"Well, I'm really sorry to have to cut this breakfast short, but I'm afraid I have work to do with Kade on his album."
"You guys work in the studio every weekday, though."
I shot daggers into Hollin with my eyes. He didn't even look up from his newspaper.
"But we should be leaving soon. Jackie just called, she said your off day was rescheduled. Apparently you missed an appearance at something called Odeon?"
Kade stiffened as he stood in front of the dining room table as the majority of my family not including my half brother and sister along with Caleb, his father and Mia and her father watched on in piqued interest.
Finally, Catalina spoke up.
"Oh, Ivy, you can't leave yet. Remember what we talked about?"
I bristled at her sweet as sin tone.
"Yes, I remember. I have too much work to do today, though. And apparently Kade needs to work as well. Hollin—I'm assuming my car made it home somehow last night, right? Or do I need to go and pick it up?"
"You'll need to go and pick it up. There was no way I was letting either of you drive home last night."
Caleb cooked his eggs on his plate with the lasers shooting from his eyes.
My father chilled his coffee with the cool blankness that fell across his features.
"Thank you for your generosity, but I need to call my manager and get to work. The breakfast was nice. Great meeting you."
Except Kade shot Caleb a glare that could've cut the table in half.
"Ivy, you need to stay. You have guests—"
"That's alright Mrs. Bennett. I totally get it, Ivy's super busy. We can catch up another time."
I was already halfway to the foyer after Mia spoke up for me when my stepmother called out behind me.
"Remember what we discussed, Ivy."
How could I forget?
I didn't respond to her as I opened the door and inhaled the turning autumn air, shocks of orange and brown assaulting my vision as I pulled my phone from the pocket in my dress, mostly sure that I left my wallet in my car.
Right?
Kade and Hollin were right behind me, the large oak door slamming shut behind them while I stood on the oversized wrap-around porch gazing out at the landscape immaculately kept surrounded by a pristine pond that didn't bely the swampy underbelly beneath.
Everything about this home was gilded—a faux perfectness that swirled around everyone and constricted them like a snake squeezed its prey.
I was suffocating.
"So, you ready for me to take you to your car?"
I turned to Hollin who towered over me and squinted in the sharp glinting sunlight reflecting off the pond in a thousand shimmering diamonds.
His height all but matched Kade's and I began to wonder why I hadn't ever felt uneasy in the presence of either of them, especially as I had clearly been too drunk to function the night before.
They just made me feel...safe. Especially Kade.
Especially after what he'd interrupted with Caleb—
"Yeah, thanks. And thanks for driving me home last night too. I'm sure I was...a lot."
Hollin's face broke out into a full blown smile as Kade looked around sheepishly and stuffed his hands in his pockets while leaning up against one of the cedar posts that were dotted all around the porch.
"You both were a lot, but it's fine. Part of my job description, right boss?"
Kade threw his bodyguard a two-fingered salute before uncrossing his ankles and holding his arm out to me like a gentleman.
My cheeks flushed as I slipped my arm in his and he walked me down the large brick steps, the eyes of my family and everyone else at that damned table no doubt on us through the bay windows as he walked me to the large black SUV parked in the huge circle driveway out front.
Opening the door for me, I moved to slide into the backseat as Kade held the door with one arm, and as I passed under his arm my gaze caught on his—
and refused to let go.
His eyes drilled into my own and my breath became stuck in my throat like peanut butter on the roof of my mouth or a cough that just wouldn't go away.
We stared until the sun no longer beat down upon my back and I couldn't feel the soft sway of the breeze around me.
I held his gaze until the background melted into a myriad of colors that all bled together in a kaleidoscope haze I wanted to capture but knew that a picture could never do it proper justice.
"Are you two going to sit around all day staring at each other or are we going to take her to her car?"
We jerked apart and I slid into the backseat without glancing back at Kade again, no matter how much my eyes burned, almost begging me to flit back to him.
Kade was my distraction but also my rescuer; my knight in blue jean armor and the reason that I didn't have to face Caleb alone earlier before when he confronted me.
The thing with Caleb was that just because he might've had blackmail against me didn't mean that I had to succumb to it, and with my plan in place which wasn't really a plan at all and more like a Title IX complaint against him...
Just because he had something on me didn't mean I had to fold to him.
I was done with other people running my life for me, and with Kade's eyes daring me to do something, to take my life by the reins and just...live...I decided then and there that that was exactly what I was going to do.
