40. Skyscraper
SKYSCRAPER
PRESENT
No.
No, I didn’t hear that right.
He had to be mistaken.
He had to be talking about someone else.
I have to be hallucinating, because no way can that be right.
Not Vanessa.
Not my sister.
I keep playing the statements over and over again in my head, praying they’ll remove what Luke said from existence, but he keeps talking, chipping away at my sanity with every syllable.
“It happened early last summer. Vanessa went to one of the huge Harrington parties up north, and Trent was there too. They only talked for about fifteen minutes, and Vanessa said he was being flirty but more in a Casanova kind of way. He didn’t ask her out or anything, so she didn’t think anything of it.
About a half hour later, she started feeling weird, so she ordered a rideshare. ”
His next words may as well be a sledgehammer to my chest, because a vision of Aria from last night flashes through my mind as he says, “Vanessa hadn’t been drinking that much, but she lost her coordination and was having a hard time staying on her feet.
The last thing she remembered was stumbling into the backseat of a car before blacking out.
When she came to, she found herself in a different vehicle; the driver was gone, and it was just her and Trent in the back.
And he was taking off her clothes.” Luke drags his hands through his hair, looking fit to tear it from the scalp.
“I had just moved to town, so I only knew Vanessa from a brief introduction at the country club. I was driving back from Nico’s place a little after midnight and found her stumbling through the parking lot of the old gas station down on Braxton, shaking, covered in filth, and reeking of gasoline.
I tried to convince her to go to the police or the hospital, but she just kept sobbing and pleading for me to take her home. ”
The champagne I just drank threatens to come back up as the pieces to this fucked up puzzle move into place.
“Vanessa won’t talk to anybody about what exactly happened, but whatever Trent did and said to her…
” Luke shakes his head, looking sick himself.
“From what I’ve inferred, Trent threatened to come after her again.
She’s terrified to be left alone, especially at your house, and she’s only grown more paranoid, thinking he’s going to break in.
The only time she seems to get a good night’s sleep is when she crashes at my place when your parents have been out of town. ”
Because she knows Luke isn’t interested in women and, therefore, doesn’t pose a threat. He’s just a good friend.
“But why the arrangement?” I ask. “You could still be there for her without pretending to be her boyfriend.”
“Your parents started asking too many questions when they noticed Vanessa distancing herself from her other friends, why the only person she spent time with was the new guy in town,” Luke admits.
“And then one of your stepmom’s friends saw Vanessa leaving my place early in the morning on multiple occasions.
She panicked and blurted the first reasonable excuse she could think of. ”
“But she could have gone to my dad and Blythe,” I say. “She could have told them what happened with Trent. They’d believe her .”
Luke holds up his hands. “I don’t know what happened there.
Again, whatever Trent said really freaked her out.
She thought about telling your stepmom but changed her mind.
You two didn’t seem close, but to my surprise, she was actually considering talking to you about it when you came home for Winter Break… ”
Only, I never did, opting to crash at Maggie’s.
An invisible clamp comes down around my chest, refusing to let my lungs expand. Or maybe I’m hyperventilating. I can’t tell. All I know is the muscles in my chest continue tightening as my heart threatens to explode.
Because Trent going after my sister like that didn’t fit his usual pattern.
At all.
After what Jase told me the other night, it’s clear he only goes after young women when he’s in an environment he can control, i.e., his house. Vanessa’s attack wasn’t about him taking advantage of a situation. She didn’t even fit his victim profile.
There was only one reason he targeted her.
Me.
To get back at me.
And she knows that.
And like the snake he is, Trent planted his venom into her, letting it fester.
Vanessa and I had grown apart over the years, but the beginning of last summer had become something else entirely.
She hadn’t just been distant. She treated me like I belonged in a leper colony.
Then, the way Vanessa acted the second she saw me when I came home this summer…
“She’ll attract the wrong attention from the wrong people.” And she was right. I may not have run into Trent the night of Derek’s engagement party, but I inevitably did attract his attention, in the worst possible way.
Another sickening thought rolls through me about that evening.
