Just like with John, Fox wasdrawing attention to himself to take the heat off me. I knew I needed to faceUncle Vincent myself, but it was good to have a few seconds to gather mythoughts. I wanted answers, but I had no idea what questions to ask.
Instead, I held the notebookup so he could see it.
“Why?” I asked, my voiceunsteady. “Why do this to me? Whatfor?”
Vincent’s gaze barelyflickered away from Fox, who was still inching his way out of the bedroom,moving to stand by my side.
Moving to stand infrontofme, I thought. Waiting to see if my uncle was about to do something stupid.
“Quinn, I can explain,”Uncle Vincent said. “I need you to come sit down with me and I’ll… I’ll explaineverything.”
“You need to be sitting downto explain?” I asked, not planning on moving if I didn’t have to. I wantedanswersnow, and I wasn’t about toinvite Vincent to breakfast so he could take his time spinning a lie.
Not that I would havebelieved him, but I wanted to know what the hell had been going through hishead.
“Lucy thinks whoever leakedthe first album was doing it as a publicity stunt. Is that true?” I asked.
Still, Vincent glanced atFox instead of me.
“Hey,” I snapped. “I’mtalking to you.Not Fox.”
“He’s a liar,” Vincent said.“I caught him at my car last night.”
“I know,” I said. “Taking backthe notebook you stole from me. Answer the goddamn question.”
Finally, Vincent looked atme.
I immediately wished he hadn’t.
“You wanna know why I’vedone all this?” he asked, voice low. “I took your mediocre ass and found you acontract with a prestigious record company, I moved you into this place, and Ibusted my ass to get your stupid records to sell.Fifty thousand copiesof your lastalbum sold. A hundred times what it would have been if I hadn’t gotten you allthat publicity.”
I swallowed.
Itwasfor publicity,then. For sales.
For money.
He’d put me through all thatstress formoney. My own uncle.
“But Lucy said—”
“Who the fuck is Lucy, yourlittle girlfriend?” Vincent asked. “I guess I should be thankful, I thought myidiot brother raised a stupid little fa-”
“Ah,” Fox cut him off. “I’drethink your choice of word. I take exception to my friends being called thatone.”
Friends.
That almost meant more to methan anything else Fox could have said.
I had friends now. I hadLucy, and I had Fox, and I didn’t need to be afraid anymore.
“And while you’re at it,”Fox added. “You can apologize for calling him stupid. Quinn is many things, butnot that. If you cared at all, you would have noticed.”
“Fuck you,” Vincent turnedback to Fox. “Who the hell are you tell me how to talk to him? I sure as helldidn’t hire you.”
“No, well, you wouldn’t,would you,” Fox said. “Since you were the one under investigation. That was whyyou leaked the notebook lyrics, wasn’t it? Trying to get rid of me.”
Uncle Vincent glared. “It worked, didn’tit? And wasn’t it Quinn who hammered the final nail into your coffin?”
