I know why they’re here. Cash asked them to show me what life could be like as a member of the Murray clan. They don’t realize that people like me don’t travel by limo. We don’t visit places called Alice’s Tea Cup. We don’t consider Prada when we need to replace our worn-out sweaters.
“Because I needed the money.” Victoria holds my gaze, but there’s no agenda behind her eyes. “My brother had gone AWOL, I was taking care of my niece, and I’d just been fired.”
“I tried to talk her out of it,” Sienna says. “I didn’t want her to get hurt.”
“But I was already in too deep.”
“Did you…” Their intentions might come from the heart, but their situation is nothing like mine. Cash must not have been completely honest with them when he asked them to intervene. “…know how you felt?”
Victoria’s smile lights up her face. “Yes. Or at least, my heart did, even if my head tried to convince me otherwise.”
“Were you scared?”
“Terrified. I thought that he would wake up one day and realize what a terrible mistake he’d made. We were worlds apart. I just thought that he was too blind to see it.”
My brain is frantically trying to piece together this information with the fragments that I got from Cash and Bash. Kyle was in therapy for years because he believed that Sienna died in the car crash. Caleb used Victoria to get a psychopathic ex off his case. I know they’re trying to make me feel better, but this stuff simply doesn’t happen in the real world.
I shake my head and sit forward. “Please stop the car. I want to get out.”
“Remy?” Victoria’s smile has faded. “What is it? Do you feel sick?”
“Yes.” No. But they’ll stop the car if they think I’m going to puke.
Sienna speaks to the driver, and he pulls over on the side of the road. I climb out first. I don’t even recognize where I am, and I don’t have to pretend that I feel nauseous. Bent double, I swallow bile, my pulse racing.
Victoria rubs my back. “It’s okay, Remy. Take your time.”
Sienna hands me a glass of iced water that she got from the mini bar inside the limo. I sip it slowly. “Better?” she asks.
I nod. I’m too shaky to speak.
“Have you eaten today?” Victoria asks.
When Cash vowed to call me every mealtime, it was cute, comical, charming. But I sense an ally in Victoria and Sienna. They’ve done the whole pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding versus formula thing.
“No.”
“Fancy a hot dog?” Sienna asks.
I smile. “With ketchup.”
Sienna dismisses the driver and we grab hot dogs from the nearest street vendor.
The first mouthful is heaven. I lick ketchup from the corner of my mouth and giggle when Victoria catches a slice of stringy fried onion in her hand.
We start walking with no particular destination in mind.
“I don’t want to scare you,” Sienna says, “but we are being followed by a couple of bodyguards.”
My hot dog freezes partway to my mouth. “They still don’t believe me.”
I’m no longer hungry. I scrunch the paper around my food and scan the sidewalk for the nearest trashcan. I don’t understand. They said that they would do whatever made me happy. They offered to buy me an apartment. They… I can’t even think about what happened on the rooftop and in Bash’s kitchen.
Sienna places a hand on my arm, and Victoria blocks my path.
“What are you talking about?” Victoria asks.
“The bodyguards. They’re following me because they think I’m working with my ex.”