The reason I didn’t leave Derek’s engagement party in my car was because I had seen Trent loitering around the front entrance of the country club, and I wanted to avoid that fucker like the plague he is.
But I have a feeling Vanessa hadn’t been so lucky. Not if what my dad said was true.
Vanessa had been too freaked out to use a rideshare service to get out of there, and the only reason the valet that night had let her take my car without the claim ticket was because she had been crying, enough so to make him uncomfortable.
And the fact that the mere smell of gasoline suddenly made her sick, or that she always leaves lights on around the house now, or that she snapped at me about leaving my bedroom window open when I wasn’t home…
I’m staggering away from Luke and Jase, my feet damn near numb beneath me.
My whole body may as well be laced with novocaine, because I barely feel the slick metal of the door’s pull bar or the blast of air conditioning as I stumble inside the country club.
I don’t even know how I’m seeing through the moisture building inside my eyes.
Everything blurs, and entering the banquet hall only makes it worse.
The lighting is much lower, and the number of people makes it next to impossible to find anyone in particular.
I’m tempted to just scream out her name, but my sister’s stark white retro dress may as well be a spotlight shining down upon her.
Vanessa looks immaculate, with just the right amount of makeup and hair product to achieve the ‘50s aesthetic while still looking modern.
I should be practicing an opening of some sort, perhaps along the lines of, “You look beautiful” or even just a simple “Hi,” but my brain short circuits as I opt for tackling her with a hug.
I can’t remember the last time either of us had done this to the other, and it shows. Vanessa just stands there awkwardly with her arms pinned at her side, not making any movement to return the gesture or push me away.
If anything, she’s stunned, but the reaction quickly shifts to concern when she finally registers the fact that I’m shaking. Demanding to know what’s wrong, she finally tries to pull back from me, but I only hold her tighter.
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m so fucking sorry.”
It’s the only thing I can say, and I just keep saying it. With every syllable, my voice grows weaker as a sob escapes me. I don’t care that we have an audience. I don’t care who overhears us. I don’t care that I probably look like a crazy person as Vanessa squirms in my hold.
I just need to let her know.
I need to let my sister know how much I regret what I said to her.
Vanessa suddenly goes still, her body tensing, and even though I’m not looking at her, I know something’s wrong.
I finally loosen my hold and follow her gaze behind me to see Jase and Luke standing behind us. Some silent communication must pass between her and the latter, because all the color drains from Vanessa’s face as she recoils from me like my skin’s been replaced with hot coals.
And now I’m not the only one apologizing.
Luke tries to reach for her, but she jerks back from him, hissing something under her breath.
He whispers back, but whatever he says, she’s not having it.
That much is evident when she tells us both to go fuck ourselves before storming off. And she doesn’t do so quietly.
More than a few heads have turned our way, but I can’t let her go. Not when a sob escapes my sister before she can make it out through the side door.
Vanessa has always been able to cue the waterworks when it gets her out of a bind, like for a speeding ticket or breaking curfew, but I haven’t seen my sister genuinely cry since our mom’s funeral.
Now, she’s gasping, clutching at her chest, all the way down the hallway, not caring about the others in attendance.
Thankfully, it’s only the wait staff at the moment, and Vanessa ducks into the first available room she can find.
Leather, smoke, and the signature scent of Montecristos engulf me as I follow in after her, not surprised to find it’s a cigar lounge. Luke tries talking again but only gets two syllables out before she whirls on him.
Tears soak her cheeks, and her voice cracks as she tries to talk past the lump in her throat, but that doesn’t stop her from yelling.
No, Jase does that with his very presence.
The second she sees him standing behind me, she freezes, and whatever look is on his face must confirm her suspicions.
“You told him too?” she shrieks, turning back to Luke. “ What the fuck? Are you just blabbing about it to everyone now?”
We all try explaining ourselves, but she throws her hands up, cutting us off.
“I don’t give a fuck what any of you have to say. It’s about what she didn’t say!” Vanessa finally explodes, loud enough that I’m surprised the glasses in the room don’t rattle.
But I’m more surprised to find her pointing at me .
Huh?