Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
CALLUM/CASH
Then
Where Love Gets Sold To The Highest Bidder
Not every kiss is free…some leave you owing more than your soul can cover.
He tried to rape her?
I lose my breath. It’s the worst blow I’ve ever experienced. Some asshole tried to rape my Lily. My mind splinters to make sense of it. The pictures show Livianna having a good time and kissing another man.
She wouldn’t cheat on me. I know it. Deep in my heart, I know it.
I stumble back and stare at her trembling and holding herself as if she wants to disappear. “Lily… Is that true?”
She doesn’t answer. Her tiny body bounces with each breath she takes as she hides her tears from me.
Bren glares coldly into my eyes. “If you have to ask, you’re a bigger dick than I thought. She’s your fucking girlfriend and you’re treating her like she needs to explain herself to you.”
“Bren, it’s okay. This isn’t your fight to defend.” Her arms wrap around her waist and she keeps her gaze on the floor. “I shouldn’t have let him in. It was my fault.”
“Like hell it was.” Bren rushes to her and holds her in a tight embrace. “We should’ve made you come with us. There was no reason you couldn’t have. No reason at all.”
My pulse quickens with thoughts that my uncle demanded she stay back. He organized her escort for the night. Did he put that guy up to hurt her in order to destroy Livianna and me?
When I asked my uncle if he had my phone and sent the fake messages to Bren, he swore he wasn’t involved. I don’t know who to trust anymore, but one thing is for sure.
I believe Livianna is telling the truth. And the worst part is, I was nowhere in sight to help her. I put my needs above hers.
My shoulders roll forward and I inch toward Bren and Livianna. I tap Bren’s arm and shake my head, trying to send him messages of remorse through my gaze.
“Guns, let me.” I shift him away from her and pull her into my chest as she silently weeps. “I’m sorry, Lily.”
Bren gives me an approving dip of his chin and leaves us alone, taking his breakfast with him. After a moment, she slides her arms around my waist.
“Lily, what did he do to you?”
“Please don’t make me talk about it. It’s over and I’m fine.”
There’s a hole in my chest, but my head fills with evil things I wanna do to this prick. I’ll find out who he is and deal with him. As much as I want all the answers so I can kill him, right now she needs me.
I run my hand down the back of her head and kiss her forehead. “We’ll figure everything out later, but you know I love you, right?”
She steps out of my arms. “Callum, things aren’t okay between us. You’ve been lying to me and I meant it when the statement went out today. I don’t think we should be together.”
My chest collapses. “Why? You know I didn’t do anything.”
“I saw the entire text thread between you and Faith.” Livianna’s eyes swell with tears. “There was a year’s worth of messages between you.”
“What texts?”
“The ones that are all over the internet.”
“There were more stories other than…?” I try to make the connection. “It doesn’t matter. I didn’t get into any of that other shit after I saw you and that dickface.”
Her phone dings. She steps over to the counter and picks it up. More alerts spill in. She reads over whatever is coming in. Her shoulders shake and her chin quivers.
A growl grows in my chest and rips from my throat. “Fuck this. I’m done with everyone and everything coming between us. Put your phone down and let’s get out of here.”
“I can’t.” She glances at me. “I have to respond to these—”
“Fucking hell, Lily. You don’t owe anyone anything.” I take the phone, slam it down, take her hand, and march her out the door.
“Where are we going?”
“We need to get out of the city and away from the noise. Away from everyone to work this out between us. I don’t know where but get in my car and we’ll drive somewhere we can be alone and talk.”
“My parents are going down the coast, so don’t go that way. I don’t want to run into them.”
There are a million places they could be, but with our luck, we would run into them, so I pull out of their estate and drive in the opposite direction.
She’s quiet for the first fifteen minutes of the ride and stares out the side window as I try to piece together the last few days. One part of my life is finally getting on track while the other seems to be falling into the hands of people who don’t want us together.
She plays with the zipper on her purple hoodie. “Did you get a new cell phone?”
“No. I was on my way to the store with my uncle and stopped to get a drink at the convenience store.” My stomach knots. “That’s when I saw that damn tabloid.”
“You believe me, don’t you? About what happened?”
“Yes. The question is, do you believe me?” I slide my palm on her thigh and rub it.
She gazes down at my hand and a small smile appears on her lips. “About New Year’s Eve, yes. I’m confused about the text messages, though.”
