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Before she walked back to Maddie’s car in the rain, Vera grabbed my shirt collar and pulled me closer to kiss me hard on the lips. “Don’t say anything that will get you thrown into jail, please, Blaise.”
I rested my forehead against hers. “I won’t, Sunshine. I promise.”
Though … I wasn’t sure that I’d be able to keep that promise. I hadn’t done anything, but this was Redwood. If they wanted to throw me in jail, they would come up with the most outrageous evidence and blame me.
Once they left and drove down the road, I took another breath and walked into the house.
“You’re ruining our entire reputation!” Mom screamed at me as soon as I shut the door behind me.
Dad rubbed a hand over his tired face. “Quit it, Caroline.”
“Everything we’ve worked so hard for, and he wants to hang out with a girl from the slums.”
“Please,” Dad grunted. “All you do is yell at him.”
Mom crossed her arms. “It’s not like you do any parenting. You’re never home.”
“Neither are you,” I said under my breath.
She acted like she was some sort of perfect parent or something. She disappeared for weeks, if not months, at a time without so much as a goodbye or anI’m off to Paris; I’ll see you whenever.
When Dad ignored Mom, which pissed her off even more, I slumped down onto the couch and closed my eyes. Today had been so long for no good reason at all. I couldn’t believe that they were trying to pin this on me.
Skylar had been a whore, had probably been out with half of Redwood these past few days. And they only had some texts between us, where I was kinda, sorta fucking angry with her. That was it. Nothing fucking else.
“Vera looks familiar,” Dad hummed, sitting on the couch to untie his brown dress shoes that he must’ve worn every day and scrunching his eyebrows. “Almost like that house cleaner that we used to have. What was her name? Rodriguez?”
Mom glared at the back of his head and crossed her bony arms over her chest, seething hard as fuck. “Well, you would know, wouldn’t you? You used to fuck her all the time when I was out with Blaise.”
My mouth dropped open, and I stared at them with wide eyes.
Was that why Mom had fired her? Ms. Rodriguez had always been so nice and genuine. I doubted that she’d do something like that willingly. But I didn’t put it past Dad to force himself on her, hold it over her head that he’d fire her if she didn’t fuck him.
Dad was a fucking sleazeball either way.
After that, Mom had hired all the house cleaners herself, made sure they were old enough to be my grandmother, and hadn’t let them be alone with her husband. Did I blame her? Truthfully, I didn’t give a fuck.
She had only married him for his money. She had known what she was getting into.
Knowing that they’d fight for the rest of the night—Mom screaming at him that this wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t fucked the police chief’s wife and Dad yelling back that if she had been able to please him, he wouldn’t have had to—I departed up the stairs to my bedroom.
It had been a long fucking night, and I didn’t want to deal with it anymore.
Tomorrow, I’d be back at the police station with my lawyer to fight whatever kind of evidence that they thought they had on me. I hadn’t done shit, but they needed someone to put away. And Mom was right. If Dad hadn’t fucked with the police, then they wouldn’t be pointing fingers at me. I’d be at school tomorrow with Vera.
God, I wished she had stayed with me tonight. I didn’t know what would happen to us if they put me in prison.
ChapterFifty-Five
VERA
After third period, I walked to my locker to deposit my books. Blaise hadn’t shown up to school today, and I didn’t blame him. Whether it was because of the rumors flying around Redwood or because he was being interrogated again, I was glad he’d stayed out of the messiness in Redwood Academy.
My stomach tightened into knots. All day, I had texted him, but he hadn’t gotten back to me. I hoped that he was okay—and not just because of the whole murder thing. Granted, I had shown up at his house in the middle of the night. His mother had seemed angrier that I had come to visit him than the police trying to pin this on him. I could only imagine what she’d said about me once I left.
I stood at my locker and frowned, chest heavy. For the longest time, I’d thought that Blaise had everything, but I had never once seen his father within the past few weeks, and I had only heard that his mother was a bitch from him.
His family life seemed like shit. It made sense why he had spent so much time at my house, even before we admitted feelings for each other. Blaise’s parents didn’t give a fuck about what he did until it affected them.
