26. Boob Tape #3
If I refuse, Natalie spins it as me being difficult—the person here to win tonight’s prize money.
If I answer, Junie watches me protect Natalie in front of her for the last time in our lives.
“We have to go,” Hudson says.
The ballroom closes in on me.
Every beat I have planned for this evening disintegrates.
“It’s a combination,” I hear myself say. The explanation leaves my lips on autopilot, and Junie does not move.
She doesn’t breathe.
She watches as I become irredeemable.
And it’s not the fire I’ve always loved in Junie’s eyes now. It’s the absence of it. The specific stillness of Juniper Mercer retreating to the place she goes to when things end.
“Thank you, Natalie,” Junie says, her voice perfectly level. Then she turns on her heel and, with more grace than Natalie has ever possessed, walks out of the ballroom.
Hudson curses in my ear as we hurry to follow. He gets a step ahead when someone grabs hold of my elbow.
“Cole,” Natalie hisses. “A word.”
“No.” I shrug her off and spot Junie with Hudson near an interior garden at the end of the long hallway. She’s running now.
My feet won’t move fast enough, but the click-clack of heels tells me Natalie’s still following and this is about to get so much worse.
“Cole, you can’t run from me.”
“I said not fucking now, Natalie.”
“Yes, now. They’re going to fire me. The board is voting on my renewal in three weeks, and I need—”
I reach Junie, but the leech is still at my side. “Later,” I hiss.
Hudson stands at Junie’s back. I should be her support beam, not him, but I already know I’ve lost that honor just by her body language.
“We will not talk later.” Natalie’s composure has snapped, and now Junie has a front-row seat to it. “This is what you signed on for. I need designs. Three. By the end of the month. I won’t lose this job, Cole. It’s the only thing—”
“No.”
The word drops between us.
Natalie’s eyes narrow, and whatever she finds in my reflection has panic shadowing hers. “No?”
“Cole,” Hudson warns. He doesn’t have his case against her locked down yet.
I’m not sure that it matters anymore.
Hudson can’t find Junie on the paperwork. I have to take that at face value now.
“I’m fucking done, Natalie. I’m not giving you anything else. Ever. You’ve taken too much. It’s done. You’re dead to me.”
The air grows thick between us while Natalie calculates if the leverage she has is still enough.
“Come on, Junie,” Hudson says more gently than I’ve heard him in years. “Let’s—”
“Did he tell you about our arrangement?” Natalie asks, stepping closer to Junie.
My arm snaps out to ward her off. “Fuck. Off. Natalie.”
“About the foreclosure? About Marcus? About your mom or why he’s been—”
“Stop,” I growl.
“Sending me designs for six years. Why he allows me to claim them? Why he subsidizes my career to help cover the cost of my brother’s care in exchange for my silence?”
“Fuck,” Hudson mutters.
But my world stops.
No one moves.
Somewhere behind us, the master of ceremonies directs everyone to their seats.
“Silence for what?” Junie asks. Her voice is as monotone as her expression.
Natalie’s face curls into the ugliest grin. “Let’s start easy, shall we, with a copy of the vlog you created the night your mother died. The one where you said you were thankful she died. Thankful.”
“A video,” Junie says, slowly.
“But that wasn’t enough,” Natalie says.
“Stop. Just fucking stop, Natalie.” It roars out of me, and I don’t care who hears.
Hudson attempts to pull Junie away, but she digs her heels in. I try to block Natalie, but she threatens to scream. We’re at an impasse. No one moves.
“I knew it wasn’t enough to keep Cole in line. Not when everything he’d ever done for our entire relationship came in second to you. So I hung around. I paid attention. I collected what I needed.” Even knowing what she’s capable of, the venom in her voice is shocking.
“What did I ever do to you?” There’s still no emotion in Junie’s voice.
“Come on, Junie. We can—”
Natalie cuts me off. “What did you do? What didn’t you do, you selfish little bitch?
While I was home dealing with my father’s gambling debts and my brother’s care alone, you had everyone and everything at your fingers, and you never appreciated it.
” It’s as though she doesn’t even care who hears her as long as she gets to hurt as many people as she can on her way down.
“That’s enough.” I reach for Junie, but she sidesteps me, curling into Hudson’s side.
My heart stops beating.
“Oh, I see.” Natalie’s voice cuts like glass. “He didn’t even tell you the worst of it. What I found out and why he’s sacrificed himself for you, once again.” She presses a button on her phone, and before I can stop her, she holds it out for Junie.
On her phone screen is a video of her mother in Junie’s very own house.
“Shut it off,” I shout, lunging for Natalie, but Hudson holds me back.
The video begins.
