Breathe into Me (22 page)

“Lacey, let me explain, please …”

“No!” Wrenching my hand out of his grip, I whirled around. “I’m sick and tired of being lied to.”

“I didn’t lie to you though!”

“You told me you were housesitting,” I spat. “You made me think you were here just for the summer, that you were visiting.” The anger rose inside me like a sick bile, making me choke on my words. I pulled my truck door open but Everett leaned against it, his face desperate.

“My parents had a house here,” he said, “but this isn’t where I grew up. Please, Lacey, just listen.”

“I thought you cared about me, now I find out I never meant anything to you because you have a
wife
.”

“A what? No no no, Lacey.” He tried to cradle my face, but I shook his hands off, too filled with disgust. “Skye isn’t my wife. She’s my
sister
. The house belongs to our parents.”

“Your sister?” That confession only made me angrier, and I stabbed him in the chest with one finger. “You told me you didn’t have any siblings.”

He raked a hand through his hair. “I don’t have a relationship with her—none whatsoever. But yes, I do have a sister.”

“Then why didn’t you just say that? How am I supposed to know what’s true and what’s not?”

“I’m so sorry, Lacey.”

Everett looked wrecked, apologetic lines etched deep into his face, but it wasn’t enough for me. “Goddammit,” I moaned, pushing past him onto the grass, “I’m sick to death of all the lies. You tell me you’re from New York …”

“I am,” he said, but I wouldn’t even look at him. “I grew up there. It’s practically all I know.”

“I shouldn’t be surprised you would disappoint me, too.” I laughed, the sound high and wild. “Everyone I ever cared about or looked up to has done it, why not you? First my father, and then when the police …”

“Police?” Everett asked when I trailed off. “What happened?”

“Screw you.” The old, familiar anger surged through me, and the urge to hit something was overwhelming. I wanted to curse him, drive him away, but mostly I just wanted to leave. “Let me go,” I said, hating how my voice broke.

“If I let you go, you won’t come back.”

He was right about that. All I wanted to do at that moment was run away from the hell I was living in. Anywhere had to be better than here. I stayed motionless, staring at a patch of grass, as Everett moved in close. “Who else lied to you?” Everett murmured, tucking an errant bit of hair behind my ear. “Help me understand.”

I leaned into his touch, hating myself for that weakness. “After that night, after the video of what happened to me circulated through my high school…” My breath shuddered in and out. “I went to the police and told them what I knew. That I’d been raped, and could prove it.” I swallowed, still able to feel the horror of that moment now. “I was so stupid, so naïve. I was sure that, if I showed them the video, they would arrest the boys and stop all of the abuse toward me. I thought … I thought they could fix it, that they would make it all go away.

“Do you know what they said to me after I’d shown them the whole thing?” I felt my face crumple, and I fought against breaking down. “‘You seem to be enjoying yourself.’”

“Oh, Lacey.”

“I-I thought if they saw it, they’d believe me.” A hiccupped sob escaped me. “Someone recognized one of the boys as a son of a deputy in the building. One of the deputies knew my grandmother and called her, saying I was making false accusations at the police department …”

Everett wrapped his arms around me, holding me upright when I would have collapsed. I was trembling so hard that speaking was difficult, but I tried. I had to make him understand. “Meanwhile, they showed the v-video to several people and wouldn’t give me my phone back, saying it was evidence …”

“God, Lacey, I’m so sorry.”

“I knew I’d made a mistake, but it was too late. I didn’t say anything more, but by the time my grandmother showed up, nobody believed me. She only made it worse, letting them all know who my father was, and what she’d done to him, as if that were proof somehow …”

Everett’s arms tightened around me and I trailed off, trembling against him. He pressed me back against the Bronco’s door but there was nothing sexual in his touch, only comfort. I squeezed my eyes shut and laid my forehead against his shoulder, unable to stop the tears from leaking out. I’d never told anyone my side of the story, although people knew the details. In their versions, however, I was the villain not the victim, the girl trying to ruin the lives of three fine boys.

“My parents weren’t around most of my life.”