“Help me out. I haven’t seen or heard anything about them. Can you give me a quick run-through?”
She gets situated in her seat so she’s facing me and explains everything to me. With every text she reviews, I sit quietly and listen.
Her emotions fluctuate from sad to frustrated to angry. Until I know what I’m dealing with, I’m not going to react to any of it.
I know Livianna and she’ll just get more pissed if I try to explain each one to her. When she’s finally done, she peers over at me.
“First off, Lily, I didn’t send any message to Faith about being in the front row. I haven’t texted her since before you and I got together. She means absolutely nothing to me. And the more I run into her, the more it turns into disgust for her.”
“You promise you didn’t send those messages?”
“On my pops’ grave.”
“What about the others?”
I formulate how to phrase the situation as I speed down the highway. “I get why you’re hurt, and I’ll explain, but I’ve never lied to you about anything.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“The other stuff is true.”
Her mouth drops open. “You told me it happened once.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Yes, you did. You said you were both virgins and you only had sex once.”
I brace myself for her to erupt, but it’s time I own up to my omission of all the particulars. Even though it’s not lying, I realize it’s wrong of me and this is gonna hurt her. I feel terrible, but she deserves full disclosure now.
“Livianna, if you don’t ask, I’m not gonna get into the details of my past.” I glance over. “I’m sorry.”
She glares at me. “Then consider this me asking.”
A flutter of anxiety bubbles up in me, but I know I need to be truthful. “When I said it happened once, I was specifically talking about having sex with her one time without a condom. You and I never spoke about anything else.”
“But…” She grumbles and sits forward with her arms across her chest. She seems to consider something for a minute. “You knew I’d want to know.”
“Not true. I told you to drop it because I didn’t wanna talk about it. When you didn’t push, I thought you felt the same way. It’s in the past and doesn’t matter.”
“But she made it sound like you really cared about her.”
“I cared about having sex. That’s it. I know I sound like a dick, but that’s the truth.”
“What about her thinking she was pregnant?”
“Yeah, that was a lie on her part. Thank fuck.” I change lanes and keep my eyes on the road. “When I got down to Long Beach and to her house, she took me inside and said it was a false alarm.”
“Is that when you two decided to talk about starting a relationship?”
I peek over at Livianna with my face contorted in shock at her naivety. “Lily, I was using her. Period. I would say anything I thought she wanted to hear to get… Fuck, you know what I’m trying to say.”
She glowers at me. “You sound like a total asshole right now. You know that, right?”
“I’ve never claimed not to be one.”
“You can be so infuriating.” She pushes my arm. The car veers a little into the other lane.
“Right back at ya, love.” I make a quick correction and give her a scolding look. “I’ll never forgive you if you make me wreck my car.”
“Then quit being so heartless and crude.”
“I’m sorry this hurts, but what do you want me to do? Lie to you?”
“No, but… I don’t like her, but you treated her like shit. I’m surprised she’s still into you.”
Livianna’s comment strikes a chord in me.
Whoa, how did I not see it?
My chest fills with a knowing I’m right. “Maybe she isn’t.”
“What makes you say that?”
“My uncle swears he didn’t take my phone and weird text messages got sent to Guns and the tabloids.” I pass a car and stay in the fast lane. “Who else would want to hurt us?”
Livianna seems to think about it for a few moments. She faces me.
“Callum, you’re right. It was her!” Livianna’s face turns bright red and twists in confusion. “But how did she know your passcode?”
“My phone was one of the older models that didn’t require one, so I never set it. It didn’t seem necessary because I have nothing to hide.”
“Well, that explains everything.” Her entire body relaxes into the seat. “Zara’s such a bitch. She deserved how you treated her.”
“Nah, I was an immature dick, but she is a bitch.” I take Livianna’s hand. “I would never do anything to you like I did with her.”
“You better not.”
After a few minutes, our heavy moods shift. We listen to music, sing together, and get back to being ourselves while truly enjoying each other.
We end up in Big Bear. I pull into a diner’s parking lot, feeling like the weight of the world has been lifted off my shoulders.
There’s still the topic of what she went through on New Year’s Eve, but I’ll tackle that when the time’s right. I would rather see her smiling and leaning into me than her upset and pushing me away.
Once we get seated in a booth, people start to notice us. Fans stop by and ask for autographs and pictures. We graciously accept for a good hour until I make us order and our food gets delivered.