I V Y
He took me to a gym.
A gym.
"Why are we in an empty gym?" I ask him. It's not like a public gym with machines. It's a gym that cheerleaders and gymnasts use.
"I heard that you're attempting the Double Full Twist" He looks at me curiously and at this moment I want to die.
"I am but I'm getting trained already for it"
"I know but I was told you've been trying to do this for like what? Almost over two months, maybe you just need some more help and that's why I'm here. I helped Iris get hers" But he didn't though.
"Iris never landed it though, she fell" I remind him and he slightly shrugs.
"Well I think you can land it Iv, I believe in you, last night I watched some of your old meet videos and you're strong. You're a power cheerleader. Loud cheers and high jumps, Iris had the gracefulness in her movement but you have the power and push that she lacked." I've waited 19 years for this. 19 years for him to acknowledge my strength and my potential.
"Okay" That's all I can say, I'm just so surprised he even acknowledge my strength.
"So let's get to work" That's all he says and I'm completely down for it. I think maybe he actually wants to turn a new leaf with our relationship. Maybe he wants to try.
A L E X
I've spent almost three days with Alexis and I'm happy I'm back home. I'm sick of her presence. However, at least I got her confession.
The first place I go when I get back is to Ivy's dorm, I missed her so much.
She isn't there though, odd.
I just sit on her bed where her computer is, I may as well watch a movie or something while I wait.
The first thing I see though is my father's face. 'The Giordano Family' is right in the search engine.
Huh?
She hasn't clicked on images or any of the information about my family. It isn't all bad though all you really see is my grandfather and some of his criminal charges. You'd have to go on a deep dive to find out anything recent.
That's not what's worrying me though, the question is why was she googling it?
I'm not an idiot I know she wouldn't have wondered about my family unless she was with my family. Also, she forgets we share our location. I know she was seeing my father. But why?
Why doesn't she just listen?
I delete the tab and just when I do an email pops up.
'Here's the second half of the traffic footage from that night, this is the only copy left, don't lose it, thank you for the favor' ~ Derrick Giordano.
I am going to murder this woman, but first my father.
The first thing I do is leave her room rushing out and not even caring to close the door.
I'm speeding to his house walking inside not even soaring Joeleen a glare.
"Oh hello so-" I immediately stop him.
"Save the shit, what favor did you force Ivy to do for you?" I ask and he just stares at me blankly.
"I'm not sure wh-"
"Bullshit I saw the email what favor did you make her do" He never reacts he's always calm, always emotionless.
"I didn't make her do it she chose to do it in exchange for your safety" My safety? I'm already safe.
"Meaning she told me to assure you don't get arrested with Alexis" Why Ivy? Why couldn't you just have let me deal with my own consequences?
"I don't know what I have to do for you to understand this but stay away from her, even if she comes to you, stay away" I have to make that extremely clear to him.
I'm storming out again leaving him no time to respond because now I need to find Ivy.
I V Y
I've been doing different workouts for hours and hours and I'm not getting anywhere with any of this.
"Dad I don't get how this is helping me" I'm lost.
"Well in order to get more height you need to lose some weight, then I still think you need to get placed on a diet as well so it'll happen faster" A diet.
"I already told you I don't want to change anything I'm doing, I can do it just how I am right now, I don't want a crazy diet" How many times do I need to say that.
"Alright then go ahead and land the flip Ivy" He stares at me and I groan.
"You'll never be able to land it if you don't listen to me. Iris was so graceful and strict in her movements because she had her diet and her workout plan, you'll never get to that level if you don't follow yours" Jesus help me.
"I don't want to be Iris, I want to be me" Why can't he understand that?
He doesn't respond, he just walks away and starts wrapping up his stuff.
"Where are you going?" I furrow my brows.
"Home, I can't help you" He just wanted to help me but now that I don't want to be on one of his crazy diets forget it?
"Fine, then at least drop me off please," I ask grabbing my water and my phone before walking outside.
"All I wanted to do was help you, Ivy, stop being so stubborn" He walks past me and to the car.
The whole ride back I'm leaning my head against the window practically trying not to start bawling my eyes out.
I just want him to love me for me, the same way he loved Iris.
Once I get inside I'm bumping into Ximena.
"I'm so sorry I had to cancel again, I really am," I tell her with a genuine apology, I feel like a shitty friend.