Everett’s words pulled me back to the present but I didn’t move, only stood there in his arms as he continued. “My sister and I were raised by nannies, then later in boarding schools. Yes, this house belongs to my family; yes, I was born in Gulfport. But my parents wanted more, they wanted New York, and by the time I was eight I barely had any memory of living full time in this place.”

I wrapped my arms around him, clinging tightly like he was a lifeline as his voice droned on. “We came here every year, making it more like a vacation home than our family’s legacy. I looked forward to those vacations because it meant I had my parents to myself. I played with Trent, got to know his father, but I never really belonged. What used to be something that lasted all summer, though, gradually lessened to a month, then to a few weeks, then to maybe a week. Meanwhile, we stayed in boarding schools during the year and rarely saw our own parents.”

He took a deep breath before continuing. “My father was an investment banker who worked his way up to chief financial officer at a major firm. He’s poised to take over now as CEO, taking over for some billionaire who wants out. My mother is a writer and motivational speaker who spends more time on the road than at home. They rarely called, wrote, or contacted us while we were in school, but made up for it with extravagant gifts. Looking back on it, I was miserable, but at the time I didn’t see it that way.”

“Why didn’t you just tell me that?” I asked. “Would it have been so hard to tell me the truth?”

“Yes,” Everett said quietly. “Because I don’t want to be that person anymore. I wanted a fresh start. A chance to be a better man.” He trailed off, and I looked up into his pinched face. He looked pained, as if remembering that part of his life hurt, something with which I could relate. My eyes met his, and he stroked my face. “Being raised like that does something to you, makes you want to bring others down to your own level of misery. I was a good son, did everything to make my family proud. With others, though, I could be cruel. It helped alleviate the boredom and made me feel better, at least for a little while.”

“So what changed you?”

A shadow came over Everett’s face, and he swallowed hard. “Getting away from all that,” he mumbled, looking away. “I’d done things, caused irreparable damage to lives …”

“Like what?”

His brow furrowed, creases I’d never seen before forming around his eyes. “Please don’t make me tell you that,” he pleaded, suddenly looking old, “not right now.”

Something inside me rebelled, made me want to force him to tell me. The raw anguish I saw in his eyes, however, stopped me. I knew what it was like to hold in a secret that broke me, but the fact that he wouldn’t say anything scared me. “Would it change how I feel about you?” I whispered.

The lines on his face deepened. “Maybe.”

I swallowed and looked away. “But why did you lie to me?” I asked, my voice ragged.

“Because I wanted you to see the real me, who I am now.” He stroked my cheek again, arms tightening around me. “My family’s wealthy—not just well off, but filthy rich. That might not surprise you, but for years it defined who I was in the world. I could have anything I wanted, and I took it all.”

Some of my emotion abated, and I stared at him curiously. “You’re one of the most selfless people I know.”

I watched the tension melt out of him at my words. “Thank you for saying that,” he said, exhaling a shaky breath. “I wanted to change but didn’t know how. The life surrounding me was stifling—I think you of all people can understand that—and next to impossible for me to leave. So, when the chance came, I chose a college as far away from my previous life as I could get and left it all behind, hoping for a clean slate.”

“What did you find?”

The first signs of a smile tugged at one corner of his lips. “I found out I wasn’t a big fish, even in a small pond. It was so weird, being a complete unknown; I was starting fresh like I’d wanted, and I took advantage of it. I also reconnected with old friends—Trent was going to the same college, and we clicked like we had as kids.”

“I’m glad you got your happy ending,” I murmured.

Everett must have heard the longing in my voice and stepped back. “I shouldn’t have lied to you,” he said softly, “and I can’t apologize enough for that.”

“Just promise me, no more lies, okay?” My voice wavered, but his relieved smile made my belly do flip-flops.

“Promise.”

Skye had already left sometime while Everett and I were arguing. I hadn’t even registered her departure, but decided not to bring it up. It was on the tip of my tongue to ask what his deep, dark secret was, but I stopped myself in time. At that moment, it felt too good to be in his arms, and I selfishly wanted to keep that happy feeling.

I just hoped it wouldn’t end up biting me in the ass.

* * *

The argument was still going through my mind the next day at work when Skye showed up at my piano. “I need your help.”

