“Stop it,” Emmett warns.
“Don’t you think they’d love to know how you and I came to meet the first time?” I continue. “The real first time we met?”
“What is she talking about?” my mom asks, whipping her head back around to Theo with concern.
Theo’s eyes look straight through me with a cold blankness.
“I introduced them,” Emmett exclaims. “Theo and I had a business deal. I introduced him to Ophelia when I realized the relation.”
I can’t help but laugh. It’s not entirely a lie, but he’s leaving out all the big important parts. Like Theo’s plans to kidnap me. The way he blackmailed the Elites and brought them under investigation. He murdered Emmett’s dad, however welcomed it may have been. But I guess I can’t tell them about that. It could be just as damaging to Emmett as it would be to Theo. And knowing him, he’d probably spin it to be all Emmett’s fault.
“Why didn’t you tell me you had met him?” Mom questions, looking shocked and hurt.
“Emmett, can I talk to you for a moment?” I beg, motioning for him to follow me into the other room.
It’s bad enough that they’re all ganging up on me, but I’m not about to sit here and take the fall for Emmett and Theo’s decisions just because no one can know what really happened. I’m tired of lying for other people. I haven’t done anything wrong.
“How could you agree to be a part of this!?” I howl in a whisper once we’re around the corner. “What am I supposed to say in there!?”
“Everyone’s just worried, Ophelia,” he insists with his big innocent, gray eyes.
“Bullshit!” I snap. “I don’t want to hear that anymore. I wish everyone would stop talking to me like I’m a child. I haven’t felt anything less than an adult from the moment I saw you for who you really were. And after everything you and Theo have put me through…I’d think you’d be a little quicker to defend me.”
“That’s just it though…I changed. Don’t you believe I’ve changed?” he asks earnestly as if his whole life depends on my answer.
My mouth opens, but the only sound is a sharp inhale building up to words that won’t come out. “I don’t always know,” I confess. “I believe you have, yes. But after all of that…sometimes it’s hard not to wonder if…if the old you is still waiting to come out.” I watch his face drop as the words sink in. “But that’s why I don’t like you being so wrapped up with Theo! If anyone can turn you back to the way you were before…it’s him.”
“Well, whether you believe it or not,” he says slowly, looking heartbroken. “I have changed. And so has Theo. I know you don’t like to see it this way, Ophelia, but your dad saved me. Whatever his intentions were then or are now…He helped me get rid of my father. A man who harmed me and plenty of others on a daily basis. If he hadn’t…I don’t know…” his voice cracks and trails off.
“I know, I’m sorry.” I rub his shoulder. “I’m glad Thomas is gone, but…”
“I think you should come sit back down,” he urges me.
My eyes tear up. I feel betrayed. Since when can Emmett not talk to me himself? He seriously thinks he needs my whole family and Theo as back up?
“Just hear what they have to say,” he adds. “Then this will all be over, and…you can think whatever you want.”
Before I can say anything else, he turns to walk back to the table. I reluctantly follow behind, telling myself I’ll just listen and keep my mouth shut from now on. Soon I’ll be leaving here anyway and whatever Theo does to them after that…well, they can’t say I didn’t warn them.
“We want you to let go of your grudge against Theo,” my mom states as soon as I sit down, not bothering to waste any time. “You don’t have to like him. You don’t even have to give much of a chance. But turning down his help for school or anything else just out of resentment is only hurting you more. And you definitely have to stop dictating everyone else’s relationships with him. Like it or not, he is a part of this family.”
I laugh under my breath again. A part of our family. I get an all-out intervention for not wanting to trust someone who has given me plenty of reasons not to trust him. But he can waltz in and out of our lives whenever he wants, screwing over whoever he wants as he goes, and we’re all expected to give him the benefit of the doubt. It’s maddening.
“Do you have anything you’d like to say to me?” Theo asks, looking like a kid waiting to be apologized to on the playground.
“Where to start,” I scoff. I look over to Emmett who is begging me with his eyes not to say anything else about what happened with Theo before. It’s too incriminating for him. “I don’t expect anyone else to understand it,” I explain instead. “I thought Emmett could, but…that’s what you do. You tell people what they want to hear and give them what they want to win them over. But I can’t be bought, Theo. I know the truth about you. And I’m never going to trust you. I don’t care what anyone says. Nothing is going to change that. And the saddest part is…I know the rest of you will be forced to face that truth eventually. I just hope it’s not too late.”
I wipe a tear from my cheek, wishing I could just bring myself to say what they want to hear. If I could just play nice with Theo and fake it, this would all go away. But I feel like I’m watching them all be led straight off the side of a cliff. How can I not speak up?
“Is that all?” I ask quietly. “Can I go now?”
“Suit yourself,” Theo says grimly.
My mom doesn’t seem to have anything else to say. Brendan and Emmett grow quiet as well. I excuse myself from the table and walk slowly to my room, still in disbelief. My heart aches as I consider the reality of it all. Had it not been for Theo and his bad ties to the Elites, I would have never been invited to WJ Prep. And all the awful things that happened after would still be distant nightmares or scenes from horror movies. They wouldn’t be my reality. All of that would have been more than enough reason to hate him. But now it feels like he has stolen my entire family from me.
Doing all I know to do, I try to call Detective Williams to see what went wrong. Why did he tell Theo I was his source? The phone rings and rings with no answer. I think it’s just as well since I’m a sniffling, sobbing mess right now. But a minute later, Coach Granger calls.
“Yes?” I answer.