Crushed

by Amity Hope

  She tried to explain to him that Reece had felt that way long before they were together. Reece had told her this. He’d told her that he’d tried, repeatedly, to tell his father this. His father refused to listen. Just as he refused to listen to Cleo now.

  He firmly believed that if she was cut from Reece’s life, Reece would get his life back on track. Meaning the track his father wanted him to follow. A track where he would walk right into a well-honed career and a very established business.

  She knew none of what he was saying was her fault. Reece had always felt that way. But he hadn’t told his dad. Not until Landon started gearing up, prepping Reece for Northwestern. Then Reece had started to protest. Not only telling him that he had no intention of going to Northwestern but that he had no interest in the business at all.

  Cleo knew it had nothing to do with her. Even if the timing of it all implied otherwise.

  Landon was wrong.

  “To simplify things for you Cleo, I am poised to hand over a multi-million dollar business to my son in a few years. He could be set for life. But because of your involvement with him, he will not be prepared to accept it. Right now, he has this crazy notion that he doesn’t even want it. I have worked too hard for this to let you ruin it.”

  She opened her mouth to protest but she didn’t get a single word out.

  “I’m sure you didn’t mean to, but you have. This is a crucial time in his life. I’m not going to let some ridiculous infatuation ruin everything I’ve worked so hard for. I want this relationship to be over.”

  She glanced at Paul. He slammed the rest of the liquid in his glass. Then he slammed the glass onto the coffee table. He leaned forward and his eyes and voice drilled a hole straight through to her heart. “Luci or Reece. Who will it be?”

  If she was kicked out of this house would she ever get to see Luci? He’d said no. But even if she got to visit her, it would never be enough. Luci was the only family she had. She owed it to her to take care of her. Luci counted on her. She would never, ever allow anything to separate them. Her breath caught in her throat and Paul smirked. He knew he was going to come out of this with a pocket full of easy cash.

  She thought of Luci in her room. She wondered if she was sitting with her ear pressed to the door trying to listen. Or maybe she had lost herself in a book. Cleo was hoping desperately it was the book.

  “What will it be, Cleo?” Paul asked. “Don’t keep Mr. Hildenbrandt waiting.”

  “Luci,” she said in a choked voice. “I choose Luci.”

  Mr. Hildenbrandt gave her a look that said he did not entirely understand what she was saying.

  “She’ll end it. No problem,” Paul boasted. It was clear that he’d never had any doubt. “I’ll see to it that she doesn’t take him back. Not that he’d even want her after this. I’ll be keeping my job. And I’ll get the rest of the payment in one year.”

  “This will never work,” Cleo pointed out, feeling frantic. “I was just with Reece. He’s never going to believe that my feelings for him have changed by tomorrow. There’s no way!”

  “Make him believe it,” Landon said. “I want any hope he has of a relationship with you to be crushed. He has to be convinced it’s over.”

  “She’ll pull it off,” Paul said confidently. “Because if I lose my job because of her, there’s nothing keeping me here. I’d have to look for work elsewhere. I’d have to pack up Luci, take her away.” He shrugged as he looked at Cleo. “And if I had to do that? You can count on not knowing where we’re going.”

  She stared at him but didn’t respond. She got it. She understood. He was threatening to take Luci away. And he had no intention of letting her follow. Or letting her know where Luci had gone.

  Details were worked out between Paul and Landon. She was beyond listening. The moment Landon was out the door, she grabbed the phone out of the kitchen and went to her room. She was barely holding it together. She was sure the only reason she was holding it together at all was because she was in shock. Emma’s phone went straight to voice mail. She called her home phone, thinking maybe she had her cell phone off to charge it. It was Ethan who answered, explaining Emma had gone to a movie with Melanie. He instantly knew something was wrong. The moment he pressed her on the issue, she broke into tears. Gut wrenching, hysterical tears.

  He insisted on coming to get her, saying Emma would be home soon and then she could talk to her.

