AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Candice McCormack has already warned me that Sean wants an exclusive interview for his segment on The Jackson Matthews Show. She said she hadn’t sanctioned the interview, and she was no longer condoning his relentless pursuit of my privacy. She said she would fire him if I made a formal complaint.
He’s using me for the story!
I can’t tell him. It would be monumentally stupid to trust him again.
I glance briefly at Sean, before turning my attention to Ryder. Mimi hovers behind him. They’re both looking at us a little suspiciously.
“I’m fine.” I wave off his concern. “I wasn’t hungry this morning. I skipped breakfast, that’s all.”
It’s a lie. Ryder knows it’s a lie. We had breakfast together, so he knows my explanation is for Sean and Mimi’s benefit only.
“Right, well, now that Ryder is here…” Sean nods, as he retreats toward the door. “I have some things I need to do. Best Man duties. See you later.”
“Hold up, Sean. I’ll come with you,” Ryder calls after Sean, and then follows him toward the door. “I need to know exactly what happened. Mimi, can you stay with Ash?”
I stare at the door long after it’s closed, my fingers touch my still tingling lips. What was I thinking? This is the man who turned his back on me when I needed him. I can’t forget that because he kissed me. Not even for more than a kiss. We got carried away. Sex with Sean is epically stupid. I’m high. It’s the pain medication. That’s all. It won’t happen again.
A set of manicured fingers snap before my eyes. “Earth to Ashleigh!”
Mimi’s deep red hair and Californian golden face appears in my refocusing vision. The suite’s cream and ivory color scheme refocuses behind her and I realize I’m alone with my sister for the first time since The Jackson Matthews Show two days ago. An unwelcome knot of fear tightens in my stomach. “Sorry Mimi, what did you say?”
“I said you're playing with fire.” Mimi warns but I don’t reply. “You do remember he's JT Preston, right? And he's out to ruin you before what you did on Wednesday ruins him.”
“No, Mimi.” With a shake of my head, I turn and walk into the living area of the suite. “Sean’s out to ruin Krystal… I don't feel like stopping him this time.”
“Why the hell did you beg me to drop everything to protect your precious career if you were going to blow it up the moment you returned?”
“I asked you to do one thing for me!” I yell. “I asked you to attend an awards ceremony, because I wasn’t cleared to fly. I didn’t ask you to fuck your ex. I certainly wasn’t fucking him.”
“Of course you were!”
The dismissive laugh lifts the hairs on my arms. Why did it amuse Mimi that she’d taken Justin from me? What possessed my sister to think or do such things to me? I shake my head in reply. “Is that what he told you? Because if he did, it’s a lie.”
“But you sleep with all your costars. You parade them around like they're fashion accessories.”
I hold back the urge to say they are, or at least most of them have been. But I don’t trust men easily. And the truth of it is no one lights me up like the Fourth of July the way Sean does. “It’s called good publicity, Mimi. You know how it goes.”
“You think I'm stupid, don't you?” Mimi asks. “Silly stupid Mimi, falling for Justin all over again.” Her eyes narrow. “We talked before you agreed to do that movie with him. You said you wouldn't do it if I wasn't comfortable with it. But you knew what happened. You knew it was Justin who ruined my life all along and you didn't tell me!”
“I didn't know it then.” I sigh. “Sean told me. When I was in Switzerland. Justin and I had an argument about it, and I rushed off without clipping my ski. That’s how I fell.”
Sean and I spoke every day for the entire three months I was away. When he’d told me what he’d discovered, I hadn’t known what to do, what to say, how to say it. I was going to kill him. So I did nothing. Justin knew something was wrong. I wasn’t myself. I couldn’t focus on the scene. He kept pushing to find out what my problem was. I snapped.
“You told me you'd handled everything, Mimi.” I sigh. “You said you had the publicity under control, and no one suspected a thing.” I’m trying hard not to get angry with my sister. It isn’t going to help the situation if we start shouting. “And you let me find out in the middle of a television interview that not only I am supposed to be involved with my sworn enemy, but the man was dropping down on one knee and pledging his eternal happiness to me. You didn’t think to warn me about it?”
A warning would have helped. The truth explained so much more. Maybe Ryder was right? Maybe Mimi hadn’t spoken to Sean like she said she had.
What if Sean didn’t know the truth?
“You didn't have to do that though did you?” Mimi snarls. She’s not trying to hold back. “You've ruined him, even after he made sure you were given the best care at his own expense.”
“Remind me to cut him a check,” I hiss. “I don't want to be indebted to him in any way.”
A sharp intake of breath and the hurt in Mimi’s eyes opens the floodgates holding back the guilt. I lean forward and rest my elbows on my knees. My eyes remain fixed on my hands as I prepare to say these thoughts aloud. I have no idea how Mimi will take them, but I’d pondered long and hard over this, and I know it’s true.
“There's something about dropping off the edge of a cliff and knowing you’re going to die.” I look at Mimi and whisper, “It was your life flashing before my eyes, Mimi, not mine.”
“You stole my life!”
