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It’s Alec. He did this.
But you still haven’t told Rogue the truth.
He pulls me into a hug. Kisses the top of my head. “God, I’m so glad you’re here. Time to face the music.”
“Yes.” It’s more than time to expose all.
My phone starts to ring again.
“You should get that,” Rogue says with an unhappy wrinkle to his brow.
“I should… get that,” I agree as I walk toward the sound like I’m walking the plank above shark infested waters. The ringtone is assigned. I know who it is.
Rogue leaves the room as I pick my device up off the carpet.
I take a deep breath and answer the call. “What do you want?”
“Sister, is that really how you greet your only brother?” Alec’s voice is full of gloat. “I would have thought you’d be happier. After all, I did open your eyes to the truth.”
“The truth?” To my own ears I sound close to the edge of losing any composure. I glance furtively over my shoulder to make sure I’m alone. “The truth is you’re obsessed. And it’s pathetic.”
“Don’t you fucking—”
“It’s pathetic,” I repeat and my voice grows stronger along with my conviction. “How you think you can scare me into helping you. That you thought for one second that I wouldn’t see through you. That girl, the video; you set that up. I’m not sure how exactly.”
I assume he paid the girl, arranged for her to be in the VIP area. Probably paid someone to record it—he must have been there though. At the club. To realize what an opportunity he had in front of him.
“Were you following them? Or me?” I ask, but I don’t need an answer. He’s obsessed with the Maddoxes. And determined to prove that I’m still weaker than him. Either way… “It doesn’t matter. I’m going to tell Rogue everything.”
“What’s pathetic is that you think that you think you’re capable of bettering me, you worthless bitch.” He laughs. It’s a bitter, dark thing that makes all the hairs stand up on my nape. Not everything that glitters is golden. Especially amongst the elite. “When will you learn your place, little Ivy Hawthorne? When will you remember your only worth is in being my sister?”
“Don’t call me that. That’s not my name.” My eyes burn. I feel so small. So very insignificant. I feel sick inside. Shaky. But I’m no longer willing to cower. The things that I want… that I deserve… I have to fight for them. I have to fight for the person that I’ve become and the one that I want to be.
“You’re nothing. You’re nobody. I thought you’d at least be useful for gathering information on those assholes, but you’re bad at that too.”
“Did you ever think I just didn’t want to help you?” I don’t know how I keep the emotion and fear from my voice. I still have no clue what the Maddox men did that he perceived was such a sleight, but this obsession he has…how far he’s willing to go… “You’re sick, Alec. You’re a monster.”
“I hope you’re ready to see your best friend go to prison. He will, you know. The Maddoxes aren’t the only ones who can manipulate the media. I’ll tell them about Liam and Christian’s clandestine daily meetings on the roof. How they’d always disappear up there. How Adira shamed him for his sexuality. I’ll tell the police. They’ll want to investigate.”
“You lied to the police,” I remind him. I need leverage. Something to trip him up. I’m desperate. Grasping at straws. Hoping his fixation and ego have made him miss something that seems so obvious. “You lied in your statement. You would go to jail too.”
"That wouldn’t happen. You don’t have a clue what you’re talking about. Don’t try to be smart.”
I can sense the shift in him. Or maybe I’m just confident in myself for once. “No. No, I’m not. You would go to jail too. They would investigate you too. I’m sure of it. Adira didn’t push Christian Dakota off the roof. I know he didn’t.”
“You’re crazy,” he insists. “Full of theories that don’t make any sense. Did you stop taking your meds again?”
“You’re scared.” It might be my voice that carries the wobble, but he’s actually scared… “Of me. Because I figured it out.” The fact that he knew about their meetings. Not just that one afternoon. “You did something, didn’t you? You knew they were in love and you hated it.”
“Of course not,” he scoffs.
“You hated that Liam wasn’t like you. That he was different. That he was outgrowing you.”
“That queer isn’t better than me,” he snarls.
“I didn’t say that. You did.” I can see it all in my head. The roof where Adira and Christian met. Alec’s jealousy. “You must have done something. What did you do? Did you tamper with the railing? Did you loosen it? You had a plan, didn’t you? To get them on the roof together—"
“What I know is that you can’t prove it,” he snaps.