And if Isaac and Con wanted nothing to do with me afterward then that was their loss. I had more important things to deal with than their feelings, and with the knowledge Catalina had just given me, I was going to need to get my priorities in order sooner rather than later.
***
"Well, this feels familiar."
I couldn't help the laugh that slipped out of my mouth as we pulled up to the bar and realized that my car had apparently been parked in a tow-away zone.
"So, now we don't have one but two cars to get from the impound lot. Do you two seriously refuse to read signs?"
I was about to come up with a retort of some kind to Hollin when Kade answered his phone and immediately there was something off in his demeanor.
It apparently wasn't good news he was receiving on the other end of that phone call.
He stalked off to the other end of the parking lot leaving me with Hollin.
"It's probably Jackie. She's pissed he missed his date."
I had no idea why my throat suddenly constricted.
Or why something sharp and piercing sank to the bottom of my stomach.
"Oh really?"
My voice came out reedy and thin, like I'd been coughing or singing for hours at a time.
Hollin saw right through my attempt at seeming nonchalant.
Kade's hair blew in a gusty breeze and he raked his hand through it, agitation seeping off of him.
Hollin raised one dark eyebrow at me in question before Kade hung his phone up and walked back toward us.
"We need to go to Oakgrove. Something's up with Bree."
Kade addressed Hollin, not directing anything at me except a deep nod in my direction.
"Ivy, we'll drop you at your dorm and take care of your car. If it's not out of the impound lot before tonight, we'll get you a rental so you can make it to the studio tomorrow after your classes."
Kade didn't speak to me, but Hollin did. It was like Kade had delegated his bodyguard to talk to me, and while I appreciated someone telling me what was going on, I was clearly missing something.
Because Oakgrove was the name of the inpatient rehab center that his sister, Bree, was currently in for treatment after trying to kill herself.
There were no more longing looks shared between us. No more electrical charge connecting the two of us as anxiety tore through his body.
No more link attached to a string and hooked up to my nerves like a machine that only he had the controls to.
Because while he was lost in a sea of his own mind, mine was working double time.
I had known his sister was in treatment, but not the name of the facility.
Catalina's words echoed in my head just as a text message flashed across my screen.
Step-mother: Your father wants you to come to a gala this Friday night. If you act right, we can talk about you seeing your mom. Bring Kade Hendrix. It will be good for visibility. —xo
Bile threatened to rise up from my gut and spew all across the shiny black leather of Kade's pristine SUV.
A visit with my mother that I hadn't seen in over a year.
Only small snippets of conversations here and there had kept me happy, but nothing was like seeing her face in person.
She was too unstable, her doctors had told my father. She wasn't ready to face what she'd done to me after I'd come to live with my father permanently.
Too filled with guilt.
Too wracked with shame.
Her doctors hadn't recommended an in-person visit with the person who'd basically caused her psychotic break.
Of course, it wasn't my fault.
They'd all been quick to outline that very carefully.
Not my fault, maybe not indirectly, but it had been the pressure I'd put on her.
Right?
That's what I'd been told, through the grapevine.
I'd never actually had a real conversation with her doctors before.
The car hit a bump and Kade cursed, turning around to glance at me, and something on my face must've given it away.
Something wasn't right. This didn't add up.
My father couldn't control when I saw my mom...could he?
"What's wrong?"
His voice blended into the background as everything suddenly came crashing down into place like building blocks, signs I'd ignored and inconsistencies I'd chosen not to pay attention to.
"Do you—can I come? To Oakgrove? To meet your sister?"
Kade flinched back like I'd physically pushed him, but once the shock subsided, something swirled around in that mind of his that produced hit singles and could identify exact music notes by ear perfectly.
"Sure. Why not—it might actually help. She's desperate for some company other than her doctors. But afterwards I do have to go and deal with Jackie."
"That's fine, I have work to do later anyway."
And once Kade turned around in his seat, I closed my eyes and pressed my head against the cool glass of the window to my side.
Because we were going to Oakgrove Inpatient Rehabilitation Center.
And that was where my mother was currently a patient.
***
Author's Note:
What did you think of this chapter?
What do you want to happen next?
What do you WANT to happen next?
I am going to try to finish this story by the end of September, so we've got about 20 chapters left, give or take, and things are about to start ramping UP!
Until next time my lovely readers,
Kristen :)