AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 36
Ariana staresat me as she bites into her tuna sandwich, not saying anything.
In fact, neither sister has said anything in forty-five minutes, and it’s starting to grate on my nerves.
“Okay, what? Why are you two being so fucking quiet?”
Pinching off the crust from her grilled cheese, Stella looks at me. “What should we be talking about?”
“Anything,” I moan, dropping my head to the table. “Come on, you guys, I so don’t want to be alone with my thoughts right now.”
They share a look, and Ariana exhales slowly. “Well, there’s... a lot to unpack here.”
“Yeah,” Stella agrees. “For starters, Mamá and Kal? Yikes. Talk about grooming. I kind of hope Papá tells the Elders.”
My temple throbs, the memories from last night like a scalding hot iron bearing down on my brain. “Not really the direction I was hoping this would go.”
I haven’t stopped long enough to really think about the reality of everything that happened, and when Kal showed up at the theater last night, I let jealousy and hurt cloud my judgment. Let him fuck me in a public place, where my entire family could hear.
And, judging by the blush painting my sisters’ cheeks when I arrived at the diner this afternoon, they definitely did hear.
“Hey,” Ari says, pointing a crinkle-cut fry at me. “Beggars can’t be choosers. Either you drive the conversation, or other people pick the topics. Those are the rules of society.”
Stella snorts. “Who made the rules?”
“I did. Just now.” Ariana pulls her phone out, scrolling silently for a few moments, before turning the screen around to face me. A news article is pulled up, timestamped for this morning. SOCIALITE RETURNS TO BOSTON AFTER FAKING KIDNAPPING; FATHER’S COMPANY ANNOUNCES PERSONNEL CHANGES, NEW INVESTMENTS. “Would you rather talk about that?”
The headline makes my blood boil, amplifying my simmering anger toward my parents, burrowing it even deeper. I haven’t seen them since I left the house yesterday; rather than stay in the penthouse like I had been, I went uptown to Nonna’s Millennium Tower apartment, confident in the fact that Kal wouldn’t come find me there.
Not that he couldn’t, but that he would choose not to.
And he never did.
Even though it meant he got my message loud and clear, I still couldn’t help the little seedling of hope that embedded itself in my psyche, wishing he’d come after me again.
That there would be no limit to the number of times he’d chase me to the ends of the earth, no matter how many times I pushed him away.
Clearly, that’s not the case.
My parents never reached out, either, although after leaving my phone in the theater, I suppose I effectively cut off communication with them. Of course, neither of them know I’m aware of Nonna’s apartment, which means they’d never come looking for me here.
I only discovered it after her last New Year’s bender, when she refused to take a cab from a hotel bar down the street, noting she had a secret apartment in the luxury building.
Lucky me, I suppose.
“What’s there to talk about?” I say, pushing the phone away. “At least the world knows Kal didn’t actually kidnap me now.”
“Yeah, but they think you’re a liar.” Ari squints at her phone, pursing her lips. “Or, they would, if a certain rock star’s picture wasn’t pushing you from the spotlight.”
I shrug. “They can think what they want. I know the truth.”
Stella wipes her mouth with a napkin. “Don’t you think it’s odd timing, erasing the kidnapping story and revitalizing the company all at the same time?”
“Not really. With me back in town, how were they going to keep the lies going?”
Shaking her head, Stella sits back in her chair, sighing. “It just seems fishy.”
“That’s business, baby,” Ari says, exaggerating her voice as she speaks.
