“We were going to tell you. I’d already spoken to Dad about it, and we’d agreed to speak to you.”
I wasn’t interested in Caiden’s excuses. “When? When? You’ve had fucking months, years to tell me, and you just let me think that her death had been an accident!”
He gaped at me, seemingly lost for words.
My eyes filled with hot, bitter tears, and I blinked hard, refusing to let them fall. “Why? I had every fucking right to know!”
“We—” Caiden swallowed hard. “We were trying to protect you.”
“Protect me? By lying? I’m not some fragile fucking child,” I roared. “You don’t get to make those decisions. She was my mum, too! Don’t you think I had the right to know the truth?”
I took in the anguish on my brother’s face through a haze of anger. My voice dropped to a raw whisper. “I can’t even fucking look at you right now.”
Cassius stepped closer, placing his hand on my arm. As I took in the guilt written all over his face, my stomach flipped. “You knew, too?”
He nodded, biting his lip.
“Who else?” My shout seemed to echo through the silent kitchen. “Who fucking else?”
“Zayde,” Caiden whispered.
“So everyone…” This time, I didn’t even bother to disguise the raw pain in my voice. “So everyone closest to me, everyone that I thought I could trust, has been keeping secrets and lying to me.” Pushing away from the counter, I stumbled towards the door. “I need to get out of here.”
“You’ve been drinking.” Lena suddenly appeared in the doorway. “You can’t go anywhere.”
“Did you know?” I almost didn’t want to ask the question. Breathing hard through the stinging waves of betrayal that were assaulting me, I stared into her blue eyes, trying to decipher her unreadable gaze. Her eyes flicked from mine to the kitchen, then back again.
“I didn’t know until…” She waved a hand towards my former friends, who remained silent behind me.
I released a heavy breath. “Have you been drinking?”
“No.”
“Can you get us out of here?”
She bit her lip, glancing to the others again, before she met my gaze. “I’ll have to drive your car.”
“I don’t care.” The fucking tears were pricking at my eyes again. “I just need to get out of here. Please.”
“Okay.”
TEN
Gripping the steering wheel tightly, I navigated towards my house, unsure where else to go. This was a shitshow. Last night, I’d run away because he was drunk, and honestly, I’d been scared. Scared of my reaction to Weston. Scared of what might happen. Now, though, he was here next to me; he’d been drinking again, and I couldn’t run this time.
His silent presence was almost overwhelming. I’d made a huge mistake, and I wasn’t sure if he was going to forgive me when I told him the truth. I couldn’t tell him now, though—not while he was so worked up.
He needed someone in his corner, and that person was going to be me.
After carefully parking his car in the garage, I got out and headed around to Weston’s side. He remained slumped in his seat, eyes closed.
I sighed and tapped on the window. His eyes flew open, and a smile curved over his lips. Ignoring the butterflies, which I was a master at, I opened his door. The smile fell from his face, replaced by sadness and pain as he remembered what had happened.
“Why are we here?” He climbed out of the car, stretching, and I definitely didn’t notice the way his muscles flexed. No, I was immune to Weston’s charms.
“I didn’t know where else to go. You need to get some rest.”
He nodded. “Okay,” he said softly. I’d never seen him so subdued, and another rush of guilt suffocated me.
This was my fault.
I led him through the house to the bedrooms. My parents were on a different level to me, thankfully, because I really didn’t want to have to explain why Weston was here so late in the evening, drunk, without Cassius.
Stopping outside the door to the guest room that he normally used when he stayed over, I turned to him. “Get some rest. You’ll feel better if you sleep it off.”
“Will you stay?” He stared at me from beneath his thick lashes, his eyes imploring me. “Just for a bit. I don’t…I don’t wanna be alone.”
“Okay. Just for a bit, then. My parents will kill me, and probably you, if they find us together.”
He gave me a half-smile at that as he stepped into the room and kicked off his trainers. “Nah, your parents love me.”
Pulling off my own boots, I glanced around the room, deciding I’d hang out on the sofa. It converted into a bed, but since I wasn’t planning on staying long, there was no point converting it. “Blinds down?” I waved my hand towards the floor-to-ceiling windows that showcased the view over the ocean. Our house was built into the cliffs, and most rooms looked out over the horizon.
“Not yet. Come here?”
I looked up to find him lying on his back on the huge bed, watching me through heavy-lidded eyes. How was I supposed to resist him? My defences couldn’t handle the full force of his attention.
Instead of replying, I moved towards the bed. It was probably a bad idea, but I’d just stay as far from him as possible. The bed was massive; it would be easy enough to keep my distance.
He seemed to have other ideas. As I reached the bed, he sat up and tugged me so I fell into him, then wrapped his arm around my shoulders.
Stiffening, I went to pull away, but I was stopped by his voice, cracked and broken.
“I need you.”
My flimsy defences melted away, and I let my body curl into his, tentatively laying my arm across his chest. So many feelings were overwhelming me—need, want, guilt, and underneath it all, the dread that I couldn’t seem to shake, no matter how much I told myself that I could trust Weston. That fear stopped me from getting close.
“Thank you,” he murmured, and I felt a whisper of a kiss on the top of my head as my eyes closed.
The next thing I knew, my eyes were flying open at the sound of my mum’s voice, hissing somewhere close to my ear.
“Lena Damaris Drummond!”
I became aware that I was lying in pretty much the same position I’d fallen asleep in—head buried in Weston’s shoulder, one arm slung across his body, and his arm wrapped around me. We were on top of the covers, fully clothed, but I knew I had some explaining to do.
Weston was somehow still asleep. Lifting my head, I carefully dislodged his arm and slipped away from his body, before turning to face my mum with a finger to my lips.
She frowned at me but remained silent as she followed me out into the hallway, where I closed the door behind us. I walked far enough down the hallway that Weston wouldn’t hear us if he woke up, then stopped.
“Go on, then.” She raised her brows expectantly.
“What?”
“Explain to me what I walked into this morning.” Folding her arms, she leaned against the wall. There was humour in her gaze, and I relaxed slightly. If my dad had been the one to find us…yeah, I would’ve been a lot less relaxed.