"Now that you've figured it out, I don't have to hold back anymore," he hisses. "Sienna was drunk after we hung out with my team in my hotel room in Prague. She was the last person who stayed, but she was too wasted to leave. She puked all over her shirt, and after taking it off, she was too drunk to put my t-shirt on. Dammit, Cassie, I didn't even fucking dare put my clothes on her."
My heart is beating fast against my ribs, wondering why he's telling me all of thisnow. Haven't I given him enough chances to fix everything?
"I covered her body with a blanket and stayed away from her," Jude says. "I didn't expect that you would surprise me that night to spend time with me during my tour. Had you yanked off the cover, you would have found that Sienna wasn't even fully naked."
"But you didn't tell me all of this back then," I say, my voice shaking, my mind going crazy because what he said doesn't make sense. "If you indeed hadn't cheated on me, you would have denied it. You didn't even say that it was a misunderstanding."
"Because you broke up with me," he speaks through gritted teeth. "I didn't have any choice."
"Bullshit," I hiss. "You had so many chances to make everything right. You didn't have to hide the truth and make me feel like a dumb woman."
You didn't have to shatter my heart into pieces.
Jude takes a deep breath, and his voice is shaking with furywhen he says, "Luke threatened me."
I feel like my heart stops beating. Never have I thought that I would hear something like this coming from Jude's mouth.
"What?" I stutter.
Jude's eyes are piercing when he tells me the unbelievable truth. "Luke told me to stay the hell away from you. He used my weakness to get to you."
My mouth drops open. I feel like something is wrong with my hearing. My head is spinning. "What are you talking about?"
"Cassie," Jude rasps, letting out a small cry, startling me. "I fucked up. And that cunning man used it to his advantage." He takes a deep breath, his eyes glinting with emotion I can't figure out. Something like guilt. "I took drugs."
My eyes widen in shock.
"You might not have any idea about it, but I did take drugs. Goddammit, I did," Jude cries. "I don’t know whether I was close enough to be called an addict, but it's not like the people in our circle never use them."
The fact that I still can utter my next question is beyond belief, because I'm utterly shocked.
"You took drugs?" My voice is barely a whisper.
"Come on, Cassie. I had my ups and downs too," Jude defends himself. "Do you think that being at the top of the fucking world, with so many expectations, is easy? You know it too, Cassie. You feel it too. And it's not like you could always be there for me whenever I needed you. You were fucking busy."
I swallow. I should have seen the red flag, but maybe I was too blind to see that. And Jude's sentence makes me realize all over again how toxic he is.
But that's not the problem now. The problem is the things he said about Luke. Before I can ask Jude another question, he beats me to it.
"Still, I'm way better than that asshole," Jude bites out, venom in his voice. "He's a monster."
It's getting harder to breathe. I don't even know whether I still want to hear him out or not.
"He played dirty," Jude hisses. "His power in the news and media industry made collecting information about me as easy as flipping the back of his hand. He could easily hire people to find my weakness. Once he figured out about me and those drugs, he threatened me. He said that he would expose my drug addiction to the entire world and kill my career if I didn't break up with you. He blackmailed me, and my mind went crazy. I didn't know what to say to you to make you end everything. I didn't want to break up with you. But then, you showed up in the wrong place at the wrong time. We ended just like that."
Jude's fists are clenched tightly at his sides, before a soft cry escapes from his lips again.
"I've made a terrible mistake, but I didn't betray you, Cassie. I love you."
I shake my head in disbelief, tears forming in my eyes. This is all too much for me to take.
"During the period when I was missing after our breakup, I got into a rehab," Jude says. "No one knows about this, except those trustworthy people at my record label."
My lips tremble while I'm still trying to absorb every word.
Jude's eyes darken, burning with rage.
"But that fucking bastard hurt you. I know that it was all his doing. All those false rumors about you after our breakup, it was all his doing. About you cheating on me with that wedded famous actor. About you being a homewrecker. Being the nation's whore.It was all him. He destroyed you, made you the most hated person in the world, before he showed up in front of you, acting like your hero," Jude speaks in disgust, and I feel like I want to throw up.
