“A. We’re going wherever you’re going,” Skeet replies. “And B. You told your parents about us?”
I beam at them, proud of myself for taking the bull by the horns. “I did. I told them I’m dating all three of you and that I’m happy.”
“I’m betting your dad loved that,” Heath says from the driver’s seat.
“He was too shocked to say much, but it’s my life, and I’ll live it the way I want to. Mom wasn’t that surprised by the news. She said she guessed I’d been dating all of you by the nature of our conversation that last time we were all together in Kentsville.”
She did overhear Heath calling me their girl, and she heard me breaking up with them, but she’d never mentioned it to me, and I’d forgotten all about it. I’m sure she’ll have plenty of questions for me when I next visit. While my parents gave me their blessing to come to college and live on my own, it took a long time for them to stop fretting over me like I was a toddler again. I put them through hell, and they worry, so I understand if they have misgivings over our unconventional relationship.
Most people do.
Although some reactions are unexpected.
Heath spoke to his coach this week, and he surprised him, admitting he was glad he had a girlfriend and was no longer whoring himself around campus. It seems he’s been gaining a bit of a rep, and that’s not something the NFL likes to see in potential recruits. Although sharing a girlfriend with his two best friends isn’t ideal either, it’s preferable to his current rep, so it’s working out better than we thought. He hasn’t told his parents yet, but repairing his relationship with them in the first place is more important. He attended his first therapy session, and I think it went better than he was expecting, so he’s scheduled a few more. I’m really hoping it helps him as much as it’s helped me.
“I’m proud of you.” Ax pulls me to him for a kiss.
“It feels good to finally be in control of my life,” I admit.
Skeet leans through the front console, smiling at me. “My parents say hi by the way, and Shaz is beyond excited to catch up with you when she visits.”
“I’ve been meaning to ask you for her number, but I want to apologize to her face to face. I abandoned her too.”
“I’ve explained a little. I didn’t tell her everything because I didn’t know how much you wanted her to know, but she doesn’t blame you, and she’s ecstatic you’re back with us. She was planning on visiting during Thanksgiving, but I can tell her to reschedule.”
“No, don’t.” I shake my head. “She can come too. It’s not like my grandparents’ place isn’t big enough. They have plenty of spare bedrooms.”
“I’m going to message her right now. She’ll be delighted.”
“Tell her I can’t wait to see her.”
“Already on it.”
I spend the rest of the journey attempting to listen to music, but it doesn’t mute my brain. My knee jerks up and down until Ax plants his hand on my thigh stalling the motion. He finds different ways to touch me as we eat up the miles, but even his touch doesn’t distract me.
My nerves get the better of me when we pass by the sign for Amber Springs. My heart is racing faster than a Formula One car during a Grand Prix, and sweat lines the back of my hands. I gulp back the bile traveling up my throat, and I’m sure I look as pale as a ghost. I genuinely think I could puke.
“It’s going to be okay,” Ax whispers, hugging me close.
“We’re not going to let anything happen to you while you’re here,” Heath reassures me.
“Don’t be mad,” Skeet says, turning around to look at me. “But she knows we’re coming.”
“She what?” I shout. “How?”
“I called her,” he admits.
“Why would you do that?” I shriek. “Now she’s had time to prepare her answers.”
“She wants to tell you the truth,” he quietly confirms. “And I got the sense she’s hugely remorseful over those emails.”
“You should’ve told me.” I fold my arms over my chest, a muscle tensing in my jaw. “We’re a team, and we agreed no more secrets.”
Skeet and Ax share a look. “You’ve been on edge all week. We worried this would make it worse,” Skeet says. “I’m sorry if I overstepped, but this girl has threatened you, and none of us were comfortable coming here blind. We needed to know what we were likely walking in to.”
I fiddle with a loose thread on the end of my shirt. “I know it was coming from a good place, but you can’t hold stuff back from me again. I’m not the same fragile girl you remember. I’m stronger now.”
“You were never fragile, Blaire,” Ax murmurs. “You’ve always been one of the strongest people I know.”
“You’re our girl,” Heath says, eyeing me through the mirror. “And we won’t apologize for doing whatever we feel is necessary to protect you.”
I blow air out of my mouth. “I don’t want to fight with you about this, but this conversation is not over. It’s just parked.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Skeet salutes me, and I stick my tongue out at him. He laughs before blowing me a kiss. “Love you.”
“Love you too. Even if you are a giant pain in my ass sometimes.”
“We’re here,” Heath proclaims a second later, and I look up, startled to see the elaborate gates to the Jamison family home.
“She wanted us to meet her here?” I can’t keep the hysteria from my tone. The Jamisons are really close with the DeLaurentises, and I can’t imagine Lucinda’s parents will be happy to see me. “I don’t know about this.” I rub the back of my neck, nausea swimming up my throat. I think I’m about to make good on the whole puking thing.
“I disagreed at first too,” Skeet supplies, “but she said this was the most private location, and she didn’t want an audience for what she had to share.”
“Relax, babe.” Ax massages my shoulders. “If it gets uncomfortable, we’ll leave.”
