Guy and Chester came forward, standing on the side.
Guy said to Matt, “What the fuck?”
Matt’s eyes flicked once to Guy before returning to Victoria. “Whatever happened between you and Kash is in the past—”
An unnatural laugh rippled from her.
It was unsettling to see.
“I’m not talking in the past.” She tipped her head back and let out that laugh, and an icy shiver trailed down my spine. Her eyes came back to me. “Unless we’re talking ‘the past’ as in twenty-four hours ago.”
She waited.
A beat.
Her words penetrated.
They penetrated hard, and I stumbled back a step.
I felt kicked in the chest.
A whoosh came out of me. I lost air, and the force was emotional, but it staggered me.
Pain ripped through me like a thousand knives sticking in, all at once.
My vision blurred.
“Matt,” Torie growled in warning.
I shook my head. I was hurting, but I had to hear this. I didn’t know why. I just did.
“He fucked me hard. He flew me to Greece, making me come over and over again on the plane. And it didn’t stop there. He was insatiable. What have you been doing?” Another sick laugh from her. “Or maybe I should be saying, what haven’t you been doing? What’s the problem, Bailey? Not enough for him? Or maybe it’s something else. I bet it’s something else.”
Her voice dropped, softening. She was trying to be gentle.
The look didn’t fit on her face.
It was a farce.
Victoria was hard, angry, and bitter. Her attempting to be pitying was a farce. She looked like the Joker.
I reeled from what she was saying.
Kash was on a trip.
How would she have known that unless she went with him?
“Or maybe it’s like mother, like daughter? You were his side piece, just like your mother was for Peter Francis.”
“That’s enough!” From Tamara this time. “Shut her up! Shut up.”
“Victoria,” Matt growled next to me.
Victoria ignored Tamara, her eyes going to Matt. Some of that pitying look dwindled. “It’s the truth, Matt. You know it. He stepped out on your mom with her mom. How can you stand next to her knowing that? That her mom helped destroy your chance to have two parents—”
“SHUT UP!” He was in her face, his hands in tight fists, but he was holding himself back. Barely, though. “You know that wasn’t the deal with my mother. And as for Bailey, you should stop while you’re ahead, because in two seconds she’s going to pull her head out of her ass and she’s going to remember the world stands up, not down. She’s going to light into you and you’re going to be nothing but a sniveling piece of shit on the floor.”
She shook her head, another laugh. “You’re sweet for thinking I can still feel anything like that.” She moved past him, coming toward me, almost swaying in a smooth manner.
She ignored how Matt shifted, too.
She added, “He must not have told you. I’m not surprised. He was like that with me. He didn’t tell me things. Always working. Always having some battle to handle. And yeah, he was as obsessed with Calhoun back then as I imagine he must be now. It’s all a joke, you know. You do know that, right? I know Calhoun. He does have some bad business colleagues, but the man himself is a sweet grandfather. All he’s been doing is trying to get close to Kash.”
No.
I hissed, drawing air in.
That pierced me. Hard.
“I can see that Kash has you believing the lies, but it is all truly a lie. Calhoun just wants to know his grandson.” She leaned in, her face so close to mine. I felt her breath. “Except for how he was with me. It was almost a frenzy, as if he hadn’t been touched in years. That’s how much he needed me. I think he just needed a hole that wasn’t yours. He plunged in and he kept going. He wasn’t even seeing me; his need was making him blind to who he had underneath him.”
“You’re such a bitch.” From Matt.
I couldn’t speak.
I couldn’t move.
She was pounding me, over and over again, and I couldn’t move to stop it.
I wanted to think she was lying …
But …
Was he tired of me?
He hadn’t called yesterday, until last night, but I knew something happened.
My stomach heaved.
“What hurts the most?” She was snapping at me, but also taunting in the same tone. “That he fucked someone else? Or that he was so blind in his need to fuck someone else, he didn’t care who it was?”
She sliced me open with the last two questions.
Girl.
I heaved again, but in relief.
Finally.
That voice in my head wasn’t mine. It was Chrissy Hayes. It was me. It was all of the Hayes women, and I knew what else she was about to say to me.
You shut that fucking bitch up now. Even if you’re questioning your boy, you don’t take that shit from her. You don’t take that shit from anyone. Never let ’em see your insides. She doesn’t get to have the last word. She doesn’t get that pleasure. It’s yours. So take it. Now!