Chapter 1
Blood rushed to my head, making me dizzy for a moment. I closed my eyes and braced myself against the counter, trying to come to terms with what I had just seen. God, I was never going to get that image out of my head!
Massaging my temples, I let out a soft groan. As if I didn’t already have enough on my freaking plate! God damn it, my life was turning into a freaking episode of Jerry Springer. What was going to happen next? Was Chuck going to come home and announce he had knocked up someone’s wife? Because with how everything seemed to be going, it really wouldn’t have surprised me.
I took a deep breath and held it. Then, I let it out slowly. I repeated the act over and over again until I was able to open my eyes without everything around me spinning.
I did not want to get in the middle of this, but I had to tell Wes. I had to tell Lucas. I couldn’t just let him go on dating this woman, thinking she loved him, and all the while, she’s fucking at least one guy behind his back! And God only knew if it was just one guy. For all I knew, she was fucking every guy on Lucas’s household staff.
I turned to head toward the hall when a voice spoke up. “Going somewhere, Princess?” Kathy asked in her snide tone.
When I turned, she was standing in the doorway, arms crossed in front of her bare chest. Christ, she hadn’t even gotten dressed! And yet, she was smirking at me, looking very satisfied with herself.
“I’m going to go tell Lucas you’re fucking some guy behind his back,” I snapped, the anger building inside me. More than one of Mom’s boyfriends had cheated on her over the years. Each time she found out, she was heartbroken. No, there was no way I could let this skank keep cheating on Lucas, not after everything he’d done for me.
Kathy snorted, still smirking. Even though she’d just gotten busted and would no doubt be cut off from Lucas’s funds once he found out, she didn’t look even the least bit concerned. “If you’re smart, you’ll keep your mouth shut about what you just saw.”
“And why would I do that?”
Hands-on hips, I glared at Kathy. She probably thought confronting me without putting her clothes back on would intimidate me. But, while I had the urge to find a way to bleach that image out of my brain, it wasn’t going to rattle me like she thought it would.
“You wouldn’t want poor little Sebastian to end up on the streets, would you?” She made a pouty face in a poor attempt at looking sad. “Whatever would he do then?”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” My patience was very quickly running out. She’d been bitchy with me ever since the day I had met her. I was more than fed up with her little games.
“You think I don’t know he’s fucking Todd? Or about his little pill habit?” Now, she grinned at me as I stared wide-eyed. Then, she started laughing. “God, I have no idea how everyone in this house is so stupid! Lucas and Wes are blind as bats, Sebastian thinks he’s so sneaky, and then there’s you, moving in here like you’re some hot shit and in control of things. Well, guess what, Princess. This is my turf, not yours.”
I never thought I would meet someone I wanted to punch more than Paisley, but Kathy had just skyrocketed to the top of my list. Not only was she fucking around behind the back of the guy who had taken me in, but now she was blackmailing Sebastian?
“What does that have to do with me?” I shrugged and tried to act like her knowing about Sebastian wasn’t a big deal. “What Sebastian does isn’t any of my business. You fucking some dude behind Lucas’s back, though? That’s just fucked up.”
“And what’s Lucas going to say when he finds out his youngest is a drug-addicted deviant? And what will he say when he finds out the girl he’d taken in out of the goodness of his heart had been enabling his youngest son’s immoral behaviors.”
My urge to punch her was getting harder and harder to control. But she wasn’t wrong. I had no idea what Lucas would say or do if he found out about Sebastian and Todd. Considering neither of them were out of the closet to their parents or siblings, there was a pretty good chance it wouldn’t go well for them if their secret came to light.
And, while I hadn’t known Sebastian was using pills, I had suspected he might’ve been on something. Lucas definitely wouldn’t be happy about that, and I could only imagine the complications his addiction would add once Lucas found out he was gay.
That was all without even considering what he would think about me hiding this all from him and not doing anything to put a stop to it.
God fucking damn it.
I wanted to call her bluff, to believe Lucas would support his youngest son over his cheating bitch of a girlfriend. But I had no idea if he actually would or not. For all I knew, he’d forgive her and kick Sebastian out. I’d seen guys do stupid shit for women plenty of times in the past.
“That’s what I thought,” Kathy said sweetly, smirking again. She had won, and she knew it. “Now, if you’ll excuse me. I’ve got a sexy man waiting to finish rocking my world.”
I stood frozen in place as she sauntered back outside. It didn’t take long before the squeaking and grinding sound resumed, and I shuddered. Turning, I stalked upstairs, doing my best to keep from stomping the whole way. But while I was more pissed off than I’d been in a long time, I didn’t need Wes questioning my mood.
Even lying against Wes while we watched a movie didn’t improve my mood. I hated the position Kathy had put me in. Either I had to risk hurting the guy who had bent over backward to befriend me since I had arrived here or I had to keep lying to the man who had taken me in.
Neither of those were good options, and I had no idea which one to choose.
That evening, Wes offered to watch another movie with me, but I declined, telling him I was too tired from surfing and just wanted to go to bed. Instead, I just lay in my room, staring up at the ceiling, trying to wrap my head around the whole situation.
I loved Sebastian. Even though I hadn’t known him for too long, he was already like a little brother to me. When Wes and everyone else at school, except Adrian, had been complete assholes when I first moved in, Sebastian had been there by my side. He had let me hang out with his friends, had shown me around, and had helped me get settled here.
I couldn’t hurt him. And if I told Lucas the truth about Kathy, there was a very good chance it would hurt him. Which meant, in the end, Kathy had won. I couldn’t out her without her outing Sebastian, and I wasn’t willing to take that risk.
Even when I made up my mind, though, I didn’t feel any better about it. I still didn’t like hiding this from Lucas, even if it was to protect Sebastian.
Letting out a sigh, I sat up and swung my legs over the edge of the bed. I needed a hot shower to help clear my mind. Or, at the very least, it would help soothe my tense, aching muscles.
Wes’s door was cracked when I stepped out into the hallway, voices filtering out into the hall.
“I told you, I’m keeping an eye on her!” Wes’s voice was clear and persistent, making me freeze in place. “You don’t have to be on my ass about it all the time!”
“Well, considering what happened at that party, apparently I do!” Lucas sounded angry. He wasn’t quite yelling, but he wasn’t talking calmly either. “You never should have let her out of your sight. What if that guy had gotten her away from the party before you had noticed?”