Page 143 of Chaos at Westbrook High

Her jaw drops. “You liar!”

He’s not lying.

“Freya,” he says, giving her a warning look. “Go home with your parents. Graduate. Go to college?—”

“In New York,” Levi emphasizes, earning himself a look of pure hatred from her.

“Marry some poor rich bastard and make him miserable for the rest of your life,” Derek finishes.

“But I love you,” she cries as her dad pulls her away. “I want to stay here with you.”

Hailey scrunches her nose beside me, biting into another piece of garlic bread.

When Derek doesn’t fall for Freya’s bullshit, she drops the act and yells, “You can’t do this to me! You can’t just throw me out like I mean nothing!”

He chuckles. “Watch me.”

She growls for real this time, struggling as her father literally drags her into the elevator.

“Freya,” Derek calls. “Can I have the ring back?”

“Fuck you, Derek!”

His lips curl up into a small smile. “Fuck you too, sweetheart.”

When she’s finally gone, Hailey finishes chewing and leans back into the crook of my arm. “That was more satisfying than I thought it’d be.”

We laugh and begin eating. Ross sits down next to Levi and Wren and helps himself to a plate, telling us about the hot couple he hooked up with in New York.

I glance at the time on my watch and look at Derek with a subtle question in my eyes. He nods.

Just then, my dad comes out of his home office for the first time all day. He’s dressed in his usual black suit and tie, though the collar is a little messed up like he’s been pulling on it repeatedly, and his dark hair is messier than it normally is. He usually looks more like Damon, but he looks like me and Wren right now.

Without saying anything, Damon slides a plate of lasagna toward the empty seat between me and Derek. It’s there if he wants it, but we’re not going to beg him to eat with us. That wouldn’t be fair. Not to him or to us.

He looks at each of us in turn before he asks, “Did you cook?”

Wren nods, speaking around his food. “It’s good if you scrape the black parts off.”

Our dad lets out a rare, breathy laugh and takes his seat. He’s quiet while we all eat together, talking and laughing and giving each other shit. When Wren and I start slapping each other’s hands, fighting over the last piece of garlic bread which we eventually split, there’s a small smile on our dad’s face.

He looks tired. I don’t think he’s slept in two days. Heartbroken or not, my dad gets shit done. Wyatt’s gone. Hailey won't be seeing him again. The two guys who tried to take Hailey and Derek are going to prison. And Maverick’s going to spend the rest of his life in a cage where he belongs. He’ll never be a free man again.

While I eat one of the brownies Callie made earlier, Derek shifts in his seat, glancing between me and his sister. I know he’s worried about her, but he has to know I’ll take care of her. He wouldn’t even be considering this if he thought I wouldn’t.

“I’m going to rehab,” he blurts to Hailey, causing everyone else to stop talking mid-sentence.

Hailey snaps her head up. She opens and closes her mouth a couple times, then asks, “When?”

“My flight leaves in two hours.” He smiles sadly at her. “It’s in Florida.”

“Florida,” she echoes.

He nods. “It’s an elite resort, one of the top rehabilitation facilities in the country.”

He’ll get sober, go to therapy and group sessions, and spend his free time lounging by the pool sipping mocktails or some shit. I know the place because I considered checking myself in with Wren not long ago. While he was on the ground in the cemetery with my girl that night, I was researching the place, learning everything I could about it. If it wasn’t for Levi, I would have taken him the next morning.

I thought Derek would tell me to go fuck myself when I mentioned it to him, but he didn’t. After looking at the website for a while, he said he would go if I could snag him the penthouse suite. I had to call my dad to help me get it done, which he did within the hour.

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