"Ivy it's fine, but I do have to tell you something" She talks as we walk into our space.
"What?" I don't like the sound of that.
"When I came out of the shower I saw Leilani leaving your room and I know it wasn't opened because before I went into the shower it was closed unless you came in and forgot to shut it" What if Kimani forgot to shut it.
"Did you see what she was doing?" I ask.
"No when I saw her she was leaving out and she closed your door back" She still hasn't learned her lesson from when I punched her?
I go straight into my room and the first thing I do is call Kimani.
"Hello?" She's in a loud space.
"Did you come in and forget to close the door?" I question trying my best not to sound annoyed.
"No I've been out all day" Then did she take a spare key what did she do.
"Ok" That's all I can say to that.
"Iv what ha-" I'm hanging up too soon though and once I look up I see Alex sitting on my bed making my heart jump out of my chest in fear.
"My god Alex what the fuck?" I widen my eyes.
"Where were you, Ivy?" Why is he in a mood?
"I was with my dad at the gym, you have my location though you could have just checked" I squint, something more is going on.
"It was off" Shit, he's right.
"Well my dad turned my phone off, he didn't want me distracted" I should have mentioned that.
"I came here early to look for you but you weren't here so I left ou-" Wait a second.
"You came here earlier? Did you close the door back?" He has to think about it, that means he didn't close it back. I know he didn't.
"I think I did" He didn't then.
"Alex do you understand that because you didn't close the door Leilani came in here and probably planted something or did something?" I start searching around but when I notice my computer isn't in the same place I put it that's the first place I check.
Alex doesn't speak he just watches my every move.
I open everything and it looks fine except for the files. A file is missing and it's the file for Iris.
"Shit Shit Shit" All the evidence was in there, every single piece, some things I can't get back even if it was digital.
Funnily the most important pieces of evidence like the gas station was a one-time thing, it took a long hard looking for it.
I'm literally going to scream.
"Alex, do you realize what you just did? It's gone, it's all gone" I look at him with completely wide eyes.
"No, do you realize what you just did?" What?
"Ivy I know you did a favor for my dad even after I told you repeatedly to stay away from him. He isn't a good person and me saying that wasn't enough. You didn't respect me enough to just listen to me and understand I was doing what was in your best interest" He starts to raise his voice here we go again with the arguing.
"I keep hearing this whole your father isn't a good guy, but tell me why isn't he a good guy Alex? Because quite frankly I'm starting to feel like you're no better" His jaw clenches like he's actually getting angry now.
"Because he just isn't a good person Ivy, I shouldn't have to explain why he isn't, you should just listen to what I say and follow through" Like what? A slave? That's probably not the best comparison but I'm not a submissive housewife, I can think for myself.
"Alex I only went to your father to ask him to protect you, that's all I wanted, I wanted to keep you safe" Why can't he just understand that.
"My safety doesn't matter, I couldn't care less about what happens to me, I just want to protect you and keep you safe" What does he want to protect me from?
I don't get it, he always wants to protect me from something but never tells me what. How am I supposed to turn down the only source and power I have access to?
Alex's dad was the only way all of this is possible, he doesn't realize that.
"I want to protect you, I want to keep you safe, I wanna do this, I wanna do that, but from what? From what Alex? What is so fucking bad that you're jeopardizing everything to protect me from? What's the problem?" I shake my head, I'm getting so sick of this.
He doesn't even respond to me.
"What happened to honesty and communication hm?" I remind him.
"You weren't honest with me, you lied and you were seeing my dad after I told you no, look in the damn mirror Ivy and you'll see the problem"
"I'm the problem? How am I the problem? I can't" I scoff trying to keep in my psychotic laugh.
"Alex forget about everything that happened in the back 24 hours, I want to talk to you about what's happening right now. I need to know what your father does, I want to know what is so bad that you can't tell me, that you're letting us both ruin all our progress just to keep this a secret. I don't want to argue with you anymore, I just want to talk" I'm sick of the arguing, we sound like my parents and we're decades younger than them.
"Ivy I can't tell you, I just can't" He finally settles down and I take a deep breath, remembering to just breathe and think before I speak.
"Why can't you?"
"Because it's ridiculous, it'll scare you away and I don't want you to be scared of me Ivy, I don't want that" It's crazy to me how fast we could change from arguing to a serious tear-jerking conversation.
"You'll never, ever scare me away Alex" I rest my hand on his thigh.
