How did we not know anyone else was there?
“Y—you filmed us?!” I bellow the words out and try and reach for her phone, but she yanks it out of my reach.
“Don’t even think about it,” she warns, “I have copies on my laptop, my computer—on everything.”
Oh my God. Stacey has seen us. She’s watched us both have sex. It’s vile. It’s abhorrent that she has this. Sweat trickles down from my neck, suffocating my every sense.
“She’s a minor, you can’t release that,” I say smugly, concealing the fear slicing my chest.
I should be worried about myself. If this gets leaked, everyone will know I’m a lesbian, everyone will see me in my most intimate moments. My mother will be laughed at, berated even. Yet for some reason, all I can think about is how this will affect Adaline.
“So? You think that matters? Once this video is released it will never be forgotten.” She shakes her head, she still hasn’t stopped smiling. “You lay one finger on me and I’ll give my brother my passwords and get him to release the video.”
“You’d really risk going to jail?” I ask, astonished at her behaviour.
She scoffs. “This is England, if you have money you can get away with anything.”
Every person I expelled. Every person I mistreated just because I could; the memories burn me. This is what I sounded like; this is what I used to be like. Or maybe this is who I always will be. It’s disgusting.
“You would sink this far? What is wrong with you?”
“It’s like you always used to say, don’t you remember?” she mimics me. “'There is no line you can’t cross, girls. If you want something, hurt whoever you have to.'”
I said that? I said something so disgusting and she imprinted it within her mind and is now using it against me? I wonder how many other girls heard the same thing and ran with it; I wonder how many other lives I’ve ruined from my fleeting comments.
This must be what people mean when they talk about karma. I understand it now. I deserve it, all aspects of it. But Adaline? She doesn’t deserve this.
“So? What do you want?!” I plead.
“I want Adaline out of your life.”
“What? Why?”
“Why? Why?” she repeats like an angry maniac. “You broke my fucking hand for her, Juliette. For months, I tried to forget about it, but I can’t!” She walks closer to me. “You treated her like shit for years and now suddenly, you’re going on dates with her? What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“I’m sorry for breaking your hand,” I say hurriedly. “I’m sorry okay!”
“Sorry? You think sorry is gonna fix this?” she spits harshly. “What does she have that I don’t?”
The question knocks the wind out of me as does the way her bottom lip quivers. Stacey sounds…jealous. I should probably play along with it, but I cannot even fathom it.
“Everything,” I retort defiantly.
Adaline is everything Stacey isn’t. She’s kind, compassionate, and ferocious, but she doesn’t take it out on others! She’s everything that I wish I was.
She clenches her jaw. “Breakher heart, Juliette, because if you don’t, this video will.”
My heavy breathing echoes through the room. What am I supposed to do? If this video gets released Adaline’s future will be ruined. We might live in a progressive era, but it’s not as progressive for women as we might think. This is a scar, a burn that lives with you forever. Her career would be ruined. She wouldn’t be able to be a doctor. Everything she loves, everything she’s ever wanted, it would vanish into thin air.
A knock on the door startles me out of my thoughts and Stacey shoots me a warning glance. I roll my eyes at her and open the door. I think God hates me or likes to play cruel tricks on me, because out of any day she could choose, Adaline chose today to be standing in front of my door.
Chapter FOURTY
A d a l i n e
“So,what do you think?” Adam asks proudly, jutting his chest out and squaring his shoulders.
We’re currently at Mackenzie’s tailor's shop. It’s a quaint little building around five minutes from my house. Today is Adam's final fitting before his wedding. His friends are running a little late so it’s just me and him here.