The electric gates open, granting us access, and Heath maneuvers the rental up a long driveway edged with towering trees. He brings the car to a standstill behind a massive water feature just off to the side of the front entrance. The house is old school, and it’s been in Lucinda’s family for generations. Ethan attended a couple parties here back in the day, but I avoided parties like the plague after what happened that summer.
Ivy crawls the walls of the large two-story house giving it a creepy, haunted-house feel. Gravel crunches underfoot as we make our way to the front door. Skeet has his hand raised to knock when it swings open.
I swallow the lump in my throat, wiping my clammy hands down the front of my jeans, wishing I’d made more of an effort with my appearance. Screw that, my inner voice chants, I’m not here to impress Lucinda or her mother. Mrs. Jamison stares at me for a long moment, and the guys tense at my back, ready to go into battle if needed.
“Blaire. Look at you. All grown up and beautiful.” She smiles at me before stepping aside. “Excuse my manners. Please come in.”
I glance over my shoulder at the guys, perplexed. This is not the reception I was expecting. Skeet slips his hand in mine, walking into the house alongside me. “Mrs. Jamison.” I nod politely as we stand awkwardly in a dimly lit hallway with a sweeping staircase behind us.
“Lucinda is expecting you. Follow me.” She eyes the guys a little circumspectly but says nothing. Her heels tap off the stone floor as she leads us over to the west side of the house. She stops before a set of frosted-glass double doors, turning to face me. “Lucinda is just inside.” She clasps her hands in front of her. “I know why you’re here, and I know what my daughter has to tell you. I owe you an apology. I didn’t know, or I never would’ve supported the DeLaurentis family after the tragedy.” She pats my arm. “I can’t begin to imagine how difficult things must’ve been for you and your family, and you have my deepest sympathy.”
; I almost keel over in shock, and I’m guessing it shows on my face.
“I don’t condone what your brother did,” she continues, “but I have more of an understanding now. I’m also appalled at how Lucinda treated you, and you should know she’s suffered for it, in more ways than one. I have no right to ask anything of you, but I’m asking if you could go easy on her. She wants to do the right thing, and I’m proud of her for that, but she’s ill, Blaire. She’s lost the will to live, and I’m terrified I’m going to lose her. If you can find it in your heart to forgive her, I know that would mean so much to her.”
I’m not sure how to respond, so I take a few minutes to gather my thoughts. “Thank you for your kind words, and, I’ve got to admit, I’m completely taken aback. This isn’t what I was expecting. The last time I was in Amber Springs, we were virtually run out of town. Coming back here has been difficult, but I’m determined to try and uncover exactly why Ethan did what he did, and your daughter knows something. I’m sorry to hear she’s unwell, and I promise I’ll try my best not to upset her, but I can’t guarantee anything beyond that.”
“I understand, but if she’s upset, I will have to ask you to leave.”
“Fair enough.”
She steps around us. “Go in whenever you’re ready.” Her heels make the same clackety-clack noise as she walks away.
“Well, that was weird as fuck,” Heath says.
“I have no idea what’s going on,” I admit, my hand moving to the door handle. “But it’s time I found out.”
Chapter Forty-Five
I open the double doors and walk into a long sunroom, lavishly furnished with wicker furniture, plush couches, a multitude of soft overhead lights, and plants dotted around the room. Small vases filled with colorful flowers rest on top of the three tables in the room, and the scent of jasmine and honeysuckle wafts through the air.
Lucinda is seated at the far end of the room, looking out the window at the magnificent grounds surrounding the property. A lilac blanket is draped over her shoulders, hanging off her thin frame and trailing the tile floor. My ballet flats barely make a sound as I head in her direction, followed by noisier male footsteps. I’m about halfway to her when she wheels around in her chair. I work hard to smother my gasp of surprise and mask the shock splaying across my face.
Her beautiful face is gaunt, and bruising dark shadows paint the skin under her eyes. Her once lustrous, long dark hair is cropped close to her head in a pixie cut. But it’s the sight of her in a wheelchair that startles me the most.
I stop in front of her, and we stare at one another. I’ve thought of a million ways this meeting could go down, and now I’m standing here, looking down at her, the only words that come out of my mouth are “What happened?”
Her eyes dart over my shoulder to the guys who have come to a stop just behind me. “Which one of you is Skeet?” she asks in a quiet voice.
“Me.” Skeet steps up beside me, placing his hand on my lower back.
She casts an appreciative glance over him before checking the other two guys out. I arch a brow at her. Like, seriously?
“Sorry. I don’t get much in the way of eye candy these days.” She shoots me an apologetic smile before eyeballing Skeet. “Thank you for bringing Blaire here. Like I said on the phone, I’ve wanted to talk to her for some time.” She wets her lips. “But what I have to say is difficult enough without having a larger audience. I’m not asking you to leave the room. I can tell none of you would agree to that.” She points toward the other end of the long room. “Would you mind sitting there so Blaire and I can talk in private.”
Skeet looks to me to make the call. I nod. “It’s fine.” He leans in and kisses me softly, and then all three of them walk away.
“Take a seat, Blaire,” she says. I sit down on a two-seater couch across from her. “Would you like a water?” She gestures toward the large stash of bottled waters on the table.