  Cleo slipped out of the house. Paul didn’t care or notice. Ethan picked her up on the corner and even though he continuously asked her what was wrong, she couldn’t answer.

  When they got to the Donavon’s, he pulled her into his room. She explained everything to him. She’d known him as long as she’d known Emma. She’d slept over at their house more times than she could count. After their mom died, the Donovans had let Luci and Cleo stay with them for the first week. With an open offer to come back whenever they needed to. They’d been invited over for dinner so many times that they felt more like Cleo’s family than Paul ever could.

  So because of this, she considered Ethan a friend too. He knew all about her mixed up, messed up home life.

  By the time Emma came home, not much later, she had calmed down.

  “I don’t get this,” Emma fumed as she sat next to Cleo on the edge of Ethan’s bed. “Is this because his family is loaded and yours isn’t? Because that’s completely archaic!”

  Cleo shook her head. “I don’t think it’s about that. It’s about Reece’s future.”

  “What are you supposed to tell him?” Emma demanded. “Feelings like yours don’t just change overnight. He’s not going to just accept it if you don’t have a damn good reason.”

  “I know,” Cleo said as another tear leaked out. Emma handed her another Kleenex. “But I don’t want to be kicked out of my house.” She had a hard time even saying the words.

  Emma put an arm around her. She knew this had been a fear of hers for a long, long while. Just when Cleo had started to think it was no longer a concern, it was there, rearing its ugly head, waiting to take her out.

  “And I can’t not see Luci. Who’s going to take care of her? She’ll be left alone all the time!”

  “Maybe you could live with us,” Emma said. “You’re practically like family. My mom loves you. You could have Ethan’s room.”

  “Don’t get ahead of yourself,” Ethan told her.

  Cleo shook her head. “There’s still Luci. He’ll keep her from me. I know he will.”

  “I think you need to tell Reece,” Emma said. “He needs to know what’s going on. Maybe he can talk to his dad. Because this? This is just ridiculous! I mean, who does this?!”

  “At this point, that won’t even help. If Paul doesn’t get his money, he’s going to make sure my life is miserable. It won’t matter if Landon changes his mind,” Cleo said. She hadn’t realized it until that moment, when she said it out loud. But the moment she did, she knew it was true. “The deal has been made. Even if Landon did back down, Paul will be furious if he’s out his money. He’ll take Luci and go.”

  “Cleo,” Emma said softly, “maybe it won’t be so bad. Maybe you and Reece can take a break for a year. Then see where things go after graduation.”

  “After graduation?” That seemed like a lifetime away. A lot could happen. He could fall in love with someone else. Or worse, he could simply decide he hated her. She shook her head. “And then what? Landon will still be furious and Paul will lose his job. He’ll be sure I never see my sister again. It all keeps coming back to Luci.”

  “Do you want to hear what I think?” Ethan asked.

  He’d been sitting on the floor, his back against the door while Emma and Cleo sat on his bed.

  Cleo nodded.

  He ran a hand through his short, auburn hair. He appeared to be thinking things over one final time. “Okay,” he finally said, “I think you’re stuck right now. I think you’re going to have to do what those slimy bastards say. For now. But you turn eighteen next Septem
ber, Cleo. That won’t solve everything but it’ll knock down one huge obstacle. He can’t threaten you with throwing you into the system. If you want my room then, you can have it. I’ll be gone,” he tried to joke. “It’ll also buy you some time.”

  “That’s true,” Emma said. “Maybe we can come up with a way around it by then.”

  “How the hell am I supposed to pull it off?” she choked out. “We were just…we were together all night.”

  “Maybe you can start with that; that the two of you are always together. That you’ve just realized maybe you should take a break. You’re too young to be so serious. Tell him you think it would be good for both of you to have some time apart,” Emma said quietly. “It’s a logical explanation. You two are together all the time.”

  “He won’t believe it,” she argued.

  “Maybe he would if you told him you thought you should see other people,” Ethan pointed out. “That’s giving him a solid reason.”

