Chapter 1 #2
“My partner,” she settled on, because that was precisely what Darcy felt like to her.
At this moment especially. “You can get real used to seeing our names and faces splashed everywhere, together.” Juliet wasn’t even sure she was prepared for the sheer amount of publicity coming their way, but right now certainly wasn’t the time for her to go down that road in her mind.
Not when she needed to drive her point home, to twist the knife into Harrison even deeper.
“And you know what? All of the people who are inevitably going to have a problem with my sexuality? They’re going to think about all of those ads I’ve done for you, all of the manipulation you put in using my name, my face, my fame…
I guess that’s going to come back for you now. ”
She could see the moment the truth of what she said clicked for him, the way his entire body tensed even more, the way his jaw clenched. And his fists.
Because the thing that mattered the most to Harrison was money. Second to that was his image. And Juliet had just threatened them both in a way she couldn’t, and wouldn’t, take back.
“Harrison!” Her mom’s voice echoed through the night air as she burst through the door between them, out of breath.
She’d likely run through the backstage area trying to find them, before realizing that Juliet had no intention of sticking around.
Juliet couldn’t see her, because she refused to turn her head. She refused to look away from Harrison.
She’d spent so long doing that, both literally and metaphorically. He’d held the power for so long, for her entire fucking life from the moment he’d entered it, and she’d had to bow to him.
And she definitely wasn’t going to do it now, when he was the closest he’d ever come to really getting violent with her.
Maybe she’d be the one walking out of here with a big lawsuit.
“Did you know about this?” He hissed at her mom, not taking his eyes off Juliet.
“Don’t bring her into this,” Juliet immediately pushed back. “You know you control every part of her life. Just the way you like it.”
Not only did her mom know, but she’d been more present for Juliet in the last year and a half than she’d been since before Harrison. She’d come to visit multiple times, and she invited actual conversations to be held.
But Juliet was going to walk away from here tonight and leave Harrison behind. It was different for her mom.
“I made you. Gave you everything. Only for you to turn around and be an ungrateful, spiteful little bitch.” In the past, his words – and the way he pulled his fist back, almost like he was getting ready to strike – would have made her flinch.
“I swear to god, if you touch her, I will kill you, and I don’t care about what happens after,” Darcy promised, her voice low and genuinely menacing.
Juliet loved that about her.
“ Harrison !” Her mom snapped, alarm in her voice.
The only moment of the night that actually surprised Juliet, however, was when she heard Harry’s voice, “Dad?! You – you can’t hit a girl! You can’t hit Juliet !”
At fourteen, his puberty-stricken voice broke halfway through his exclamation. And this time, Juliet did turn to look, and so did Harrison. Both of her brothers had seemingly followed their mom out and were standing several feet away, their eyes wide.
She could tell Harrison hadn’t expected them, either. Nor had he expected Wade, one of the event managers, who’d seemed to follow the commotion, standing in the doorway from the crossover, watching everything play out.
Harrison leaned back, pulling sharply away from her.
For the first fucking time, it wasn’t Juliet who had to give way, who had to give in. And it felt so. Damn. Good.
“Get your ass in the house,” he snarled at Juliet. “We’re starting damage control starting now.”
“No,” she stated, no room for an argument in her tone.
“There’s no we , Harrison. Contact your legal team all you want; it’s all done.
And, frankly, I think the thing that upsets you the most isn’t that I’m a lesbian.
It isn’t even that I’m not going to live under your thumb anymore. Though, that is close.”
Because lord knew he loved to have both the money and the clout – especially the clout – of her very public and well-known image.
“I think, underneath it all, it’s that you know now that I’m going to be living my own life, on my terms. And that without you?
I’m going to have a chance to genuinely be happy.
And that you know, somewhere in the black pit you call your heart, that no one would ever put up with you, let alone love you, if you couldn’t shove money and power at them. Which is just… sad.”
Harrison’s eyes glinted at her, that vein throbbing so visibly, she wondered if he’d have an aneurysm. “You gonna go around acting like you feel sorry for fucking me over like this?”