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I doubt anyone is going to be hurt but to think all this is my fault almost cripples me. We eventually reach my parents’ suite on the top floor and the security guard—who I now recognize as my stepfather’s number one, Franklin—lowers me to the couch, where I sit, trembling.
Chuck emerges from another room and comes to sit opposite me, frown lines indented on his brow, and waits until my sobs slow a little.
“What the hell were you thinking?” His voice is low and menacing.
“Ana…” is all I can say.
“Forget Ana,” he rumbles. “Whatthe hellwere you thinking?”
“I wasn’t… I wasn’t thinking,” I stammer. “I was stupid. I shouldn’t have gone outside. We were stupid.”
“Damn right you were. Who’s idea was it?”
I look up at Chuck, finally, to see him glaring at me with a venom I haven’t seen before. “Does it matter?”
“So it was Ana’s.”
“No,” I fluster. “No, it was my idea. Don’t blame Ana for this. She tried to talk me out of it.”
“So why was none of this…” he scans his appalled eyes over my outfit, “shitpacked in your bags? Huh?”
“I knew that you or someone else would probably find it. I made Ana pack it.”
“You just said you hadn’t thought about pulling this ridiculous stunt. But now you’re saying you two had planned this?”
I look back at him, sheepishly. I know I’ve landed us both in serious trouble. The best I can do now is say nothing.
“She leaves. Today. And you will not see her again until after the residency.”
“What? That’s in almost five months!” I gasp.
“Exactly. She is a bad influence, Aurelia. I will not have anyone put you at risk like that again under my watch. Do you understand?”
“Wh—what about Billy?”
“Him too. I need complete focus from you. I don’t need idiot kids from back home who have no idea what it’s like to manage a multi-billion dollar music career, getting in the way, thinking they know what’s best for you.”
My voice feels squeezed. “They don’t get in the way,” I whisper.
“Of course that’s what you think. You can’t be objective. That’s why you have me.”
“Where’s Mom?” I ask, sheepishly. Maybe Mom could get Chuck to see reason. Not that she really helps on that front anymore. She’s more interested in shopping and lunching with her so-called friends than defending me to my stepfather.
“She’s out. And she will agree with me anyway, so don’t even think of trying to get out of this through your mother.” He gets up to end the conversation. “You’ll thank me for this one day.”
He gives me one last disappointed glare then walks out of the room as smoothly as he walked in.
I watch him leave then drop my gaze to my fingers which are still trembling. He’s just removed the only support I had. I doubt that the ‘one day’ he refers to will ever come.
