The Chapter that changes it all.
Kai's Pov
"No, no, no. Absolutely not. I'm not dealing with this shit right now honestly." I said to Dalton.
"Wouldn't it just be best if we had the conversation already? If we keep waiting for someone to get exposed, it's not gonna make anything better." Dalton argued.
"Fine, then just have everyone meet at mine." I told Dalton, which he nodded to. I turned back to Ariana, who was speechless, now that everyone knew her and Madison had history.
"I got you, we'll be there in 20." Dalton said, walking away.
"Kai—" Ariana started, but I cut her off.
"Ari, you don't have to tell me anything, especially not because some Twitter account brought it up. Whatever you and Madison did, was in the past for one, and we're not together. It's not like I have a right to be mad or something."
"Thank you," She nodded.
"Should we leave?" I asked, realizing that my house wasn't that far away and I wanted to get there first.
"Wait, can we talk?"
"Uh, yeah. We just have to make this quick before we're the last ones there," I chuckled, trying to a at least lighten the mood.
"Let's make a promise; that no matter what happens, you have me and I have you, together or not." She held her pinky out.
I smiled, wrapping my pinky around hers. "I promise."
"Good, so Bonnie and Clyde sounds good for Halloween then?" She joked, causing me to laugh.
"I was thinking more Harry Potter and Hermione Granger actually."
"Ooh, I like that." She smiled.
"Eh, now that I'm rethinking that, Harry and Hermione were basically the same height. So, I don't think this is gonna work. It's not you, it's the five inches between us." I smirked, causing her to shove me playfully.
"Fuck you, maybe I'll ask Courtney to do a costume with me."
"Yeah well, she thinks Harry and Hermione are boring. Good luck being house elves, "
Ariana rolled her eyes, "Let's go, babe."
Just like Dalton said, everyone made it in about twenty minutes. The room was tense as fuck, because everyone wanted answers. Everyone in this room accused each other of something, but no one understood how deep everything really was. I don't think anyone realized how many secrets were kept, or well I didn't. I wish I would've known though because just like everyone else, I had no idea what I would find out.
"Why didn't Lauren and Camila go then? Surely, it wasn't a coincidence." Liam said, breaking the silence.
"I don't know, Lauren just texted hours before we left, saying her and Camila couldn't make it," I shrugged, as everyone turned their attention to Lauren and Camila.
"I-I have motion sickness," Camila said, running a hand through her hair. "I didn't know we were going on a boat until Lauren slipped up and I cancelled."
"She's lying," Austin scoffed.
"He's not wrong, she only does that when she's lying," Shawn added.
"So boom, it's her then. I mean, why lie about that?" Dalton shrugged.
"Dude, stop. It isn't Camila." Lauren finally said.
"Why are you covering for her?" Victoria asked.
Lauren sighed, "I'm not covering for her, she's actually covering for me. A few hours before we were supposed to leave for the boat, Courtney and I went to grab last minute supplies since Camila was busy with Sof, one thing led to another and Camila caught us in my bed. So we cancelled, and never told anyone. That's what her father has against me, because my mom did the same to him."
"So why lie about that? You could've just said that."
Max said.
"It's not that simple, if something like that got out then there would go my family's 5th spot. Business would be bad and my father would go after Mr. Cabello, and that would definitely put them out of business for good." Lauren finished, biting her nails.
"S-So you cheated on me?" Liam turned to Courtney.
"Liam, it was a mistake, it was a year ago and—"
He cut Courtney off with a shrug. "-Maybe, just maybe, we're all been focusing on the wrong people. None of you are who you say you are, really."
"Hell, do you think you're a Saint?" Zayn said.
"You're no better," Liam told him. "If you want to talk about that night, let's do it now."
"What are you talking about?" I interrupted, causing Liam to shake his head.
"Remember when Kai and I had that argument? Yeah, Zayn put me up to it. He got jealous that Kai started spending more time with Dalton and figured that they were plotting against him, to pin the page on him. So, he gave me a little insight on you," Liam said truthfully, looking at me.
"You're lying. I swear, Zayn tell him he's lying." I scoffed.
"Kai, I-" Zayn sent me soft look, before turning to Liam, "That's all you want to say Liam? Weren't you the one who manipulated me into thinking that? You turned on Dalton."
Liam shrugged, "We've all been turning against each other, but crazy enough, you're the only one who went as far as exploiting their own mate."
"Isn't it weird how we all seem to have secrets, but Kai?" Charlie interrupted.
Victoria sent him a look. "You really think it's her don't you? What are you trying to accuse her of?"
"She knew Max was deaf, why didn't she say anything? Why didn't she stop all of the harassment happening? What if he really didn't hear the cameras?" Charlie shrugged.
"I know he didn't hear him, because I took them." Lucy said. "Madison asked me to get something that would confirm Kai's suspicions on Max and get Ariana to stay away from Max. I agreed to do it, and here we are."
"Why would you agree to something like that?" Lauren scoffed.
"You guys don't understand, I didn't have a choice." Lucy sighed out. "Madison has something against me that can ruin my life,"
"Wait, backtrack. Madison, what history to you have with Ariana?" Camila asked.
"Well—"
"Madison, shut the fuck up," Ariana said.
"Finish the story," Victoria shrugged. "I think we all wanna hear what she's gonna say."
"Ariana and I, we used to-"
"—hang on some weekends, not even my parents knew about it. Then it grew to something more until Madison found out I started dating someone else, so we stopped everything," Ariana finished.
