The corner of Caroline’s mouth turns up. She looks me up and down one more time. “Enjoy your book.” She moves to the door, graceful as ever, then stops. “Oh—I thought I would stop by the billing department on my way out. I believe there was something to reauthorize. A form or two.” She laughs a little. “There’s always so much paperwork when it comes to hospital stays. I suppose I could make it easier on myself if I bowed out and left things to you.”
This is how it happens. Caroline stands here in her white coat and her beautiful makeup and pretends the choice she’s giving me is a real one and not the cruelest possible joke. My eyes sting with tears that I am not, not, going to let fall in front of her. Caroline already knows how far I’ll go for my family. She knows I was with Leo. She’ll know why I was with Leo. The difference between them is that Caroline pretends to be a queen when she’s a monster. Leo pretends to be a monster when he’s a prince.
He is a prince.
Isn’t he?
The things he said when he sent me away can’t have been things he meant. Things he felt. They had to be a cover for something else. That’s how Leo is. He shows people what they expect to see so that he can keep his true self hidden. So that he can keep himself safe.
Unless it’s the beast who’s real.
In the end, it doesn’t matter, does it? In the end, he’s not coming to save me. I’ve spent every day here in this hospital room, wishing he would come for me. Wishing he would fold me in his arms and take my chin in his hand and kiss me until it hurt. But he’s not. He’s allowing Caroline to be here instead.
She lets go of her sleeve and tucks her hands into the pockets of her coat. “What do you think, Haley? Should I tell them I’m all finished funding your father’s care?”
Yes. I’ll figure it out. I’ll get a job. I’ll work nights so I can be with him whenever he’s awake. I’ll take the risk with his health to prove a point to you.
My mouth is bone-dry. “You know you can stop paying for him any time, Aunt Caroline.” I could cry. I could scream. “I wish you wouldn’t. Please help him.”
A smile that cuts. A smile that slices me open. A smile that demands what’s left of my heart in ribbons. “All right. But only because you asked so nicely. After all, I’m always here to help my family. Just like you want to help me. Don’t you?”
What will she demand? I already know the answer. Everything. My fake engagement to Rick will become a reality. And more. My whole life will belong to her. I swallow around the knot in my throat. It means saying goodbye to Leo. No. I can’t. My father looks so pale in the hospital bed. He needs me. His life is on the line. “Yes,” I whisper.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Leo
Dinner is a travesty.
Daphne sits across from me at the dining table, wired with tension. She holds her fork too tight and eats her salad with a vengeance. As if it’s the salad that scared her and not her snarling beast of an older brother.
“You’re not eating anything, Leo.”
“I’ve eaten.” It’s all tasteless. Pointless. The texture of everything serves only to remind me that I have the most painful hangover in history.
“Okay, but you know you have to eat more than that. You’re going to starve to death. Plus, it’s good salad.”
“I hate salad.”
Daphne drops her fork and puts her hands over her face. “Why are we having salad, then?”
“Penance.”
She’s in the middle of rolling her eyes when shouting starts. Daphne’s head snaps up. “What is that?”
“Go up to your room.” I get up from my seat. Something’s happening in the foyer. “Put on some music and don’t come down until the album’s over.”
Daphne runs to my side. “You’ll have to carry me there yourself.”
“Might be a little short on time.” I can see Gerard from the hall. He’s huddled with the security team. Two of them are shouting. He’s talking over them. Gerard sees me coming and holds out a hand.
“Go back,” he says. “Go up.”
I don’t. I keep walking toward him like a fucking fool, so Daphne and I have just stepped into the foyer when the police breach the front doors. I understand now why an argument had broken out among my security staff. Situations with police often get ugly, then uglier. Everything will be heightened by the fact that my house is full of hired firepower.
Which is why they’ve sent so many of them. They pour in the front door two by two, guns drawn. Gerard glues himself to my side and stands in front of Daphne. And I go to the middle of the foyer and put myself in the way.
Ten. Twenty. Thirty. They’re running through my house like a fucking army, and part of me is furious. Part of me is dead, and has been since Haley left my office. More detectives. And then the captain, who is brandishing a piece of paper.
“You’re supposed to show me the warrant before you invade my house,” I tell him.
He advances on me, glaring, sneering. “Mr. Morelli, we have a warrant to search your property for evidence of the kidnapping and captivity of Haley Constantine. We had reason to believe there would be interference with the collection of evidence, necessitating a no-knock entrance.”
“Her toothbrush is upstairs in the master bath, if you’d like to start there.”
“My god. You have the right to remain silent, you sick fuck. Everything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you can’t afford an attorney, one will be provided for you. Do you understand the rights I’ve just read to you?”
“You didn’t read them. Let’s strive for accuracy.”
“Do you understand your rights?”
“Yes, Captain, I do. Everyone’s body cameras on? Let’s make this simple. I kidnapped Haley Constantine.”
“Leo, stop. Let me go.” Daphne wrestles away from Gerard and rushes over to me. “Stop. Don’t say that.” Her face is white. “You can’t say this.”
“Haley Constantine was my captive.” They’re getting quieter, probably so that my full confession is clear in the video. “I held her here, and I didn’t let her leave.”
“Leo.” Gerard comes to my other side. “That’s not what happened.”
“I forced her to sign a contract with me in exchange for releasing her father from a business deal. I coerced her. Exploited her.”
It’s all close to the truth. They’ll accept it as the truth.
Gerard curses under his breath and takes out his phone. Cops are crawling everywhere, down all the halls, all through the foyer. There’s nothing for them to find there. I think there’s nothing to find until one of them pulls out a coat. Haley never wore it. There was never an occasion for her to wear a black coat. But it is her size. There’s a tag on the hanger with her initials on it. It goes into an evidence bag.
“Eva,” Gerard says. “There’s a situation at the house.”
Let him call her. I don’t care. There’s nothing she can do. The police are already here, and I’m not going to do anything to stop them. Set the machine in motion. Let it destroy me. What’s the worst they can do?