Page 16

I frowned. What a strange question. “I guess so.”

“You guess so?” Jacob said, taking a sip of his drink, and it was only then that I noticed he’d been drinking the same glass of wine he’d had since I joined him in the dining room. “That doesn’t sound like a solid friendship, angel.”

“We didn’t have much in common, if I’m honest. We were only friends because our parents were friends, and it made life easier. Sometimes, I didn’t think she was a very nice person.” I fell silent, surprising myself with how I truly felt about Jenna, something I’d never been able to voice before.

A pensive look crept onto Jacob’s features. “Who else?”

“Uh.” I thought about my small friendship group, the only friends my parents permitted me to have. But much like Jenna, I didn’t have much in common with any of them. “I suppose there’s Jenson,” I added. He was the only one with whom I had a genuine friendship with.

Jacob’s lips pulled down into a sneer. “The guy who threw his bag of drugs at you and let you take the rap?”

My jaw dropped open, shame pumping through my veins. “How…uh, how did you know about that?”

Jacob shrugged. “Your parents informed me. They were concerned your behavior was… getting out of control.”

I scoffed, rolling my eyes. “Concerned my behavior was getting out of control,” I muttered. “Maybe if they hadn’t been so controlling and let me do things for myself, I wouldn’t have felt the need to sneak out and go to that gathering.”

I grabbed my wine, downing the last of it in one gulp, a silent fury brewing under my skin. Even away from my parents, they had the ability to anger me.

“Perhaps,” Jacob said coolly, tilting his head to one side. “Or perhaps they were trying to protect you from the people you claim were your friends.”

My gaze whipped to him, a snarl twisting on my lips. “That’s bullshit. They wanted to control every aspect of my life.”

His lips pursed into a thin line. “Please don’t curse, angel. I don’t appreciate it.” Quiet fury turned to boiling rage, and I opened my mouth to snap at Jacob, to tell him that he didn’t get to tell me what I could or couldn’t say, just like he couldn’t dictate what I wore. But he silenced me by placing his hand on top of mine where it rested on the table, and the warmth of his touch instantly calmed me. “Maybe they did want to control your life, or maybe they knew Jenson wasn’t really a friend. I mean, what sort of person would allow their friend to take the blame for something they did? Would you have done that, angel? Would you have handed that bag to someone you claimed was a friend and let them get into trouble?”

Any reply I may have had died on my tongue as my brewing anger seeped out of me. I hadn’t thought of it that way, too relieved that the cops had let me go. But Jacob was right. Not that I would have been stupid enough to carry drugs on me, but if I had, never would I have let my friend take the heat for something I’d done.

Jacob remained quiet for a few minutes, leaving me to process the revelation that maybe my friends weren’t actually my friends. Even Jenna, the girl who claimed to be my best friend, hadn’t reached out to see if I was okay after the cops shoved me into the back of their car.

A pang of sorrow worked its way through me. If I removed Jenna, Jenson, and the other few people I thought of as friends, I had no one.

“What about Elton?” Jacob said, taking me by complete surprise.

“Elton?”

“Elton Rothborne. Was he your boyfriend?”

How the hell did he know about Elton?

“No, he wasn’t,” I mumbled, my words slurred as my eyelids grew heavier.

“But you wanted him to be?”

I couldn’t meet Jacob’s gaze, and while part of me wanted to lie to him, I found myself spilling the truth. “No, I…I didn’t really like him. I just…” I trailed off, my eyes dropping to my lap.

“Just what, angel?” Jacob cooed.

Like a magnet pulling my head up, I met Jacob’s curious stare. “I just wanted to know what it was like to be kissed.”

His eyes darkened, and a low growl rumbled in his chest. For a second, I thought I’d imagined it because never in my life had I heard someone make a noise that resembled a growl. “Did you know Elton was arrested for assaulting another girl?”

My brows shot to my hairline, my voice coming out feeble. “What?”

Jacob took another mouthful of his drink. “Yes. A few weeks after the Mayor’s party, where you went into the garden with him. He attended another social event where he met a girl a year younger than you. She returned to the party in a state, claiming he had attacked her. When he was arrested, he admitted it. Did you never wonder why he disappeared from your school?”

I was helpless but to gape at Jacob, and if my mind hadn’t been so busy fighting the brain fog clouding my thoughts, I would have asked how he knew that.

Confusion riddled me as my stomach started to spin like a washing machine, and I didn’t know if it was the wine or learning about Elton that made nausea creep up my throat.