  “Are you volunteering?” she asked sarcastically.

  He shrugged. “I would. If that would help. I mean, we wouldn’t have to really date, not that I’d be opposed,” he joked but she was not in the mood to even try to force a smile back. “But I’d be fine with letting him think we are.”

  She stayed at the Donavon’s a few more hours. Ethan agreed to let her “use” him as part of her excuse. Furthermore, he insisted he stay close by. In case he needed to bail her out. She had no doubt that she would need him. She had no idea how she was ever going to get the words out. She had no idea how she was ever going to tell Reece such a blatant lie.

  And then live with herself and the consequences of it.

  Chapter 22

  “That’s what happened,” she finally said. “That’s all of it.” Reece’s face had flashed through a myriad of emotions as he sat and listened, not questioning anything. He had been afraid to interrupt. Afraid she’d stop explaining if he did. Until now.

  “Ten thousand dollars?” he asked. Cleo knew he was going to be mad because he had every right to be. But he was furious, livid and every other adjective she could think of all rolled into one, hot, fuming mess. “That’s all he was willing to spend to mess up my life? He’s probably blown more than that during a week in Vegas!”

  He was trying to sound like he was joking but his voice was way too bitter and sarcastic to pull it off. And they both knew this really had nothing at all to do with the money.

  “I’m so sorry,” she said. She reached across the armrest but he pulled back, his expression unreadable.

  Misery rushed through her body. Reece had never, ever pulled away from her before. She withdrew her hand and moved back to her side of the vehicle until she was leaning back against the window.

  “You should be sorry! I can’t believe you didn’t tell me. How could you keep this from me? This doesn’t just involve me, it revolves around me completely!” He slammed his hand against the steering wheel but continued to talk. “My mom thinks he’s going through some midlife crisis. Aren’t middle-aged men just supposed to have affairs? Or buy a damn motorcycle? Get a tattoo or something? Not try to ruin their kid’s life!”

  “That’s not how he sees it. He did it because he thought he was doing what’s best for you.”

  “Are you defending him?” Reece asked in furious disbelief.

  “No,” she said quietly. “I just don’t want you to hate him.”

  “Why the hell not?”

  “Because he did it because he loves you so much. I think that’s better than not having your dad a part of your life at all.” She doubted what she was saying would make sense to him. Not the way it did to her.

  She and Reece had never talked about her dad much. Simply because there really had never been anything to say. She had no way of knowing who he was. No way of trying to track him down because she had no starting point. No name or location. She had no idea if he was just out there somewhere, ignoring the fact that he had a daughter. Of if he had no idea she existed. Or maybe, like her mom, maybe he was gone too. She just didn’t know.

  The few times she’d been brave enough to ask her, the conversation didn’t get very far. Karla had just told Cleo they would talk about it when she was older. Only now, that wasn’t going to happen.

  “I’m not so sure about that, Cleo. Right now, the second option sounds pretty good to me.”

  He turned away from her then. They were both quiet. She wanted to say something but she didn’t know what. The silence in the vehicle was so thick it was suffocating. At the same time, she knew that a million different things were going through their heads.

  She had no idea how this situation was going to end up. She didn’t know if he was ever going to forgive her or if this was all going to be too much.

  “I don’t think your dad had any idea what Paul would threaten me with,” she finally admitted. She remembered the confused look on Landon’s face when Paul threatened her with Luci. “I think he figured Paul would just talk to me about it. Put his foot down and refuse to let me see you or something. He obviously couldn’t have know how Paul would react if he caught us together.”

  “Maybe he didn’t know but he did hear what Paul threatened you with, right?”

  She nodded. He had.

  “And he didn’t back down did he? I don’t think he would’ve cared if he’d known ahead of time. It didn’t stop him after the fact. If it meant he thought he’d get what he wanted,” Reece insisted.

