Page 34 of The B Side

That – they hadn’t even said I love you, then.

“I had Lucía handle it,” Juliet danced around the whole truth.

Darcy pressed for more. “How much money?”

Juliet’s gaze was so… soft on her. “Do you really want to know?”

It was then that Darcy realized Juliet believed she wanted to know what Darcy and Blythe, monetarily, were worth to her mother. But the reality was that Darcy had known for a long time that they meant very little to her.

It never made it easier. It never made her feel good. But she was a realist.

“Yes, I want to know.”

Juliet took a long, deep inhale. Before she pursed her lips and finally answered, “The agreement was for one hundred thousand, once a year, for three years.”

“What?!” Darcy’s mouth fell open in utter affront, her stomach bottoming out. “You’ve given her three hundred thousand dollars?!”

“No. I’ve given her two, and the final third is being disbursed shortly,” Juliet corrected, before she reached out to pluck her phone from Darcy’s hand.

She reached up, pressing her palm to her temple, head spinning. “I – at least let me give you the money?”

Juliet looked as though Darcy had offered to slap her in the face. “No,” she simply rejected. “Now, the car is here.”

“Just – wait.” She’d had a bomb dropped on her, and… what?! “Juliet… why?”

Juliet’s lips parted on a sharp breath, a mirthless sound escaping. “Why?” She echoed. “Darcy, you… sobbed in my arms. You were so… sad. And you told me ignoring her wasn’t what you wanted. You told me you wanted to rage, you wanted to have a lawyer reach out to her. You told me you wanted it to stop. But you made an agreement with Blythe, and you were honoring it. So, I handled it.”

“You shouldn’t have had to.”

“If I told you that there was something eating away at me, something that was breaking me down inside, and you realized you had a way to fix it, are you telling me you wouldn’t?” Juliet challenged, knowingly.

Darcy’s lips parted, but she couldn’t voice the words. Because she wasn’t a liar, and they both knew the truth.

“Why didn’t you ever tell me? Maybe not at first, but since then?”

“You agreed with Blythe not to take action. If you didn’t know, you wouldn’t have to lie to your sister that you had anything to do with it, if anything ever came out.”

The backs of Darcy’s eyes burned, and she reached up to swipe her fingertips over them.

Juliet quietly tsked as she reached for the bedside table, tugging out a few tissues. “Come here.”

Darcy obliged, letting Juliet carefully clean her up. “I’m not trying to ruin my makeup for the Grammys. I know I’m your arm candy tonight.”

And even though the words were joking, she took that responsibility very seriously. For years, Robbie had been Juliet’s dual arm candy and safety net on the red carpet. Tonight was the first time Darcy was taking that honor over, and she wasn’t going to screw it up.

She was going to glide next to Juliet, looking as beautiful and dignified as she could. And she would handle anything Juliet wanted her to, field any questions that came their way.

“I’m not doing this because of the Grammys,” Juliet responded, simply.

Darcy’s breath shuddered out, and she forced back a new wave of tears. “You paid my mother to disappear.” What a wild thing to say. And how crazy, without context, was it that it really did mean everything to her? “And you never told me.”

“I didn't want you to feel like you owed me. Anything other than being my date tonight, of course.”

Darcy looked at her, her heart in her throat. “Of course.”

She’d be Juliet’s date anywhere. Juliet could tell her they were going to the moon and never returning to this planet, and she’d pack her bag.

Before Juliet could take another step, Darcy reached out and caught her wrist, spinning her around. Wrapping her arm around Juliet’s waist and tugged her in.