I take the pill, chasing it down with a small sip of water because I can’t stand seeing Jasper like this, and then I set the glass back on the nightstand.
“I’m going to get her back,” I say, not sure if I’m telling him or me or just sending up a prayer.
“I know,” he tells me. “I know.” Jasper squeezes my shoulder before turning to leave. When he reaches the door, without turning back to face me, he says, “There’s more to this story than we know. But it’s not over yet. There is no the end when it comes to them.” I don’t have to ask who them is. I know he means Viola and Naomi. Our women.
With that, he shuts the door softly behind him and I slink back down, thinking his words through. He’s right. There is more to last night than what we know. So much more. Because someone took that picture. That woman drugged me for a reason.
Before I can stop myself, I reach over and grab my phone. I pull up Naomi’s name and send her a text. And then I send her an email with an attachment. It’s not how I wanted to give this to her. I’m just afraid I’ll never get another chance.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Naomi
* * *
My phone pings from the edge of the table in my music room where I dropped it when Casper and I first came in. I don’t know how long we’ve been working on this particular song, but my heart just isn’t into it.
“Are you going to check that?” Casper asks, nodding his chin in the direction of my discarded phone.
“Nope.”
“What if it’s important?”
“I highly doubt it is.”
“But you don’t know until you check.”
“Casper!” I yell. “Shut up with my phone already.”
“So, I can check it?”
He moves to stand, and I growl, shoving him back down into his seat as I rise up. “I hate all men and wish they would drop dead like fairies do when small children say, ‘I don’t believe good men actually exist.’”
“What the fuck now?”
I shake my head. “Nothing. Something from Peter Pan.”
“I don’t remember that from Peter Pan.”
Another growl bellows out as I pick up my phone. Gus. Of course, it’s Gus. I try not to read the words. I try to force myself away. But let’s be real, we all know something like that requires a Herculean strength I just do not possess right now.
Gus: I’ve been told to give you space and I will. Explaining what really happened over text is useless. Especially when I don’t even know if you’ll read this. But you need to know, I’m not done fighting for you. I never will be. I love you. Now. Forever. Always.
Tears sting my eyes, but I hold them in, rereading his words over and over and over again.
My computer chirps, letting me know I just received an email. The only emails I get are business-related, so I mumble something out to Casper, asking him to check it in case it’s Lyric emailing me back.
“Naomi. It’s something from Gus. A video, by the looks of it.”
I glance up, my eyebrows pinching. A video? “Delete it,” I tell him, only he rolls his eyes at me and clicks on it. “Asshole, what are you doing? I said delete it.”
Setting my phone down, I cross the room in three angry strides.
“Cool yourself down. If it’s him being a coward and apologizing over video, I’ll delete it before he can even utter a word.”
“Cas—” Only, my words get cut off as my screen fills with some type of grainy footage. Casper looks to me and I shake my head, both of us narrowing our gazes as we try to figure out what we’re actually looking at.
It takes a few moments. The crowd is loud and cheering. The lights are harsh against the old-school film. But the second my mother comes into focus, I drop into the chair, covering my mouth with both hands. “Gus,” I gasp through my fingers. “He sent this?” Casper nods, his mouth slack. “How?”
He shakes his head in silent awe.
Tears immediately swarm my eyes and I scoot closer, wishing I could reach out and touch her.
“You’ve all been such an amazing audience tonight. I cannot thank you enough,” my mother says, talking straight into the crowd of adoring fans. “But tonight is a very special night. Tonight, my baby, Naomi, turns three. And much to my husband’s chagrin, I’m hoping you’ll all cheer for her and welcome her to sing with me on stage.”
I reach out, clutching on to Casper, balling up his shirt as I watch with rapt attention.
“Happy Birthday to you,” my mother begins to sing and a little doll version of me walks on stage, my hand held by my father’s, and that’s when I lose it. Sniffling and openly weeping. Casper wraps his arms around me, holding on to me as if I’ll fall apart completely if he lets me go for a second.
Both my parents and fifty thousand fans sing happy birthday to me as I turn to the audience, unafraid and wholly curious. I smile and wave and am reward with applause and more cheers. “I don’t…I don’t remember doing that,” I murmur.
“My sweet darling girl, do you want to sing a song with mommy?” my mother asks, and I twist to her, walk across the stage, and nod yes like I’m a bobblehead doll. I’m wearing a dress I faintly remember. My favorite purple party dress.
“Where…how…” I trail off, full of so many questions but unwilling to miss a second of this by asking any of them.
We watch silently, both of us crying like babies, as my mother and I sing one of her most famous songs. My father plays the guitar along with us, and when it’s over and the video cuts out, I push away from the desk, needing a second to breathe.
“He remembered,” I whisper. I told him about that memory, my earliest and my favorite, and he remembered. I didn’t know it was my birthday. I didn’t know I was only three. I just remembered that I was on stage singing with my mother.
He found a recording for me. He sent it to me.
How do I reconcile this?
The man in the picture I saw, drunk and half-naked and all over an equally half-naked woman, with the man who sent me that video?
Who promised to never stop fighting for me?
The goddamn doorbell rings again, startling me so badly I jump up two feet in the air and practically fall off the chair. “Jesus Christ!” I yell. “Just leave me the hell alone. All of you.”
Casper laughs, wiping at his own emotion in his eyes. “Expecting more company?”
“You go see who it is?”
“You’re very bossy today, Nai. It’s your house. You go look or I’ll let whoever the hell it is in.”
“You’re supposed to be on my side,” I mutter under my breath as I storm over to the door. This time it’s Keith. You’ve got to be kidding me with this. “Go away, Keith.”
I feel like a broken record.
“Can’t do that. Open up so I can talk to you.”
“Nope. Sorry. Naomi isn’t here right now. And her mailbox is full, so you can’t leave a message.”
I turn to walk away when I hear him desperately shout, “He was drugged. Gus was drugged, Naomi.”
“Drugged?” Casper whispers, almost as if he’s testing the word on his tongue. His eyes meet mine. “Do you think it’s possible?” I glare at him. “Did you not just see that video? That video that is not available for public consumption. He did a lot of digging and searching to find you that video. A man who does that isn’t looking for a random woman to screw at a party.”