CHAPTER TWENTY
ARIELLE
Cam walked into my living room and looked at my friends like they were strangers he had caught inside my house.
His eyes stopped on Kye first. Then, the folder in my lap. He understood before I said anything.
“Can we talk upstairs?”
“No.”
“Ari.”
“Sit down.”
He didn’t.
Cam wore black jeans, a gray sweatshirt, and the watch I had bought him. I couldn’t stop looking at it. Four hundred dollars saved from boutique shifts and birthday money. I had felt proud putting it on his wrist.
Now, it showed up in every picture proving where he had been.
“You brought everybody into this?” he asked.
“Everybody was already in it. I was the last one invited.”
His mouth tightened. “Whatever Sade sent you, she left out a lot.”
“Did you sleep with her?”
Cam glanced at Kye again.
“Look at me,” I said.
His eyes came back.
“Did you sleep with Sade?”
“Yes.”
The room changed.
Even with the proof in my lap, hearing him say it made my body react like the information was new. Heat rushed up my neck. My hands went cold. A cramp pulled through my stomach so hard, I pressed my knees together.
“How many times?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“I didn’t count.”
Nae made a sound under her breath.
Cam turned toward her. “You shouldn’t even be here after what you did.”
“Don’t,” I said.
He faced me again. “I’m just saying, you got people sitting here judging me like they haven’t been lying to you too.”
“They told me.”
Kye flinched.
I had forced the truth into the room.
Cam knew it.
“After I told you to ask,” he said.
“You told me because you were scared she would tell me about Sade.”
“I told you because Kye been acting like she cares about honesty when she started this whole thing.”
Kye stood. “I didn’t make you cheat for two months.”
“You don’t fucking get to talk about what I did to Ari.”
“Sit down,” I told her.
She did.
Cam rubbed his beard. “This is exactly what Sade wanted. She got mad because I ended it and started sending stuff with no context.”
I opened the folder to a screenshot.
“What context does ‘after her birthday, I’m done pretending’ need?”
His face shifted.
“I was telling her what she wanted to hear.”
“Why?”
“Because she was threatening to make a scene at events.”
“So, you kept sleeping with her to calm her down?”
Jori looked away.
Nae’s hand covered her mouth.
Cam’s voice hardened. “You want to embarrass me in front of everybody or you want an honest conversation?”
“I wanted an honest conversation Thursday. You told me I was insecure.”
“You were questioning me in the middle of work.”
“Because the woman you were sleeping with walked up to me.”
“I handled that.”
“You handled me.”
Cam went quiet.
For four years, Cam had a way of pressing the softest place in me until I doubted the bruise was there.
Gifts. Kisses. Inside jokes. Little reminders that I cried easily and thought too hard.
He didn’t always change facts. He made the truth sound like my problem.
“Did you love her?” I asked.
“No.”
“Did you love me?”
“You know I do.”
“While you were in hotel rooms with her?”
His expression softened. “Ari, what I did with Sade had nothing to do with how I feel about you.”
That answer hurt worse than if he had said no.
“It had everything to do with me. I was the person you went home to and lied to after.”
“I made a mistake.”
“For two months?”
“It got out of control.”
“You booked hotels. You told her you were leaving me. You planned around my birthday. That isn’t something getting out of control. That’s a schedule.”
Cam looked toward the window.
I watched him search for the next version.
“Things between us haven’t been good,” he said.
“Since when?”
“You know how it’s been. Every event turns into a problem. Every woman who speaks to me becomes a conversation. I can’t work without checking whether you’re upset.”
“Then, you should’ve broken up with me.”
“I didn’t want to lose you.”
“You wanted both.”
He didn’t deny it.
My eyes burned, but the crying had moved beyond tears. It sat in my chest, heavy and hot.
“And Kye?” I asked.
His gaze slid to her.
“She told you.”
“I want to hear you say it.”
“We were kids.”
“Say it.”
He shoved both hands into his pockets. “We slept together once. Before you and me were together.”
“After I told both of you I liked you.”
“I didn’t know what you and me were gonna be.”
“You knew enough to let her help me get ready for our first date without saying anything.”
“That was her choice.”
Kye laughed sharply. “You told me if I said something, Ari would think I was jealous and cut me off.”
“You were jealous.”
“I was. You still used it.”
“See?” Cam pointed toward her. “This what I’m talking about. She finally feels guilty and, now, she wants me to carry all of it.”