"Really, just some lesbian love story?" Austin said.
Madison rolled her eyes, "She's not done yet, but I'll skip to the point. She was dating Dalton at the time, so to get back at her, I dated Dalton's brother. But I didn't know Max knew Dalton's Dad."
As eyes turned to Max wanting answers, everyone shot him disapproving looks, forcing him to finish what Madison started.
"My dad used to be a businessman and he was close to Kai's parents for a while. After things went bad, he knew they were planning to knock him down and kick him out of business, which they succeeded in doing. So they covered it up and moved on, and by they, I mean the Grande's and Grey's."
"So how would dating Dakota, have anything to do with getting back at Ariana?" Dalton asked, which caused Lucy, Madison and Max to share a look.
Charlie shook his head, "Don't pin this on the Grey's. Yes, I lied about keeping a secret because there is one I know about. Now, I'm sure none of us knew your dad got into business, but I do know why Kai's parents were after Rocky. See, Rocky didn't want a girl, he didn't think Madison was ever gonna be able to fill up his shoes, and well— he almost got rid of her. My dad, Kai's dad and Ariana's mom found out, but Kai's dad was the only one able to take him down because Max's dad had leverage over mine and Ariana's mom. So Kai's dad did. Max isn't some new kid, he knew about us all along but I'm sure he was kept away so that Rocky wouldn't allow anyone to take down his son like they did him, even without a reason. I accused Kai of a lot shit, but now, maybe she was right. Maybe Max is the villain here."
Madison looked at her brother. "Did you know dad planned to kill me?"
Everyone looked intensely at the two siblings. We all did some fucked up things, but nothing was compared to that. Meanwhile, I stayed quiet as things played out, I was much more of a thinker, instead of arguing like everyone else did.
"Madison, I didn't think it was true."
"Bullshit. I swear Max, you've done the most fucked up thing of all in this room, I suggest you start talking, before I do," Madison yelled, with watery eyes.
"Can you blame me Madison? You grew up with Mom, while I dealt with Dad's drunk ass every night. You deserved this, not me. You broke apart our family! When dad found out I was dating a guy, do you know he went wild? I wasn't fucking born half deaf, that was the result of the night he found out. All because you slipped up over the phone," Max turned to the rest of us, as tears formed in his eyes. "Yeah, I did the most fucked up thing here. I'm so sorry for it, I-I just thought it would've stopped my dad, made him proud or something. But I regret it so much and I wish I could take it back, m-more than anything. I-I'm sorry."
"What did you do?" I asked.
"I-I'll connect the dots." Madison said, finally speaking up. "When I started dating Dalton's brother, Dakota, the only other people who knew about it was Dalton and Ariana of course. But one day, I caught Max at Dalton's house, speaking to his Dad and they didn't realize I was there. I overheard them talking about drugs, so I went to my Dad's to search Max's room because I thought Max was using again, but instead, I found something else out. So I made Lucy take the pictures to keep Max away from Ariana. Yeah, it's pretty obvious I like Kai but I didn't want Ariana to find out what Max did so that's why Lucy took the pictures."
"You're not making sense. What the fuck did you find out? What did it have to do with Ariana? What did you have over Lucy, that would've made her take those pictures? How did they get to the page?" I blurted out, reading everyone else's mind.
"Dalton's dad said he needed me to help Lucy sell drugs, and all I knew was Lucy's mom was sick, and they needed the money. I gave into helping her sell the drugs and started to help her sell to classmates of mine until Dalton's dad got more dealers and sales started to slow down. So without Lucy knowing, I started mixing the drugs she sold to people, making them stronger than what they were, so more people would buy them. Then a guy and a girl came to us one day, saying that they knew Lucy from school and that we could hook them up. We didn't have everything they needed, so I did my usual thing and added more to the weed they bought. The following week, we heard that the guy and girl that we sold to, died and they ruled their deaths accidental." Max explained.
"W-Wait, you mixed my shit?" Lucy yelled with tears flowing down her cheeks. "Max.. you don't have a damn thing over me, you just admitted to manslaughter."
"How was I supposed to know that, that dose could've killed them? We don't even know if that's what killed them."
"Wait a minute, you guys killed two people?!" Victoria said.
"That still doesn't make sense, what does this have to do with Ariana finding out anything? We're you scared of her knowing your brother killed someone?" Lauren asked, looking at Madison.
"N-No, it wasn't that he killed, it was who." Madison stuttered.
"Before I have to call my lawyer, do we know that the drugs was what killed them? Because if you do, don't say another word. We're not your damn accomplices." Dalton said.
"We shouldn't be saying they. Everyone sells drugs, not everyone mixes. This is on Max, not Lucy." Shawn said, with everyone else agreeing.
"We're getting off track, who did you sell those drugs to?" Ariana asked.
"Nah, better yet, who did you kill Max?" I added, as Ariana tightened her grip on my hand.
"I-It was, uh... um—"
"-dude, fucking say it." I yelled, almost getting up to pin him against the wall, but Dalton and Austin held me back.
"T-The names they gave me were Mac and Kehlani."
a/n: i really hope this chapter isn't confusing.
i reread this like 478384 times to make it as clear as possible.
but to sum it all up, lucy and max sold drugs together but max sold laced drugs to mac and kehlani, before finding out they died. you'll see why this is important later on in the book🥲
but crazy enough, it gets crazier.
did anyone have gut feelings about anything that happened?
also, leave 2 of your favorite celebrities down below (that aren't in this book) 😌