  She didn’t know why she wanted to give Landon the benefit of the doubt. For Reece’s sake she guessed. And while she was pretty sure she hated him, she didn’t want Reece to hate him, too. Having a parent you hated seemed like such a waste. But she wasn’t sure how she could explain that to him in a way that made sense.

  “Why didn’t you just tell me?” he demanded after a while. He was angry but more than anything, she could hear the hurt in his voice.

  “What would you have done? I mean, really Reece. Think about it. What would you have done if I’d gone to you?”

  “I would’ve told him he has no right to interfere with my life like that,” he admitted after a few moments.

  “Right,” she said with a small nod. “And that’s exactly why I didn’t tell you. Do you think for one second that Paul wouldn’t have sent me away? He would have. Just out of spite. There wouldn’t have been anything either of us could’ve done about that. Even if your dad had changed his mind, Paul would’ve been furious he didn’t get the second half of his payment. Who knows where I would’ve ended up? We probably would’ve been over then anyway! At least this way, I could be there for Luci.”

  He stared at her for a minute and she wished she knew what was going on in his head.

  “So you were never with Ethan?” he asked in a strained voice. It seemed as if that realization had just struck him.

  She shook her head. “He was just helping me.”

  He closed his eyes and let out an angry breath. “Do you have any idea what that did to me?” he asked with a harsh laugh. “I had myself convinced you were seeing him while we were together. My dad wanted me to be crushed? Well, that pretty much sums it up.”

  “I’m sorry, Reece. I am so, so sorry.” It was true and she just didn’t know what else to say. She wanted to put her arms around him. Or take his hand. Just something. But she was frozen in place.

  “So why are you telling me now?”

  “Because,” she said, she hated how her voice was quaking, “at least now I’m not a minor. But mostly because it’s just too hard to stay away from you. Knowing you were with Mia all summer long…and then seeing you with her…it was just…too much.” Her breath caught at the last part. She hadn’t realized she was crying until Reece leaned over to wipe her tears off of her cheeks.

  “I just wish you would’ve told me, that’s all,” he said. His voice was quieter and had lost most of its edge.

  “I’m telling you now. And this is far from over. After the other night, I’m pretty sure Paul isn’t
going to let me see Luci,” she said. Her voice was choked with tears that she was holding back.

  Reece’s expression softened.

  “I don’t know what else to say,” she continued as she tried to reign in her emotions. She hated crying. And more than that, she hated crying in front of other people. It made her feel weak and pathetic. “I am sorry. It all happened so fast. I didn’t have time to think. I think maybe…that’s why they waited until the last minute. That way I couldn’t find a way out of it.”

  “I wish you would’ve come to me. Not Ethan.” There it was again, the hurt in his voice that dominated over any anger.

  “I didn’t go to Ethan. I went to Emma and Ethan just happened to be there. I didn’t mean to pull him into this. I mean, it wasn’t a conscious choice or anything. It just happened,” she explained, silently begging him to understand.

  “Why didn’t you tell me later then? After you’d had a few days, or a week, or whatever?”

  “Because I still didn’t see a way out of it and by then you were with Mia. You were so mad at me, and I understood why, but because you were so mad, I wasn’t sure how you’d react.”

  “I only stayed with Mia because I was so miserable without you!” he said. His voice had become angry again.

  “I’m not blaming you for it. Really, I’m not.” It hurt. A lot. But she didn’t blame him at all. Everything had spun out of control so quickly.

  “I was honest with her from the start,” Reece said. She did not want to hear about Mia. Just her name made Cleo feel sick but Reece had listened to her. So she owed it to listen to him. “I told her I was nowhere near over you. I told her I didn’t know if I would be any time soon. She said she didn’t care.”

  Cleo wasn’t surprised by this. Mia had gotten what she’d wanted for a very long time. She didn’t let the details of it bother her.

  “I think she was sure that she’d have me wrapped around her finger in no time. When that didn’t happen, I think she started to mind. The whole thing was just a mistake from the start. Something I wish I could take back. But I can’t. And now it can just be added to the pile of mistakes.”