1
Laney
“You’re doingthe right thing, Laney.” Camila Valmont smiled and offered her hand to me. “Come on. Let’s go to the clubroom. You can hide out in there as long as youwant.”
I nodded shakily, my stomach full of knots. Then I looked over at Hunteragain.
I didn’t know what I was expecting to see. Some sort of sign, maybe. Something to show me that this was all wrong, and my abject humiliation in the auditorium had nothing to do withhim.
That was the effect he had on me. Even when I knew he was guilty, and he hurt me so terribly, I still found myself craving his touch and the sound of his voice. All he’d ever done was lie and lie and lie, and I fell for it every single time. And lord have mercy… I’d probably fall for it all over again if I gave him half achance.
His brows shot up when he noticed me looking, and he called out to me over the top of Trina’s head. “Laney, comehere!”
I almost did. The tips of my fingers and toes itched with the need to go over and hear him out. Surely there was some sort of explanation for why he did this. Some rational reason for him to have shown that awful video to the entireschool.
Adam nudged my arm. “Don’t listen to him,” he muttered. “Don’t even look athim.”
I swallowed hard. He was right. I had to stay away from Hunter, because there wasn’t a single excuse in the world that could justify what he did today. Even if he genuinely felt bad about it after seeing my shattered reaction back in the auditorium, it didn’t matter. What he did was unforgivable, and whatever brief relationship we’d shared had died a fiery, irreparabledeath.
I took a deep breath and looked away fromhim.
Camila and the other Medusa girls started leading me out of the foyer, toward the hall which led to their clubroom. As we walked, Hunter kept shouting my name from behindus.
I turned and risked another quick glance at him over my shoulder, unable to help myself. Trina was still trying her best to block his attempts to catch up to me. When he called out my name again, I saw her lean in and say something to him with narrowedeyes.
After that, he stopped calling for me. His face darkened, and he stood and watched me leave, hands clenched in fists at hissides.
I tore my eyes away from him again, sickness roiling in mybelly.
“I’ll stand out here and make sure Hunter doesn’t try to get inside,” Adam said to Camila when we reached the door with the golden snake emblem. “I’ll tell Trina to come too, when she’s finished yelling athim.”
Camila nodded. “That’s a good idea,” she said as she slipped a key into the door. She pushed it open and stepped aside, gesturing toward the lavishly-decorated room beyond. “After you,Laney.”
One of the other girls led me over to the dark mahogany table in the center of the room. “Take a seat,” she said softly, gesturing to one of the ornately-carved chairs scattered around thetable.
As soon as I sank onto the plush salmon-pink cushion on the seat, a fresh set of tears welled up in my eyes. I did my best to keep them from spilling out, but the sadness engulfed me, squeezing my chest in a vise and firing spears of agony through the rest ofme.
I leaned forward and cried into my hands. Camila patted me on the shoulder and spoke to me in a low, soothing tone. “It’s okay. Let itout.”
The tears kept flowing, and my words were barely coherent as they rushed out of me between sobs. “Why… why wouldhe….”
“Shh.” Camila rubbed my back. “We can talk about it later. Just sit here for now and let it allout.”
“Trust me, it’ll make you feel better,” Kiri added. “By the way, can you give me yourphone?”
I sucked in a deep breath and wiped my eyes. “My phone?” Icroaked.
“Kiri is good with tech stuff. She’s going to do something to help you out,” Camilasaid.
I pulled my cell out of my blazer pocket and handed it to her, chest still heaving with sobs. Then I leaned forward again and closed my eyes, letting the tears stream down myface.
My body trembled as I blubbered, and snot started to slide out of my nose, mixing with the tears to form long, wet strings that slid through my hands and dripped over my lap. I knew I looked like a disgusting mess, but I couldn’t stop bawling. Bawling for the loss of my innocence all those years ago, the loss of the relationship I thought I was building with Hunter, and the loss of my life as I knew it just an hourago.
My mind raged against the injustice of it all. Why did so many fucked-up things have to happen to me? Was I just unlucky enough to attract the wrong people into my world? Or was it all my fault for making such awfuldecisions?
Of course it’s your fault,an insidious little voice whispered in the back of my mind.You let Hunter seduce you so easily. You’re pathetic. So fuckingpathetic.
I tried to tell myself that I couldn’t have known what he was up to—after all, he was so convincing when he said he was sorry for everything he did to me—but the voice kept whispering to me, drowning out everythingelse.