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“Caleb,” I croaked out in a hoarse voice.
He jerked in surprise and sat down on the edge of my bed, facing me. “Hey, how are you feeling?”
“She feels like shit, Caleb,” I heard Angie admonish him.
Hearing how upset my stepsister was had my lips twitching. “I’m okay,” I lied.
He brushed my tear-soaked hair back from my face. “What can I do, Kin? How can I help you? Please tell me. I hate seeing you like this, and I don’t know the first thing about how to comfort you. Do you want me to kill Jace? I will happily do it if it would make you feel better.”
I caught his hand, holding on to it tightly. “No,” I whispered. “It wouldn’t make me feel better at all.”
“It would make me feel better,” Angie grumbled from the receiver.
We both ignored her. Caleb produced my phone from his pocket. “I turned off the ringer. Jace hasn’t stopped calling all night. Kassa texted me saying he’s losing his shit and not to answer any of his calls. I think she’s just as pissed at him as you are.”
“Well, he did hide their sister’s existence from her for almost a year,” I reminded him, my throat throbbing with each word that left me.
“I don’t think that’s why she’s so mad at him. She couldn’t believe how Jace treated you. Honestly, neither can I. He kept all of that from you for all these months… That just doesn’t seem like him, Kin. Maybe there was a reason. Maybe—”
I sat up in bed, glaring at my beloved stepbrother. “Stop defending him!”
His mouth snapped shut, and he held up his hands in surrender. “Okay, okay. I was just saying—”
“Caleb, I love you, but I’m seconds away from beating the shit out of you.”
His lips twisted, and I knew he was fighting a grin. As weak as I was, we both knew I couldn’t have balled up a fist to punch him, let alone beat the hell out of him. “If it makes you feel better, I’ll gladly let you use me as a punching bag, sweetheart.”
“Nothing will make me feel better.” Fresh tears filled my eyes, and I couldn’t see him as they clouded my vision. “I hurt so bad, Caleb. It…It… It feels like I can’t breathe without him.”
“I’m calling Lucy, and we will be out there on the first available flight,” Angie called out from the phone.
“No!” I cried, wiping snot on the bottom of my shirt. “I don’t want you to come.”
“Sugar bug—”
I looked up at Caleb pleadingly. “Please. I feel like I’m being smothered right now. I just need to be alone. To figure out what I want to do next. If Ang comes out here, all she will do is plot Jace’s death, and I can’t fucking deal with that shit right now.”
He lifted the phone back to his ear. “Angie, don’t do it. Stay where you are. I’ll take care of Kin. Just cool your shit and take a deep breath. This isn’t about you. It’s about what Kin needs right now.”
“Fine, but you better not let that douchebag near her again until she’s ready,” Angie cautioned.
I released the breath I was holding, hoping I wouldn’t have to face my stepsister’s temper anytime soon. But I felt defeated and trapped sitting there in the middle of my childhood bed.
Jace would be back, so staying here wasn’t an option. Neither was going back to California. How was I going to sleep in my bed again, haunted by all the times Jace and I had slept in it together—made love there?
I didn’t have anywhere I could go so I could figure out what to do with my life next. Now I was beginning to realize just how right Lucy’s mom had been to send her away to college when everything went down with Harris a few years back. At the time, I considered it running away from her problems, but now I understood the benefits of putting distance between yourself and the cause of your pain.
Picking up my phone, I quickly deleted all of the messages from Jace without reading any of them. There were a few from Lucy, but I couldn’t bring myself to look at them yet. I didn’t want to rehash everything yet that happened earlier, not when I was still feeling so raw.
I was starting to turn off my phone just as a new message came in. My heart throbbed painfully in my chest when I saw it was from Aunt Emmie.
I’m here if you need me. Whatever. Whenever. Whomever. I’ve got your back, girl.
My breath hitched as tears filled my eyes for a reason other than Jace St. Charles’s betrayal. My mom was gone, but it seemed she’d sent me a fairy godmother when I went to live with my father and stepmonster. She didn’t wear wings or have a magic wand. No, my fai
ry godmother was way cooler and a hundred times more powerful.
I wiped the tears off my cheeks as I sent a reply.
