A soreness in my lungs spread through my throat, and I forced the words out. “Do you expect me to wait forever?” My voice cracked at the end, failing me. “’Cause I won’t.”
I wanted to wipe her tears away, comfort her, go find Alec and wring his fucking neck for treating his sister this way. I was fucking dying, and I knew acting this way wasn’t helping the situation.
“I love you, Sydney.” I threw my last card out there, waiting, agonizing. “And I need you to get on that plane with me in a couple of days, just like we planned.” There it was—my ultimatum. Like thunder shattering a silent sky, the boom of fireworks in the night, it was clear and obvious.
More tears fell down her cheeks, and I was sure I was a blur in front of her.
Her skin was splotchy as she wiped at her nose. “Austin … please, I need to go.”
Everything inside of me went hard then. Stone. Against my will, I lifted my hand, and she scurried out the door, away from me. Couldn’t get away fast enough.
I stood there for who knows how long, wishing and hoping she’d turn around, regretting that she’d left like that. But I knew she wouldn’t.
So, I shut the door, my head downturned, heartbroken as my world bottomed out.
CHAPTER39
SYDNEY
I drove home as fastas I could. Great. Serena’s car was in the driveway. Everyone seemed to be at the house, and though my phone was blowing up, I didn’t bother to pick it up. I thought it might be Austin, but I didn’t have the emotional capability to deal with that. Right now, I had to defuse an already-volatile Alec.
When I entered the house, the chaos hit me in the face.
“Alec, calm down,” Serena said, blocking the path to the door.
Addison was crying in the corner.
Lyria was comforting her.
And Serena and Alec were in a showdown.
“Give me the keys!”
“Not when you’ve been drinking. Are you stupid?” Serena reached for his keys and plucked them from his fingers.
Alec had a duffel bag in one hand, stuffed with clothes. “I’m not drunk,” he argued.
Serena glowered at him. “Nice argument when you reek of liquor.”
I stepped forward, hoping to be of use, hoping to help. I’d started this after all. All of it really. Brandy had been found out because of me. I wasn’t condoning what she did, but still, it was me who’d found her.
“Alec …”
All eyes turned my way.
He hardened. I’d never seen such hatred in his eyes directed at me. “And the traitor has arrived.”
I stood there, stunned.Traitor?
When I stepped farther in the room, Serena placed a hand on my arm. “You do not need to be here right now.”
No way. I wasn’t leaving.
I gathered a breath and my words. “I know you must feel betrayed, but I love you, Alec. I didn’t do this to hurt you.”
“Well, you did,” he fumed. “His sister blew up my fucking world, and you picked him over me. HIM!” The hurt behind his eyes was evident, and it crushed me. “You could have picked anyone, Syd,” he said, his voice breaking. “Anyone else, but you fucking picked him.” His shoulders slumped as his gaze dropped to the floor.
His stance, his posture, reminded me of when he had been a little boy, getting bullied at the playground. It was kindergarten, and I was in junior high. Brooke told us one day that kids were picking on him at recess, so we all showed up at the playground the next day.