Page 104 of Fractured Rhythm

I heard the glee in her tone, and I wished I hadn’t asked.

“And we’re done here,” I said, linking my hand with Holly’s and walking away from my mother as she yelled at me that she was dying and I was ungrateful.

Ungrateful. Was she fucking high?

Oh right, she was.

And I’d put good money on her not being sick at all. At least not with cancer. She was un-fucking-believable.

“Whoa. Slow down, Cas,” Holly said, pulling me to a stop when we turned the corner.

Tears pricked the back of my eyes. My mother shouldn’t have a hold on me. She shouldn’t make me cry. But these were rage tears, and they burned.

“I can’t. I just. Seriously. Who does that?” I asked, pacing in front of Holly.

She put her hand on my arm. “Slow down. That was your mom?”

I bit out a harsh laugh. “Yep. She’s going for mom of the year with that shit. She got Jamie hooked on drugs and then bailed on us.”

“Wow. I get why you don’t talk about her.”

“Yeah,” I said, pulling out my phone.

“What are you doing?”

“I know I should trust him, but I have to know,” I said, swiping it on and pulling up the search engine. I typed in his name, and there they were.

My phone clattered to the ground. It would be a miracle if the screen hadn’t shattered like my heart just had.

How could he do this to me? To us?

Then the tears fell for real.

BASH

“What the fuck?”I sputtered, jolting out of a deep sleep. I was drenched, and Tristan stood over me with an empty pitcher in his hand and murder in his eyes.

My head throbbed, and it took me a second to realize that I was in my bed in my house in LA with no knowledge of how I’d made it home last night.

Fuck.

I’d had way too much to drink at Cameron’s last night, and I swore something had died in my mouth. I smacked my lips together trying to catch a few droplets of the water Tristan had dumped on me.

Wait. What was he doing in my room?

“You are an absolute dumb fuck, you know that? You promised us you wouldn’t do anything to hurt Cassie,” Tristan said, and I pushed my soaked hair from my forehead and held up a hand.

“What are you talking about, and why did you dump water on me? Yeah, I’m hungover, but it’s not like I’m late for the studio. What does Cassie have to do with that?”

“Actually, it’s the afternoon, so you are late.”

“Shit. Sorry. Last night got away from me.”

“Save it,” Tristan bit out. “You got drunk, and I haven’t spoken to Cassie yet, but I’m sure she’s seen the pictures. They’re fucking everywhere.”

“Wait. What pictures?” I sat up straight in bed, trying to ignore my pounding head.

Tristan swiped on his phone and shoved it in my face. The first picture was of me and two women. I had my hand on one of their thighs while the other one looked like she was kissing me. I paused on the headline.

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