“And now I’ve got a recording that makes you look as vulnerable as you made me and Jillie.” Leo’s tone is hard, almost hateful.
“You took something that was… intimate, private, andbeautifulfrom me. You were going to make it dirty. What would it have done to me, to Leo, if you’d released that video?”
“Everyone would know what a whore you really are!” Ella shouts.
I roll my eyes and snicker. “I’m not a whore. I’ve only had sex twice and both times with thesame person.”
She laughs. “You’re pathetic.”
“Not as pathetic as you. It’s sad how you go around panting after Leo, hoping he can protect you from the big bad boys of the world. I hate to tell you, Ella, but you’re no better than they are. If you hadn’t treated Damon like a second-rate citizen, he would have stood by you. But you’d never have done that, right? He’s lesser than you because his skin is brown. Isn’t that what you think, what your parents taught you to believe?”
She screams and launches herself at me. Leo catches her around the waist.
I look at him with disappointment. “Aww. I wanted to play with her.”
He laughs. “I think it’s better this way. Remember, her dad’s a lawyer.”
“Mhmm, I remember that. I wonder what her lawyer daddy would think of her illegally recording you and me having sex? I wonder what he’d think—what her mama and her friends would think—if they ever found out the whole Damon story.”
She seethes. “They never will. They won’t believe a word you say. Besides, you don’t know what you’re talking about.”
I look smugly over Ella’s head to Leo. Her face fills with shock.
“Don’t I?” I ask.
Leo nods. “You do.”
I nod in return then lower my gaze to Ella’s. “I bet your daddy would believe every word Leo has to say—since it’s the truth you’ve been hiding.”
“You wouldn’t,” she whispers.
I shrug. “I don’t get you, Ella.”
“Which part?” Audrey says as they all make their way toward us.
“The part where she treats Leo like shit after he stepped up and kept her secret for her, protecting her, then she goes out and throws him to the wolves. I imagine his football career would have gone down the drain if he’d had a sex scandal on the books. You’d have ruined his life, and I don’t think you even care,” I tell her.
“Leo…” she pleads as he pushes her aside and wraps an arm around my shoulders.
He shakes his head. “I’ve gone over the lines of friendship for you, Ellen, but since you made that tape and threatened me with it, you’ve been on your own. You just didn’t know it until now.”
“How could you do that to someone whose father just died?” Isla asks.
Carlos steps up. “Am I dirty to you because I’m brown?” He licks her face and she screeches, wiping where he licked. “I hate to tell you, Ella, but the world’s full of people of all colors. You know Oprah—a black woman—is richer than you. She’s richer than Gianna’s family a hundred times over.”
Isla hugs Carlos. “And we’ve had a—gasp—black President.”
“It’s time you get over this racist shit. It’s time you stop thinking you’re better than everyone, because we all come from place, we all live in the same world, and we all bleed red,” I tell her. “If you didn’t already have a broken nose, I’d punch you—hard—for this, for doing this to menowwhile my life is… it doesn’t matter. You don’t care. You only care about you.”
“One day that’s all you’re going to have left,” Brent tells her as he unpins the broach. He holds it up. “Camera.” Holds out his hand. I take out the earpiece and remove the microphone from beneath my top. “Sound.”
She starts to cry. “Are you going to use that?”
“Keep wondering,” I tell her, and we leave her sitting in her own misery. Maybe she’ll go in the church and find some solace; maybe she’ll do some soul searching; but doubt it.
