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Blaise was in trouble, and I needed to see him.
ChapterFifty-Four
BLAISE
“You need to clean up your act!” Mom screamed, pacing around the foyer with her fur jacket still draped over her shoulders.
We’d finally gotten back from the police station ten minutes ago.
She shook her head, hair flipping in every direction, and glared at Dad, who chatted with his lawyer at the front door. “Talk some sense into your son.”
Dad said a couple last words to him, then opened the door to let him out. He would be back in the morning when we had to go back to the police station to answer more questions about Skylar’s disappearance and the last few texts she had sent me.
Mom cleared her throat, causing Dad to roll his eyes.
“Where were you the other night?” Dad asked half-heartedly to me.
“With a friend.”
“There you go,” Dad said to Mom.
“Which friend?” Mom asked.
“Someone.”
“That girl from the slums?” she urged. “That no-good bitch?”
I gritted my teeth and stood up. “You don’t even fucking know her, so stop fucking calling her that. She might not have any money, might live in a run-down house in the slums, but she’s a better fucking person than you’ve ever been, especially to me!”
“Don’t lie to yourself, Blaise,” Mom said. “You deserve better.”
“Vera is better than me in every fucking way.”
But she couldn’t see that. She would never be able to see that. All she saw was money.
Someone banged on the front door.
Mom rolled her eyes and stormed over. “Who the fuck is it now?”
When she pulled the door open, Vera and Maddie stood outside in the pouring rain. Vera stared up at Mom with wide eyes, then glanced past her at me. Without even being invited into the house, Vera pushed past Mom and hurried to me.
She threw her arms around my shoulders and buried her head into the crook of my neck, so I could feel the tears she cried on my skin. “I was so worried about you. A-after Maddie told me what happened, we went to the police station, but you weren’t there.”
“Get her out of my house this instant,” Mom growled, turning on her heel to glare at us.
Because I didn’t want Vera to deal with Mom putting her down, I grabbed her hand and brought her toward the front door, where Maddie stood. If we had stayed inside any longer, Mom would have fucking cursed Vera out and called her every name in the fucking book.
That wasn’t happening to my girl.
I slammed the door behind me and stood on the porch with them. “You heard?”
“Skylar … she’s really dead?” Vera whispered.
“I guess so. They said they found her body washed up on the beach.”
“Why are they blaming you?” she asked.
“Because of my dad,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Long story that I don’t want to get into.” After glancing down at my watch, I frowned and ushered Vera toward Maddie. “It’s late, and you have school tomorrow. We can talk more about this later. I promise.”
