“Lovely.” I wiped my mouth as I hesitantly arched my neck from side to side to work out an aching kink.
Sounds from downstairs filtered up to my childhood bedroom. My family was awake, and I could smell bacon. My stomach grumbled because I hadn’t eaten much in the last thirty-six hours. I’d been too worried about January, even though she assured me she was fine. She’d been in a black cab when a white van ran a red light and smashed into the side of them. Unfortunately, because the cab was going to pull over once it was through the lights, Jan had removed her seat belt.When the van smashed into them, she went flying off the bench seat and broke her wrist upon trying to catch her fall. It could have been way worse.
The thought of anything happening to her had plagued me and my parents. Eventually, assured by her grumpy insistence that she was fine, I tried to get some studying in and spent most of last evening doing just that.
I reached for my phone. It thankfully was charging on my bedside table. I swiped the screen to check the time.
It was after nine in the morning.
Noting a couple of text notifications, I frowned when I saw one of them was from Zac. Since we rarely texted, I clicked on it.
You need to know who he really is.
The words were attached to an image that caused the room to start spinning wildly.
My heart raced in this fluttery panicked way that made me jittery and nauseated. It also made it hard for me to think clearly. I watched my sister study the image on my phone and tried not to hyperventilate as I revisited the photo in my mind. After all, it was burned on my brain now.
It was a photo of a half-naked woman straddling Sebastian while they kissed on the bedwe’dmade love in, in his family’s villa.
Poor Jan, with her broken wrist and bruised ribs, had come into my room to wake me up for breakfast only to find me near to passing out at the evidence Zac had sent that the man I loved was cheating on me.
“Did you look at this properly?” Jan asked, expression dead serious for once.
“It’s imprinted on my bloody brain,” I gritted out, nausea rolling in my gut. “I feel sick.”
“Okay, let’s take a minute. Before you saw this photo, would you believe Sebastian would cheat on you?”
No! I believed if Sebastian no longer wanted to be in a relationship with me, he’d break things off first. He might have been a player, but he wasn’t some horndog, as my mum would say, who couldn’t keep it in his pants. The man had self-control and decency. He was more honorable than that!
Oh.
Jan gave me a toothless, grim smile. “That’s what I thought. Look at it again. Really look at it.”
I shakily and reluctantly took the phone from her. Jan had zoomed in on a portion of the photo. The strange female with her mouth on Sebastian. My pulse increased. Suddenly, the photo told a completely different story. It looked like she was kissing him, and he was screwing his face up, his hands pushing her away, not pulling her close.
“Your boy doesn’t look like he’s enjoying himself. Your boy looks like he’s trying to push her off him.”
So many questions roiled in my head. “How did she end up in the room with him half-naked? How did it get that far? Why would Zac send me this?”
“I have no answer for you.” Jan gave me a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. “But I wouldn’t go jumping to conclusions. If you trust your guy, you should talk it out with him.”
I didn’t know if I was brave enough to. Having been cheated on multiple times, it was extremely hard for me to not trust theobvioustale the photo told. “Maybe I should call Sierra and Maddie. See if they know anything. Before I call Sebastian.”
“Sounds like a plan. I’ll be downstairs eating your bacon roll since your appetite is probably gone.”
I grimaced. “I’m sorry. I didn’t even ask how you are?”
“Eh, forgiven, considering the circumstances. And I’m okay. I promise. Come find me if you need me. I won’t tell Mum and Dad what’s going on.”
“Thanks.”
She gave me an awkward one-armed hug because she was still wary of moving her left arm with the cast on. I hugged her back, trying to hold in my panicked tears, and waited until she’d left the room before I shakily called Sierra.
My friend picked up on the tenth ring with a groggy, “Ullo?”
“Sierra, it’s me.”
“Lil?”