I pursed my lips, not sure what to say. “I’m working right now.”

“I know that and I’m sorry, but can we talk on your next break?”

A quick look at the clock told me I was due any time now, but I hesitated. “I don’t know what happened between you and your brother,” I murmured, “but it’s not really my business.”

“Please,” Skye pleaded softly, and I glanced up at her. Her thin face was pale, even behind the makeup. She looked desperate, her blue eyes so very much like Everett’s, and I felt myself relenting. “I just want to talk.”

“Fine, give me five minutes,” I said, and saw her shoulders sag with relief.

“Thank you. I’ll meet you out in the lobby.”

I’d expected her to say the bar, but she walked away before I could say anything. Intrigued despite myself, I finished my set and told the hostess I’d be taking my break, and then went out to find Skye. She wasn’t in the main lobby, so I checked the side room with the couches and saw her seated at the far corner.

She stood when she saw me, and I noticed she looked a little wobbly on her heels. “Thank you for agreeing to speak with me,” she said, her hands twisting around her small purse.

I waved a hand, uncomfortable by the formal way she spoke. “I don’t know how I can help you, or even if I should.”

“I’m dying.”

The melodramatic statement got my attention, but I just folded my arms and waited for her to finish. She must have seen the disbelief in my eyes because she reached up and, with only a moment’s hesitation, tugged at her hair. My mouth fell open in surprise as it slid sideways, revealing the pale skin crown atop her head. I stared, dumbfounded, too shocked to think of decorum. Whatever I’d been expecting, this wasn’t it.

“The cancer’s spread to my organs, and chemotherapy isn’t reducing the spread fast enough.” Skye twisted the wig in her hands, clearly uncomfortable with the nakedness. “There’s a good chance I won’t see next year, and I can’t leave my relationship with Everett like it is now.”

It took me a long moment to find my voice. “Does he know?”

“That I’m sick?” She shook her head. “He has no idea. And I don’t want him to know, not yet anyway. That’s not why I’m here. I came to make amends.”

Shaken, I sat down on the arm of the couch beside me. “What happened between you two?”

She bit her lip and looked away. I didn’t think she would answer me but finally he said, “What has he told you about us growing up?”

“That your parents were absent for most of your lives, and you two don’t have a relationship.”

A humorless smile tipped her mouth. “That’s certainly a nice way to put it. We were like every bad stereotype you see in movies, the people who were cruel just because they could be. Maybe that’s why…” She trailed off, indicating herself with the wave of a hand, then she sighed again. “There are some things money can’t buy, and apparently health is one of them. Not that Mom and Dad aren’t trying; they’re paying and donating as much as they can to get me fixed. I should be thankful they’ve finally deigned to give me any attention at all.”

She didn’t sound thankful, and if what I’d heard about them was true, maybe they didn’t deserve it. “They haven’t told him?”

Skye shook her head. “My parents tend to forget they have kids at all until something goes wrong. I’m sure he hasn’t spoken to them in ages. He disappeared right after the court ruling …”

“Court?” Everett had gone to court for something? How much did I not know about this boy?

Skye looked uncomfortable, but persisted. “Please, can you help me?”

I wavered, unsure what to do. My eyes flickered back to her bald head, and pity stirred in my heart. “What do you need me to do?” I said quietly as she readjusted her wig. I knew it helped give her the semblance of a normal life, but my heart ached for her.

“Just give me a chance to talk with him. You saw what he was like the other day—he won’t speak to me. I just want to apologize, do what I can to repair things, let him know he’s not the only one who’s changed.”

I considered her for a long moment before finally speaking. “Trent and the guys are organizing an end-of-summer party at the house.” The words came reluctantly; I still wasn’t sure if inviting her was a good idea. “It’s happening this Sunday. Find me first, and I’ll make sure he sees you.”

“Oh, thank you.”

I thought for sure she was going to break down into tears, or hug me, but she held her ground. The gratitude, however, emanated from her in waves.

“And please don’t tell him I’m sick. I’ll let him know, but I want to apologize first. I want his real forgiveness, not just his pity.”

“I don’t know what he’ll do. Whatever happened between you, I don’t think he’s forgiven it.”