I don’t know how to respond.
“Tell me.”
“My mother.” I close my eyes.
More tears. They leak out, and he catches them with the pads of his fingers. He collects them like memorabilia, savoring them before they disappear.
“I think she’s finally set me aside for good.” I force myself to look at his face, to absorb his reaction. “She does that, you know. She forgets things, leaves them behind. I didn’t think she’d do that to me… but I haven’t talked to her in months.Actuallytalked to her.”
He scowls. “Parents are overrated.”
I touch his cheek. Of course he thinks that. His mom… he has happy memories of her, but she’s gone. And his father is the authority in his life. The loveless, political, power-hungry authority.
My mom did love me, but my father dying changed her. It ripped her up on the inside.
How do I compete with a broken heart?
“You and me, Vi,” he swears. “Okay? That’s all we need.”
I nod carefully. “That, and your teammates, and my friends. They’re our support system, too. Deep down, I think you love them just as much as I love Willow, Jess, and Amanda.”
He hesitates.
“If you didn’t trust Steele, you wouldn’t have had him in the locker room with you,” I point out. “And if you did something to Jack, I think you would’ve had someone with you for that, too. Or did you fly solo?”
I hold my breath. I never got concrete confirmation that he did anything to Jack. And while I don’twantto know what almost happened to me, I think I deserve the truth.
He sees my determination and sighs. He opens a video on his phone.
Jack is in the frame, hunched on the ground with the cliffs of the point behind him and the lake glistening in the moonlight in the distance. He’s looks like he went through a battering ram. His face is bruised and bleeding. He glares at someone off camera.
Greyson watches me. “Are you sure you want to know? You just… I just found you on the floor, Vi. Maybe wait a day.”
I shake my head and hit play.
“I went to her apartment after I saw the press release. I have a prescription to help me sleep. I brought some with me and crushed them up to put in her drink. It took a little while for it to hit her. I didn’t even have to force her to her bedroom—she walked there on her own two feet. I was going to fuck her, and I was going to video it and send it to you.”
Jack pauses.
“I’ve been dating Violet forever. She’s been by my side for the past three years. And then you come crashing into her life, and suddenly she wants nothing to do with me.”
He shuffles backwards a little.
“I fucking hate her for that. It’s a betrayal. She just left me? No.”
From off camera, Greyson asks, “You wanted to win her back?”
He laughs. “I fucking tried to mess with her head like you do. Especially after that video of her blowing me was posted. But instead of reacting like she does to you, she just… was done with me.”
It ends. The camera goes black.
At least it sort of confirms that Greyson didn’t take on Jack alone—but still, hearing those disgusting words come out of Jack’s mouth is something Iwasn’tprepared for. I shudder.
“Why did you come to my apartment that night?”
He scowls and looks away. “A fucking fluke. I wanted to see up close and personal how you were handling the press release.”
“Asshole,” I mutter.