"Ivy-" He starts but stops himself.
"My fathers in the Mafia" Did I hear that right?
"What?" I furrow my brows.
"My father is a Mafia boss" I'm just confused.
"You were so adamant about the whole Mafia thing being false and now you're saying your dad is the boss of a Mafia?" I squint and Alex slightly nods.
"God this is what I get for reading all those mafia books, that's manifesting for you" I mumble to myself but Alex only looks at me annoyed.
"Ivy this is serious" I go to answer him but I get a call and it's from my mom.
"Hey, mom?" I question and Alex is looking at me confused too.
"Ivy have you heard from your father?" She sounds clammy and panicky.
"Yeah he just dropped me off a couple of minutes ago" Was he not supposed to be here?
"Oh okay," She says with full complete relief.
"Why?"
"Well last night he got a call from Mr. Richardson, you remember him. However he missed it so he called back in the morning but the correction officer answered and said he passed away and wouldn't release any more information and your father was so distraught, I think he ended up at your school because one of your teammates called saying you were doing that twist so he's trying to distract himself" I can only think of two things.
Cal Richardson is dead. Someone told my father about the stunt.
Which is the more freaky one, the Cal one.
I had to have signed his death warrant, I had to. He wasn't gonna die until after I made him answer those questions. I killed another innocent person.
"Ivy?" Alex speaks up seeing me completely frozen.
I hung up on my mom mid-sentence because her rambling was scrambling my brain.
"I think I killed a man" My eyes are wide, very wide.
"Cal Richardson, he's dead isn't he?" How'd he know?
"Ivy this is what I'm talking about, my father isn't a good guy and he never will be" I can't think about what he's saying. I'm only thinking about the fact that I killed Mr. Richardson.
"Have you killed someone before?" I ask and he shakes his head.
"I have indirectly though" That's not helpful.
"I need to lay down," I tell him feeling light-headed.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you about this sooner Iv" He comes to hold my hand but I move it away from him.
I just helped kill an innocent man. Why couldn't I see his father was crazy, why am I so stupid.
"I just need to think" I can't focus and I need to just be alone, that's all I need.
A L E X
I told her to talk to me when she's ready. As much as I wanted to fight for her to speak to me and as much as I wanted to comfort her there was nothing I could have done.
I thought that was best until I realized for the past three days Ivy has been on a streak of shit.
She's barely been eating let alone going to practice. She's in a slump. All because she thinks she killed a man but she couldn't have known the severity of it.
I just think she needs a break from all of this, from my family, from me.
Which is why I've been pacing back and forth in front of her door getting ready to do the stupidest thing ever.
When I enter she's under her blanket like she was when I came in during the morning.
"Iv" I speak up sitting in the chair in front of her bed, she doesn't answer she's still laying down I'm not even sure she's awake.
"I know you're in a funk right now and I know you don't want to speak to me or anyone but I can't help but feel like this is my fault. The second I came into your life I've done nothing but make it worse. I've done nothing but continuously cause you heartache and more pain." I try to keep in my tears while doing this.
"I'm so in love with you Ivy but sometimes when you love someone you have to do what's best for them. You aren't yourself, you aren't eating, you aren't getting up, you aren't practicing, this is all because of me, the second I came into your life everything went to shit." It hurts to say it but it's true.
"Whenever you and I are together we make bad decisions"
"And I can't help but feel like this was the last strike. I hope that we can find our way back to each other but for right now I'm doing this for you. I'm breaking up with you because I love you and because I want you to be better. It hurts to say it but you're better without me bringing you down." Now I'm the one crying, I know Ivy is too because I see her chest heaving.
"All my meaningless sorries don't mean anything because I still find a way to fuck up right after. I'm sorry for this Ivy but you'll thank me. I'll always love you but for now, I think you need to focus on bettering yourself rather than anyone else" That's all I can say before leaving out.
I didn't want to break up with her but I feel like that's the only thing that will make her who she was before me.
I broke her down.
A/N: Before y'all jump me this isn't the final chapter and trust me this is the last time they'll be put through hell, everything else will be smooth and they're having hot makeup sex in the next couple of chapters so look forward to that.
we have around ten more chapters left, but the final chapter will be a double update, I'll post one in this book and the second part in the sequel and we'll just continue on from the sequel.
Anyways idk why alex had to break up with her like girl there were other ways tbh.