Page 3 of The B Side

And she definitely wasn’t going to do it now, when he was the closest he’d ever come to really getting violent with her.

Maybe she’d be the one walking out of here with a big lawsuit.

“Did you know about this?” He hissed at her mom, not taking his eyes off Juliet.

“Don’t bring her into this,” Juliet immediately pushed back. “You know you control every part of her life. Just the way you like it.”

Not only did her mom know, but she’d been more present for Juliet in the last year and a half than she’d been since before Harrison. She’d come to visit multiple times, and she invited actual conversations to be held.

But Juliet was going to walk away from here tonight and leave Harrison behind. It was different for her mom.

“I made you. Gave you everything. Only for you to turn around and be an ungrateful, spiteful little bitch.” In the past, his words – and the way he pulled his fist back, almost like he was getting ready to strike – would have made her flinch.

“I swear to god, if you touch her, I will kill you, and I don’t care about what happens after,” Darcy promised, her voice low and genuinely menacing.

Juliet loved that about her.

“Harrison!” Her mom snapped, alarm in her voice.

The only moment of the night that actually surprised Juliet, however, was when she heard Harry’s voice, “Dad?! You – you can’t hit a girl! You can’t hit Juliet!”

At fourteen, his puberty-stricken voice broke halfway through his exclamation. And this time, Juliet did turn to look, and so did Harrison. Both of her brothers had seemingly followed their mom out and were standing several feet away, their eyes wide.

She could tell Harrison hadn’t expected them, either. Nor had he expected Wade, one of the event managers, who’d seemed to follow the commotion, standing in the doorway from the crossover, watching everything play out.

Harrison leaned back, pulling sharply away from her.

For the first fucking time, it wasn’t Juliet who had to give way, who had to give in. And it felt so. Damn. Good.

“Get your ass in the house,” he snarled at Juliet. “We’re starting damage control starting now.”

“No,” she stated, no room for an argument in her tone. “There’s no we, Harrison. Contact your legal team all you want; it’s all done. And, frankly, I think the thing that upsets you the most isn’t that I’m a lesbian. It isn’t even that I’m not going to live under your thumb anymore. Though, that is close.”

Because lord knew he loved to have both the money and the clout – especially the clout – of her very public and well-known image.

“I think, underneath it all, it’s that you know now that I’m going to be living my own life, on my terms. And that without you? I’m going to have a chance to genuinely be happy. And that you know, somewhere in the black pit you call your heart, that no one would ever put up with you, let alone love you, if you couldn’t shove money and power at them. Which is just… sad.”

Harrison’s eyes glinted at her, that vein throbbing so visibly, she wondered if he’d have an aneurysm. “You gonna go around acting like you feel sorry for fucking me over like this?”

The laugh that escaped Juliet was unexpected, and so harsh it hurt her throat on the way out. “Never. You could be dying of thirst, and I’d pour out my last drop of water on the sidewalk before I’d give it to you. It makes me positively gleeful. Even if it’s not today or tomorrow, one day even Cash and Harry will detest being in your presence.” Something told Juliet that the day wasn’t far off, judging by the look on her brother’s face right now.

“You can have all the money in the world. You can host fairs and give to charities for a tax break, but everyone still knows who you really are inside. Oh, and it’s a good thing you have all of the money in the world. My residuals are coming due from the ads you didn’t pay me for last quarter. You really amped up using my name during this tour.”

In fact, if her lawyer and accountant were correct, Harrison’s legal ability to use her name, image, and likeness in ad campaigns – that he’d never had to pay her for before – had ended two months ago.

She figured that Harrison likely thought nothing of it, likely believed that she’d sign away more of her life to him.

Juliet didn’t particularly want Harrison’s money. But she wanted to take the significant chunk of change he owed her because she fucking deserved it. And because she knew how much he would fucking hate paying it to her. Even if he pulled every ad she’d ever done for him, he owed her.

With that, she reached out, offering her hand once again to Darcy.

Right in front of Harrison, in front of everyone.

Darcy didn’t hesitate to slot her fingers through Juliet’s, holding tightly. Giving Juliet something to grasp, something to help her feel grounded and remind her that this was real life.

“If you leave like this, everything is about to get very unpleasant for you,” Harrison threatened.

“Your presence in my life has been the most unpleasant experience I could ever imagine. Whatever happens next can’t be worse,” she shot back, as she and Darcy started walking.