My tone stops him from throwing things into the bag, but as he trains his gaze back onto me, I wish I had never said anything.
“I’m helping you, sweetheart. The sooner we can get your shit packed up, the sooner you can get the fuck out of all of our lives.”
“I’m not going anywhere—”
“I saw you with Lawrence!” His face reddens with rage as he screams. “You were laughing and having a grand time with that scum, and God knows how long you’ve been working with him to get to me. You almost had me, but I found you out just in time. So it’s time for you to go.”
I breathe a sigh of relief. Okay, he’s super mad, but he just doesn’t understand. Clearly, he knows Lawrence as the asshole who emerged in the second half of our meeting, which makes sense given how Lawrence seemed to hate him. I can’t blame him for being mad if their history is as bad as it seems.
“Sash—”
“Don’t!” he yells, holding his hand out to silence me. “I don’t want to hear any more lies. Lawrence has been trying to fuck my family over for years, and I stop to get you dinner just to find you having lunch with him like an old friend? There’szeroreason for you to even know him, Lucy. So don’t feed me some bullshit answer. Everything you own is going into these trash bags, and you’re getting the fuck out of my life.”
He’s slowly stalked toward me during his diatribe, and by the time he finishes, I’m against the living room wall. Only an inch of space separates us, and now that he’s close, I can see the hurt in his eyes. Thepain. Oh, my poor Sasha.I’m remindedof volunteering at the animal shelter in high school and how dogs that were injured would lash out defensively to protect themselves from further harm. I take a deep breath, smellinghimunderneath the blood and sweat he’s soaking in, and soften my voice again to whisper the truth.
“You know I never knew my dad. A lawyer contacted me a few months ago about a trust established in my name, but he couldn’t tell me who had initiated it. The only information I had led me to the city, and Lawrence told me he could get me a job working for your mom to find out more. I used one of the twins’ bows to test. It’s been on the back burner since, well…Since you and I got so close. The results came in, though, and it’s a match, Sasha. I’m related to the Sinclairs…” He clenches but doesn’t pull back when I gently reach for his hand, rubbing little circles on his palm and avoiding his raw knuckles.
“I was going to tell you tonight because the Lawrence I had lunch with today was so different from the man I thought wanted to help me. He was pushy, and mean, and he scared me. I promise, Sasha, I was going to tell you everything. I’m sorry I haven’t already.”
His breathing has slowed, and although his eyes are distrustful, they’re softer than before. I can work with this. He was upset, and without knowing the extent of what Lawrence had done—or tried to do—to Sasha’s family, it was clearly bad.
“Let’s take a shower, okay?” Pulling him behind me slowly, I move toward the bathroom. “I can tell you more about how he acted at lunch, and you can tell me—”
Sasha wrenches his hand from mine, and I turn to find him even more upset than before.
“No! I don’t want to hear another fucking thing from you, Lucy. I won’t ever believe another thing you say. You’ve come in here with your acting background and used me to spy on and get close to the Sinclairs. No wonder you opened your legs soeasily when Blanche suggested it, not even just for me, but for all those other men, too. What have you learned? There’s no way it was just the stupid DNA test that kept you here. I’ll bet you’ve used your time more wisely than that. Nobody would have been around to see you go into Blanche’s office, and you’ve known my phone password for weeks now. What have you found out?” He hasn’t approached me again, but he’s raised his voice at me over something I didn’t do for the last time. Hurt or not, this guy is way out of line.
“You need to leave,” I say quietly, mortified by the tears forming in my eyes. Don’t cry over a man, Lucy. Come on. You’re better than this. “I’m telling you the truth, and I don’t deserve to be yelled at like this. Leave.”
He listens to me for some reason, dropping the garbage bag he was still holding and stomping out the front door as quickly as he entered. His engine roars as he speeds back down the driveway, and I feel the adrenaline fading from my veins, replaced with cold, nauseating dread.
A sniffle turns into a sob as I fall to the floor where I stand, the draining pain of the past twenty minutes hitting me at once. It washes over me, the feeling of rejection that I know all too well at this point in my life. Have I ever felt this discarded by someone who I thought loved me? I’ve certainly never felt so unseen or unheard as when he strode out of our home, not even looking back to see me in pain. I thought he was giving me a chance to explain things, then he snapped again out of nowhere.
Breathing through my erratic thoughts, I pick myself up from the floor and try to stop shaking. He was right about one thing. I need to get out of here. I can go home, call Amanda, and…
Shit.I can’t call Amanda. She’s still on her trip halfway around the world. And with Mom gone…I’m alone. Nobody is waiting for me in California, and although I could call any of my less-close friends for a place to crash for a while, I doubt any of them would be interested in me taking up more space in their lives.
I can’t stop my laughter from bubbling out of my throat. It’s so typical for me to feel at peace here, in this cottage that we made a home in such a short time, only to have it ripped away. And now I have to leave…Or do I?Who says I have to leave? Not Blanche, who owns the place. I’ll be damned if I’m going to get scared out of here because Sasha decided to let his true colors show.
That asshole made an entire speech about me being a liar, but he’s the one who acted like a toddler, storming out over a misunderstanding after he made me think we had something real. He told me he was no good, though. Clearly, I should have listened.
My tears dry as I feel my spine steel.Fuck that guy.I’m not crying over another goddamn man, and I’m not leaving. Blanche has been lovely to me, and I came here with a mission to find out about my dad. Now that I know I have a family, I’m not fucking leaving.Hecan leave. Or he can stay here and deal with me ignoring him, except for scenes. Sasha was a coworker and nothing more once, and he can go back to that again. I’ll leave when I’m ready and not a second before.
I’m still standing in the living room, no longer shaking, but with my fists clenched and fingernails digging into my palms. Forcing myself to relax, I head to the kitchen to brew a fresh cup of tea and keep trying to center myself. Before it cools enough to drink, I hear Sasha’s car approach the cottage at a more normal speed, and he enters without slamming the door behind him.
“Why the fuck are you still here?” The malice in his voice is still there, but his tone is deadly cool instead of fiery heat.
I give him my most saccharine smile. “Why would I go anywhere? I live here. Pretty sure I’ll have scenes to film next week for Blanche. Whether it’s with you or the next guy she hires.”
His head tilts slowly to the side as he appraises me, and I sip my tea, unbothered by his assessment. Finally, his gaze meets mine again, and I can’t help but shiver at the sinister twinkle in his eye.
“You really want to stay, Sunshine?”
My nickname sounds like poison as it drips from his lips. I nod.
He brushes past me into the bathroom, knocking my shoulder with his and sloshing my tea onto the floor.
“It’s not going to be pleasant for you to stay. I told you I wasn’t a nice guy. You should reconsider.” He slams the bathroom door, and I hear the shower running.