“You realize that when you die and this hasn’t been repaid, Juniper will lose everything?” Junie’s dad says, sliding papers toward her mother.
“Like you care,” her mother says. “You’ve never spent more than a few days with her, and you’re getting half the payout. Just make sure none of it falls back on Nolan’s company.”
Her father laughs mercilessly. “You’re a coldhearted bitch, Anna.”
“Say what you want. I’m going to enjoy the little time I have left. I don’t give a shit if that oxygen thief loses everything, and I definitely don’t care that she’ll be stuck with the repayment. It’s two million dollars—she’ll have a lifetime for remittance. She owes me this.”
“No sympathy for your only daughter?” Tommy Mercer is cut from the same cloth as his ex-wife.
“I don’t care what happens to her once I’m gone. She could jump off a bridge, and it wouldn’t affect my day one bit. I hate that girl with every fiber of my being. She ruined my body, my life, our relationship. I should have aborted her when I had the chance.”
I rip the phone from Natalie’s hand and throw it against the wall.
“Were you hiding in the butler’s pantry to record this?” Hudson growls.
Natalie shrugs. “Not at first, but as soon as I heard Anna saying what I always knew to be true, I hit record. At first, I thought I’d use it against Anna, but by the end, I realized she hated Junie almost as much as I did.”
My right eye twitches. I haven’t hit anyone since I beat the shit out of Junie’s dad after forcing him to help me buy out the loan and get Junie’s home out of foreclosure, but I’m close to losing control now.
I only gain my composure when Junie steps forward. The devastation she tries to hide puts me in a chokehold.
“You came into my home,” Junie says robotically. “And you rifled through my private matters as though you had a right to.”
“Oh, but you haven’t even heard the best part yet.” Natalie’s voice is colder than I’ve ever heard a human before. “Mommy Mercer wasn’t the only villain in our story. Cole and his savior complex couldn’t stop at abandoning me and our plan to live in NYC together.”
“We were never going to live in New York together, Natalie. I’d already broken up with you.” I step forward, but Hudson grabs hold of my elbow.
“Because you needed the money you’d saved to get her house out of foreclosure.
The same reason you sold all your grandfather’s antique cars.
” Natalie turns her hatred back on Junie.
“But even that wasn’t enough. Because when your mom got sick, Nolan made sure your name was on the trust for the house.
That means your parents needed your signature on the loan.
You were complicit, and you know your father has a bad habit of skirting the law to get what he wants. ”
Junie shakes her head. “I was a minor.”
“You think someone willing to throw their own daughter under the bus would care about that?” Natalie’s digging her own grave and burying me with her.
“So guess who took a play right out of Mommy Mercer’s handbook?
Cole sold his soul to save you. Again. Go ahead, ask him. He has all the proof. I ensured it.”
I open my mouth, and Hudson cuts me off. “Cole, I swear to God. Don’t say a fucking word.” Hudson’s now in attorney mode, but I need my friend.
“He left me for you over and over and over again, so I took matters into my own hands. Cole said he’d agree to my terms so long as I turned over all my evidence, but I’ve never been stupid.” Her nasty gaze cuts to mine. “It appears he’s going back on his word.” She shrugs. “Whatever will I do?”
“Terms,” Junie says. Plainly. Like two plus two equals four.
Natalie’s completely lost the plot and has zero situational awareness.
People are staring, and she doesn’t seem to care.
“The terms were simple. I wouldn’t do anything with this treasure trove of information, and in return, all he had to do was supply me with designs that would elevate my career.
I have a brother to protect, you know.” She licks her lips.
“But my favorite condition? The one that gives me such pleasure? He had to stay the fuck away from broken little Junie Mercer.”
Junie isn’t giving Natalie the satisfaction of eye contact. Her gaze cuts through mine with every word Natalie spews.
“Is it true?” Junie asks, her gaze pleading, her fire igniting, but not in a good way. No, this is the ignition that will blow up the entire house.
My mouth can’t form words.
Hudson’s cursing into his phone but staying within arm’s reach.
“Cole,” Junie warns. “Is. This. True?”
Every weight I’ve ever carried begins to crumble, cutting off my vocal cords. “Yes.”
One word. It falls from my lips like a wrecking ball.
“All of it?”
“Yes.” Shame makes it hard to keep eye contact, but for her, I do. I owe her that.
“You’ve been paying my worst bully, my worst tormentor, for years without telling anyone?”
Hatred has my gaze cutting to Natalie, who finally takes a goddamn step back.
What the fuck does she mean, Natalie was her worst bully?
“What?” Hudson raises his voice, and the hair on my neck stands on end. How did none of us know this?