“No thank you. I’d just like to get straight to the point.” She pours herself a glass of sparkling water while I talk. “Who was Ethan to you?”
She screws the cap back on the bottle while I wait for her reply. When she tips her face up to mine, her eyes are shining with unshed tears. “He was my everything,” she whispers, and a single tear drips down her face.
The more I reflected on it this week, the surer I was that something must’ve happened between them, but her statement is still shocking. “He was my everything too.”
She nods. “I know. He talked about you all the time. He worried about you all the time. I think that’s when my jealousy toward you started.” Her amber-hued eyes glisten with honesty.
“What exactly was the nature of your relationship with my brother?”
“Ethan was the love of my life, Blaire.” Her eyes well up again. “And if things had been different, we would’ve been a couple. Instead, we were forced to conduct our relationship in secret.”
I lean forward a little. “Let me get this straight. Are you saying you and Ethan were together behind your boyfriend’s back?”
She nods. “Technically, yes, but it’s more complicated than that.”
“Then uncomplicate it,” I snap. I’m blown away by her revelation. That’s if she’s telling the truth. Ethan never said a word to me about any relationship with her, and I’m pretty certain Cam wasn’t aware either. If he was, he would’ve said last week. Her next statement completely throws me.
“I despised Todd DeLaurentis, and I’m not sorry he’s dead.” Her eyes blaze with a variety of emotions. “My parents forced me into dating him when I was fourteen. I’d never liked the creep, but our parents were best friends, and they loved the idea of us as a couple. I thought I’d date him for a few weeks and then tell my parents it wasn’t working, and they’d get it out of their system.”
The similarity to Heath and Cassie’s situation strikes me as ironic. Is that how all rich parents operate? Forcing their offspring on one another to forge links between their families?
“I know you dated him for years, so what happened?”
She clenches the glass between her fingers so hard I’m surprised it doesn’t break apart. She gulps and a look of pure anguish appears on her face. “They did it to me too, Blaire,” she whispers.
A cold sweat crawls over my skin. I know what she means, but I still ask the question. “Did what?”
“Gang raped me. The same four.” She drinks from her water while I digest that news. She rubs the back of her neck, her bony chest heaving up and down. “From what Ethan told me, it was about five months before they attacked you.”
“Ethan told you about me?”
She nods. “Not at first, but after a while, when we’d grown closer and I explained why I could never leave Todd for him, he shared your story with me. I never told anyone, Blaire. I keep your secret the same way I kept mine, until recently.”
I don’t know whether to feel hurt, betrayed, sickened, or some other emotion because I’m still reeling at the news Ethan was having a relationship with Todd’s girlfriend behind his back.
“If you were Todd’s girlfriend, why did he do that to you?”
A bitter look contorts her face. “He told his friends he needed to ‘break me in.’” She makes little air quotes with her fingers.
“Oh my God. I’m so sorry.” I came here hating Lucinda for what she did to me, but I can’t hold on to that hatred in light of what’s she’s just told me. Maybe I’m too soft, because she said some horrible things to me in those emails, but I’m sensing her ordeal at the hands of those boys was worse than mine.
“He called my mom after they finished ruining me. Arranged for me to sleep over with his sister. We were friends, and we often had sleepovers, so Mom never questioned it. I don’t know what he did to Emilia to get her to swap rooms with him, but he slept in the bed beside me. I was still drugged and not fully conscious of the f
act he stripped me, posed me in provocative poses, and took pictures. The next morning, when I woke, he was sitting by the side of the bed with this malevolent grin on his face.”
She shivers all over. “He told me I would be his girlfriend and then his wife and I was his to do with as he pleased. He said, if I didn’t cooperate, he’d send the pictures to the media and the board of directors of my dad’s company and destroy us.” She looks absently out the window. “I know now I should’ve told my parents, but I was hurt and scared. He was only a little bit older than me, but he was as manipulative as a boy years older. I always thought Todd had an evil streak, but my imagination didn’t do him justice. I became a plaything for him and his friends.”
I place my hand over my mouth, horrified at the thought of facing what I’d faced over and over again. Silent tears roll down my face.
“Ethan found me once after a party. I was sobbing. Finlay and Todd had just finished with me, and it was the worst attack yet. I wanted to die. I truly wanted to end it all. That’s when Ethan found me. I wouldn’t tell him what was wrong, but we became friends after that night, and it gradually developed into love.”
At least now I understand why Lucinda never joined in the bullying. She didn’t do anything to stop it, but I could tell she was always uncomfortable. I thought Ethan had spared her the day of the shooting because of it. But he spared her because he was in love with her.
“He begged me to leave Todd,” Lucinda continues, “and I eventually told him why I couldn’t. It was about three weeks before the shooting. It was only then that he told me about you. He wanted us to team up. He said if both of us came forward with the same story then we’d be believed. We had a massive argument over it. I told him I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t ruin my dad’s company, and at this stage, after three years of abuse at their hands, I thought no one would believe me.” She pauses to drink more water. “I should’ve listened to him.”
Surviving Amber Springs: A Stand-Alone Contemporary Romance Page 34