“Nobody asked you to carry her part,” I said. “I’m asking about yours.”
Cam looked at me like he could not understand why the usual doors were locked.
“I was seventeen,” he said.
“And Sade?”
He had no age for that.
No teenage mistake.
No excuse that had gotten old enough to sound harmless.
“Was she at Domo’s Monday?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Did you go to the hotel from there?”
“Yes.”
“When you came to my house Friday morning with flowers, had you already seen her again after Monday?”
He paused. “Thursday night,” he said.
My stomach turned.
The flowers on my dresser flashed in my mind. Pink petals. Coffee. Cake. The bracelet on my wrist. His mouth against my stomach while I stood there wondering if I was pregnant.
“You touched me Friday morning after leaving her Thursday night.”
“I showered, Ari.”
Even Cam heard how ugly that sounded.
My breath broke.
Nae stood. “Ari—”
“Don’t.”
I pulled the bracelet off so hard, the clasp scratched my skin.
I held it out to Cam. “Take it.”
“Keep it.”
“I don’t want it.”
“I bought it for you.”
“With what? Guilt?”
His jaw flexed. “You’re doing too much now.”
That sentence ended something. Not the cheating, not even the lies, but the part of me still waiting for him to stop deciding my pain was too much.
I placed the bracelet on the coffee table. “Get out.”
“Ari, calm down.”
“Get out of my house.”
“You don’t mean that.”
I stood. My legs shook. I let them.
“You keep thinking you know what I mean better than me. That’s why you thought I would stay stupid if you loved me loud enough in public.”
His face changed.
I had reached something true.
“I’m not saying I handled this right,” he said. “But don’t blow up four years in one morning.”
“You did that over two months. I’m just finding out today.”
He looked toward the three women behind me. “And when you calm down, you’re gonna see they aren’t any better. Jori had a picture and sat on it. Nae took your money. Kye slept with me and lied in your face for years. But I’m the only one you throwing away?”
Every word found its target.
My friends went still.
Cam knew how to leave a room on fire, even if he couldn’t stay inside it.
“I said get the fuck out.”
He stepped close enough that the old me would’ve leaned into his chest.
“I love you,” he said quietly.
I believed he believed that.
“Go.”
He waited another second. Then, he left.
The door closed.
Nobody spoke.
I stared at the bracelet on the table until Kye said my name.
“Don’t.”
“I just—”
“You let me love him in front of you for four years.”
Her face crumpled. “I know.”
“And every time I asked if I was doing too much, you told me I deserved better. Every time I thought another girl was around, you helped me investigate. You joked about beating him up.”
“I was trying to be your friend.”
“You were trying to make up for being a terrible one without telling me why.”
She wiped her face. “Yes.”
I looked at Jori. “You had that picture Thursday.”
“Yes.”
“You decided my shift mattered more than me knowing. Then my birthday. Then the club.”
“I was wrong.”
“You always think waiting makes you careful. Sometimes, it just makes you another person watching me look stupid.”
Jori took that without defending herself.
Nae stood near the couch with tears running down her face.
“And you,” I said.
She nodded before I finished. “I know.”
“No, none of y’all know. Because every one of you had the truth and still got to choose when it hurt you least. I didn’t get a choice in anything.”
“You’re right,” Nae whispered.
“I need everybody to leave.”
Kye stood slowly. “Ari, please don’t be alone right now.”
“I have been alone. I just didn’t know it.”
She covered her mouth.
Jori picked up her bag.
Nae moved toward the door.
Kye stayed one second longer.
“Trell put his hands on me Friday night,” she said.
My anger stumbled.
She touched the mark near her neck. “I told my mom. I documented it. I’m not going back. I didn’t tell you now so you would forgive me. I just... I didn’t want you finding that out from somebody else too.”
My body wanted to move toward her.
Years of loving her pulled against everything that hurt.
I stayed where I was.
“Are you safe?”
“For today. My mom’s with me.”
“Okay.”
Kye nodded like it was more than she deserved and walked out.
When the door shut behind the last one, I locked it. Then, I turned around and saw my twentieth birthday flowers in a vase near the window.
Still pink.
Still open.
Still beautiful enough to make the room look happy.
I carried them to the kitchen and dropped them into the trash.
The stems caught against the bag. Petals spilled over the edge.
I pushed until every one disappeared.
Then, I sat on the floor with my back against the cabinet, pulled my knees to my chest, and cried so hard, I couldn’t hear my phone ringing in the living room.