But Jake showed no signs of backing down. In fact, after the sippy cup incident, he appeared to be itching for a fight. “All I’m saying is, good for you. You made your stand. But then what? You run away? Turn off your phone? Don’t deal with the situation when your whole career now depends on you making quick, sound decisions? If you’re going to take a risk like that, at least be a man and back it up.”
I was not liking one thing that came out of my brother’s mouth. It didn’t matter that everything he said was probably true. I’d never been good at accepting criticism from Jake. When it came to me, he had a way of wrapping everything in condemnation.
“Good thing it’s none of your business, then.”
“I disagree. The minute you walked off that stage, Quinn, you made it my business—hell, you made it all of our business.”
My leg began to thump, an early sign of combustion. “I’m so sorry to have inconvenienced you all. I didn’t realize I was supposed to clear all my fuckups with the family first.”
“Wait. Is that a thing?” Kyle asked. “I haven’t cleared any of mine.”
His joke dropped like an anchor.
Kenzie whispered something only he could hear.
Why had I even bothered coming here? The paparazzi would be preferable to this inquisition. “I didn’t do it for attention, if that’s what you all think.”
“Then what did you do it for?”
“Jake, stop!” Casey warned, grabbing his arm. “Quinn is right—it’s none of your business.”
I unraveled from Emma and rose from the oversized chair, my fists clenched. “I did it for you!”
“For me?” Jake protested.
“Yes. I did it for you. And you and you,” I said, pointing out various family members. “I did it because the show disrespected our family.”
“By showing the truth?” Emma asked.
“No. By exploiting it.”
“But you had to know they’d do that,” she countered. “The show thrives on drama.”
“No, I didn’t know it. Because they promised me the focus would be on me and my career and not Jake and his goddamn kidnapping. I mean, does everything in our lives have to revolve around that?”
The room fell silent, my hastily spoken words ricocheting back at me. Shit. It slipped out. We never talked about the kidnapping. It just wasn’t done. And now, thanks to me, it couldn’t be undone.
Jake got up and left the room. Casey followed close behind.
I stomped off in the other direction.
* * *
How was I the asshole? Jake’s comments were no less damning than mine. Okay, mine were way more damning. The kidnapping was a taboo topic. I knew better. But I also knew Jake would get over it. He always did. The unusual part of growing up McKallister was that despite the feelings of rejection and neglect I still harbored toward my family from the time when I was a small child and left to fend for myself, I was also fiercely devoted to them. Maybe it was because we’d been forced to come together as a cohesive unit to fight against an outside force trying to destroy us that we’d all bonded like glue. So, when blowups like this happened, I was barely fazed. I knew it was only temporary. That was how it was done in our family. We huffed. We puffed. We blew the place down. And then we came back together like we’d never been apart. That was our family. Dysfunction at its finest.
I found a spot outside by the fire pit, a place to be alone until the storm settled, and that was where I checked on Jess, hoping she’d responded to my text, but there was nothing. I’d thought for sure she would’ve texted back by now. Why the delay? Now I was getting genuinely worried. Was her emergency of the irreversible kind? God, I hoped not. Jess didn’t deserve to deal with stuff like that. Her life had already been hard enough without added stress piled on.
“Hey, hon,” Mom said, walking over the grass to take one of the many empty spots beside me. “You’ve had an eventful few hours, haven’t you?”
“Skip the pleasantries. I’m in no mood.”
“I can see that. You came in hot.”
“No, I came in like campfire ash—cooled and contained. You’re the ones who fanned the flames.”
Her lips pursed as she nodded. Clearly, she did not agree with my version of events. What was new?
“Quinn, what your brother said wasn’t nice.”
