DEMI
"What?" Anna stares at , perplexed. "You’re moving out? To where?"
"It’s just for a couple of days, Anna. I’ll be back." She grabs my wrist and tosses the shirts I was trying to place in my suitcase.
"Can you stop for a minute and talk to ? This is crazy."
"I know and I am sorry it’s so impromptu."
Anna makes sit on the bed and sits next to . "Demi, what exactly is going on here? Yesterday, you were a ghost of yourself and I feared you might attempt to harm yourself out of depression. And right after Ashton’s visit, you crawled into bed at two-thirty in the morning, and now you’re trying to go back on everything you had previously said. You said you were done getting involved in his family’s issues, didn’t you? So why have you been on a call with Katherine and Cree all morning, trying to figure out a way to find grandpa Rollins and his son?"
"Because I want to help, Anna, and I know I can."
"You also knew this yesterday but your resolve didn’t change. Why now?" Her eyes narrow. "Are you really back with Ashton? You know I have always rooted for you two but I love you more, Demi. I just want to be sure that you know exactly what you’re getting mixed up in, and you’re ready for whatever cos. That’s it."
Smiling warmly, I take her hands. "Thank you so much, Anna, for always looking out for . I know what I am doing. Trust ." My eyes fall to our hands. "I can’t ignore the fact that Ashton needs my help. I can’t just take a vacation or stay cooped up in here knowing how much he needs my support right now. It’s impossible when you love soone as much as I love him." I et her kind eyes that are already blurring with tears. "I know I look stupid packing my bags to go move into one of his houses right after we..."
"Mhmmm." Anna nods with understanding. "Right after you had sex with him. Say it!"
Chuckling, I slide off the bed and resu tossing my things in my suitcase. Anna leaps up as well.
"Don’t act shy now. You were a proper slut last night, rember? You told ."
"Oh gosh, I shouldn’t have told you anything." I reply with a red blush staining my cheeks and a pinch of regret.
Her arms co around my shoulders. "I know you’re trying to make it work without alerting the dia but do you really have to go? He can always visit you here when I am at work."
I turn to her. "I’m not just going to play ’girlfriend’ at his house, Anna. It’s close to the one where Skylar is being accommodated. This is more about her than it is about Ashton and I. Skylar’s bitter and vengeful. Kind of reminds of myself two years ago. I think I can relate to her pain. I want to help her brothers connect with her and hopefully restore their bond as siblings."
Anna shakes her head. "That sounds really nice and noble when you put it like that, but I’m sticking with the obvious truth: You want to have monkey sex with Ashton five hundred tis a day."
"ANNA!" I punch her arm and shove her on the bed. "Don’t put ideas in my head. Go tell that to Asher."
But her smile drops at the ntion of his na. Though she doesn’t like to talk about it, I know she’s sad that he has failed to see her as more than a fling. Their pictures splattered all over the blogs this morning with steaming speculations as to their relationship had her hopes up. She had hoped that Asher would have the decency to call her especially given how the dia had been subtly bashing her.
He hasn’t called her. I know she wishes he loved her to the point of showing her off to the world intentionally, and not as a PR stunt.
"Are you okay?" I ask when she dabs her eyes.
"I’m missing you already." She hugs tightly, sniffling. "Two weeks, okay? It can’t be a minute more or I am moving in there with you and ruining your fun." We both laugh at her threat.
"Two weeks." I promise her.
Her phone rings and when she checks, it’s Asher’s call. Her eyes light up montarily as she answers it.
"Hey..." but before she can get another word in, he says sothing that makes her smile falter. Next thing I know, she’s passing her phone to . "He wants to talk to you." Her fake smile breaks my heart. I snatch the phone.
"Asher?"
"My brothers and I are in a bit of a bind. We wouldn’t be able to go see Skylar until later. Could you go over there to keep her company before we arrive? We’ll be there in an hour max."
"Good morning to you too." I reply dryly.
"Sorry. My head’s all over the place."
I slide a glance at Anna who’s helping fold my clothes in my suitcase. Walking towards the bathroom, I lower my voice. "I’m not the one you should be apologizing to. That was rude of you to cut her off abruptly. Have you seen the blogs? The comnts on your pictures with my friend aren’t all nice, and she’s the target. You knew exactly what you were doing when you paraded her in front of the caras last night so fix this! Stop stomping all over her heart and giving her false hope if you know she ans nothing more to you than a good ti, got it?"
He remains silent for a few seconds. "Is that how she feels?"
"How else could she feel? Even a blind man can tell from a mile away when a man is toying with a woman’s emotions. This is exactly why I was against your relationship from the start. She was never your type because you don’t date seriously or fall in love. She’s the exact opposite. She wants love and commitnt, and now she’s suffering because she chose to follow her heart and trust you to change."
