my waist, and I let out a small, defeated breath when I look up at him with worry. He's been processing everything as well but seems a lot calmer than I am.
"Let's just go look for them," I say, and when he nods, we re-enter the venue and go up the stairs, his hand in mine. Elias leads me down the corridor, where multiple doors are marked with numbers. He steps into one, and what I see next makes my stomach drop.
I previously found Ruby suspicious anyway, but never would I have imagined the scene in front of me. I storm into the room in a second, my shock instant. Kyle is passed out on the bed while she remains next to him, dragging a wet towel down his bare chest. His shirt is open, and he looks drugged.
"Get away from him." My voice comes out higher, showing how much I'm freaking out. "What did you do to him?"
I rush towards them, and Ruby stands up, looking at both me and Elias with wide eyes.
"What did you do to him?" I shout, my hands shaky as I reach for Kyle and pat his cheek a little.
"Nothing!" Ruby shouts back, clearly troubled and caught red-handed. "Nothing—just... he's gonna be fine."
"It was you, wasn't it?" I ask, seeing her breathe heavily and not say a thing. Somehow, that brings me into an even worse mood. I'm done playing games.
I step closer, cornering her. "The leak of the pictures. You wanted this to happen."
Elias gets to Kyle's side, shaking him a bit, but Kyle is almost unconscious. Ruby's watching me like I've gone mad, but I'm absolutely done with this mess.
"You play mind games with my friends and then try to assault my best friend? Are you insane?" I get in her face, and she steps back instinctively.
The adrenaline is rushing through me, and if I let go of my self-control right now, I would have smacked her across the face.
"I wasn't going to assault him!" Ruby lets out, her brows furrowed and her chest heaving.
Everything makes even more sense now than it did before. Her comment about Jenny and Sebastian being close seems like a giveaway now. She was the one who made those photos happen.
"Then why is he like this?" I demand, pointing at Kyle. Whatever she gave him must have had an effect like a roofie would.
"What is happening here?" someone asks from the doorway, and a few people pile up, including Elias's parents and his brother, Cameron. But I'm too distracted to pay them any mind, ignoring their presence while Elias gets Kyle to sit up.
"Answer me!" I step towards her, grabbing her arm. "What is your problem? You feed lies to Mia and you drug him? What the hell are you playing at?"
"Fine! I planned it all. I did this!" she sobs. "I sent those photos to Mr. Anderson!"
"You what?" Elias says. "You had someone tailing me?"
"No. I did it." She points at herself.
"What did we ever do to you?" I let out with disbelief.
"Nothing! That's the problem, isn't it? You've done absolutely nothing, and somehow, everything just falls into your lap!"
she yells, tears falling down her cheeks.
"Friends. Love. Loyalty. You never had to fight for anything! I had to burn my whole life to the ground just to get in the room with people like you!"
She's jealous. All this time, I thought that she was someone who wanted to take Elias from me, but it turns out that all she wanted was my best friend.
"And you married me to sabotage her?" Elias scoffs.
"I never wanted you! I only ever wanted to be close enough to Kyle."
I feel overwhelmed by everything that already went down, and finding out that Ruby drugged him just because she wanted to be close to him is beyond me.
"Too bad that he still chose the rest of us over you," I say, and her face crumbles. I watch as she lowers down to her knees, absolutely bawling her eyes out. Her hands fly over her face.
"It was never about you, Elias. I just wanted to be near him," she croaks, and from the corner of my eyes I notice Kyle leaning against Elias as he sits up on the bed.
"It's not the worst thing in the world when someone doesn't like you back," I say.
"It is if it happens all the time," Ruby huffs dramatically.
"Easy for you to say. You have friends. You have Elias. Perfect, clingy, obsessed Elias who worships the ground you walk on. You don't know what it's like to fight for someone you actually love when you have someone to love you already. You have reciprocation!" Her breath heaves.
"What does that even matter? I won't let you manipulate us anymore. I can't believe you did this to him," I say back, and Kyle looks up. I know that he still feels guilty and thinks that this is all his fault, and it's not.
I look back at her. "All of it was for nothing, Ruby. You failed."
"I didn't fail," she says back, harshly wiping her fallen tears.
"But you did," I say firmly. "Accept it and move on. I won't watch you bring Kyle down with you. He has nothing to do with this. You're just sickly obsessed."
"Shut up. Just shut up!" she lets out with frustration.
Prying eyes still linger by the doorway.
"I can assure you, he has no intention of bringing this anywhere," I say, helping up Kyle, who mumbles something incoherently. "Have you ever thought that if you just came to him without playing all these manipulative games, maybe he would've given you a shot?"
Right now, everything has already fallen apart. And it's too late for her to try anything more, so she just stares at me wordlessly.
"It's the only way you feel seen," I continue, seeing her expression change, and I know that I've hit the nail on the head. "You want to have control over things. But it's over now."
"You don't know how it is when you lose everything, Sierra," Ruby fires back. "The arranged marriage wasn't my parents' idea. It was mine. I suggested it."
I cast a look at the crowd by the doorway. Mr. Anderson seems troubled beside his wife, as his eyes jump between the four of us. The Zhangs are there too, and Ruby's confessions are just coming out in front of the entire audience. Cameron steps in then, helping us keep Kyle on his feet.
"So that's how it is," Elias speaks up. By the look on his face, I know that he's feeling used. Those months were a complete waste of time, and he had to endure it because of a foolish plan and not for actual reasons to bring something to the company. He looks furious.
"Elias, I'm so sorry—"
"You wasted my time, Ruby. For a fucking scheme!" he shouts. I've never seen him so angry in my life, not even on the field if the referee did something that he didn't like. Not even his father says anything.
"Elias—"
"No." He interrupts her. "You will never fucking see me again. If you think I'm going to continue with this, you're wrong. Absolutely wrong. So either you sign for divorce, or I'll make you," he roars.
He glares at his father. "I won't be your pawn anymore. Cameron was in the right when he left before he could be sucked into this black hole. The smartest thing he's ever done. And I should've done it a long time ago too. You made me believe that I had no way out," he says.
"And if any of you ever try to contact me again, you'll regret it."
He takes my hand, tugging me away.
"Come on, let's go," he says to me in a much softer tone. He leads me outside, and Cameron helps get Kyle into the back seat before saying his goodbyes. For the rest of the way, we don't speak.
We get Kyle to bed as soon as we get to my place. I make sure he has everything before I return to the living room, finding Elias on the couch. I join him and just hold him close without speaking, just comforting him with my hand slipping through his hair while another glides up and down his back.