He shook his head because I knew he wouldn’t leave me, but then he looked at Marshall. “Something is going on. Pull the alarms and get them out of here.”
“It’s a closed set. Fern asked for it to be a closed, locked set. You asked us to turn in our phones at reception. I can’t call them and we can’t get in there.”
“Who the fuck has ever heard of a locked set?” Jarrid yelled. “Something is going on and your boyfriend is not safe in there. Does that change how you react?”
Marshall’s face hardened as he lifted his foot, kicking the lock and smashing through the wooden doors. He glanced at Dawson. “Stay with Lenny. Do not move until I get back.”
Dawson nodded, and Marshall stormed into the room. “This interview is fucking over. And you can wipe the tapes, because not one second of this will see the light of day. Do I make myself clear?”
Just then the alarms sounded.
“Boys, move.” Marshall herded Alchemy Myth out of the studio to the corridor. Charlie looked heartbroken, but I was hurt too… angry at his words, and most of all, I felt powerless; like the men in my life got to behave any way they wanted, and I had to deal with the repercussions.
He looked at me, his brown eyes glazed. “Did you tell her… about us?” He pointed between the three of us. “About me.” Pain lanced those last words.
My eyes flared. “Of course not. I would never… unlike you. How could you say that about me? How could you talk about me like that?” The alarms shrieked as Marshall and the other bodyguards tried to move us to the fire escape while Jarrid stayed close but kept quiet.
I stopped, turning to Charlie, angrier now. “Really? How could you say that? Even if you hated me, how could you talk about me like that? Like I’m…” I pinched the bridge of my nose.
“Fuck, Charlie, you sounded just like him. You’re no better than James.” I spat out the last sentence and Charlie replied with a sound that I knew would haunt my dreams forever.
Despite the alarms ringing, despite people’s mouths moving, obviously telling us to leave, despite the heavy beat of my heart in my ears, I couldn’t hear anything other than Charlie’s next words.
“Is that what you think of me? That I’m no better than your rapist ex?” A tear rolled down his cheek, and I hated that I could see his pain leaking from him, as if it was too much to contain.
“I thought you loved me, that you were everything I’d ever need or want in the world, that you were my happy ever after, but this. Fuck, Fern.”
I found my voice, needing to explain. “Charlie, I didn’t mean it. I was angry.”
He hissed as if I’d slapped him. “I just thought you sold my secrets to someone to humiliate me during an interview. Did I turn on you?”
I shook my head.
“But you watched one video of me fucked up… you even knowwhyI was fucked up and you compared me to a man who tried to rape you. A man you’ve had to have armed protection from for almost a year.”
I reached for Charlie and he recoiled, wiping away the tears that now flowed freely. “I got you so wrong.” He slowly clapped as his pain appeared to turn to anger. “You fucking played me. I’m done. This is over.”
And with that, he turned and left, his bodyguard following him.
Charlie
I sat in the car on the way home, alone. Fox and Archer had offered to come with me, but I didn’t want to be around anyone. Letting my head fall back against the cool leather, I thought about what had just happened.
None of it made sense. Fern had texted asking us to get there early, but then we’d just sat around for hours, Lauri had made claims that seemed no more than half truths. I trusted almost instantly that none of that was down to Fern. And even when Lauri mentioned Jennifer, I believed this was coming from somewhere else. Someone else.
But then Fern had said what she did. Her words scarring my soul;I was just like James. I pressed my hand to my heart, the pain almost too much to bear. I couldn’t come back from it. I couldn’t forgive her, no matter how much I loved her. And fuck, I loved her.
My hand dropped to cover the small square box in my pocket that I’d been carrying around for weeks. I’d wanted a future with her and now I never wanted to see her again.
I reached for the button that lowered the security screen between me and driver, wanting to ask him to take me to a club so I could get fucked up and drown my pain, but then I thought back to that video of me before Christmas that I didn’t know was being recorded.
I looked like shit; gray faced, sunken eyed. If anyone had checked, they would have found coke and pot in my system and track marks in my arm from where I’d injected some concoction a few days before.
Watching it was hard. I didn’t realize how fucked up I’d been until I’d spent that week with Fern. Being around her… her needing me had changed everything, and I decided that, no matter what was about to happen, I wouldn’t go back to that version of myself.
I wiped the tears from my cheeks, sniffing away my pain and pulling my phone from my pocket, typing out a message to Fox and Archer.
Me: I need Fern gone from my house.