Anna turns to and I smile at her to fend off any suspicion. "Listen Asher, she’s no less than a sister to and if you think that you can use and dump her, you’ve got another thing coming. Speak to her NOW or I am going nowhere!" I head over to Anna and pass her phone back.
"He wants to talk to you."
Hesitantly, she takes the call. I watch her nervous laugh and tense movents finally wither away to make room for a wholeso smile. Whatever he’s saying to her, he’s good at his gas. Anna’s mood brightens in seconds. Her eyes widen with sparks shooting out of them. When the call ends, she has a hard ti keeping a straight face.
"Feel better?" I ask with a wink.
"Yeah." She says cheerily in a way that makes my heart flutter with happiness.
"I’ll have to finish packing later. Little miss Skylar needs babysitting right now. Wish luck."
"You’ll need it." Anna replies with a chuckle.
***
When I enter Asher’s duplex where he’s keeping his sister, I expect to find her snarling. What I didn’t expect is the first words that flow out of her mouth the second she sees approaching the top of the stairs from where she’s seething with anger.
"Those guards have been ogling since I woke up in this ugly house. Tell that to the dickheads that call themselves my brothers or was it your idea to keep confined in this stupid house with seven warm-blooded, grown-ass n?" She shoots an icy glare that doesn’t faze .
"Or maybe YOU are the one checking them out seeing as you already counted the guards but conveniently left out the seven female housekeepers here." I plant my hands on my hips and match the fury in her eyes while she continues to steam. "Those dickheads who call themselves your brothers are your brothers and it was their idea to make sure you’re comfortable and lack nothing in here. MY idea was to have you tied to a chair with your mouth gagged and your eyes covered. I guess you have those dickheads to thank for the freedom to wag your tongue."
She squares up to . "What exactly are you doing here? I don’t need a babysitter!"
"Sure, you do. You’re acting out like a spoilt brat, blaming everyone but yourself for your poor life decisions. You’re acting like a child, Skylar."
She closes a hand over her stomach and laughs hard. "Wow, you fool. What would it take for you to stop acting like a piece of gum stuck under the Rollins’ family shoe? This is downright embarrassing even for you, Demi, the way you desperately want them to see so value in you. I guess that is to be expected from soone with the personality of a doormat."
I ignore her jibes because I expected nothing less. She’s being intentionally rude and an to distract from reaching close to her pain. One thing becos apparent to . I can’t get through to her by being kind and understanding. People like Skylar only understand one language and I intend to speak it.
"Listen up, I am not here to coddle you. I’m here to shove your B.S down that throat of yours because I know a lot about the pain of losing one’s parents. I went down that treacherous road of revenge, thinking when I get to the end of it and hurt the people I blad for my pain, everything will suddenly feel right with the world. Guess what? It sucks even worse on the other end. That’s why I am here to make sure you don’t waste the precious ti you’ve got seeking revenge against brothers that were separated from your family even before they knew how to crawl."
"Don’t you dare act like you know anything about my family or my pain!" Her eyes are red rimd as she steps up to my face. "I don’t care what you’ve heard or what you think you know but I wager it’s still a far cry from the truth."
"THEN TELL THE TRUTH, SKYLAR. Pray tell!" Gesturing with my hands, I turn around the staircase. "You keep saying no one knows about your pain yet you wouldn’t tell us what really happened. How are we supposed to believe you?"
"I DON’T CARE FOR YOUR BELIEF OR ANYONE ELSE’S." She snaps at . "These tactics won’t work on . Stop wasting my ti. If you aren’t here to tell those robots to let out of here, then leave from my sight and go get soone with real power. I hope that at least you can be useful and do sothing else besides bouncing from one quad’s dick to another."
Rage unfurls in my belly. "Watch your mouth, Skylar."
"Or what? What could you possibly do to ?" She flashes her eyes at . "Hit ? Go ahead. I dare you to try it."
I grit my teeth and clench my fists. "You’re such a spoilt brat. Who the fuck raised you?"
"A living parent. And yes, I’d much rather be a spoilt brat than a shaless excuse of a daughter who keeps defending the very family that destroyed hers just because of so dick. I bet your parents are rolling in their graves for being cursed with an only child as dumb as you..."
Eyes stinging and vision red, my hand flies across her face before I can stop myself. Everything else happened fast, perhaps too fast. One second, Skylar is spouting hurtful words in my face and the very next after I hit her, she’s falling over the stairs just as the quads arrive. They scream her na at the top of their lungs, rushing towards her. When she finally hits the ground, blood trickles from the back of her head onto the white floor.
My vision blurs as they surround her at the base of the staircase, cradling her head, yelling for help, calling for an ambulance.
"I can’t feel a pulse." Ashley says with a shaky voice. Asher picks Skylar into his arms and dashes for the door while everyone trails after him except Ashton.
He looks up at , his hands bloody. His eyes communicate fear for his sister’s life and pain to see caught in the web again. Feeling listless, my legs give way and I drop to my knees, staring at my quivering hands.
What have I done?
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