Page 104 of Stone Promises

Julian climbs the rest of the way into the treehouse and sits down next to me. “We’ve been looking for you everywhere, Mallory. Everyone has been worried about you. Chad was right. He knew you’d be here.”

I shake my head in anger. “Don’t, Julian. Don’t even say his name.”

“It’s not what you think, Mal. It’s not even close. You ran out so fast,” he says. “Shit hit the fan after you left. In more ways than one.” He holds up his hand for me to see, using his phone to illuminate the inside of the treehouse.

His hand looks bruised and swollen and I’m hoping the stupid bastard’s face looks a sight worse. The last thing I remember—other than Chad’s hands all over Heather—is Paul asking us to come quickly and then Julian and Hayden rushing past me into the bedroom.

I look at Julian like he’s crazy. “Not what I think? It’s obvious to me what happened, Julian. They had their shirts off.” My throat stings and my heart hurts as I say the painful words. “He . . . He wastouchingher. They were both high, I’m sure. If that’s what he wants, fine. She can have him. I don’t want him anymore. Not after that.”

But the thing is, that’s all a lie. Even though he’s betrayed me in the worst way, I keep hoping it’s all just a terrible joke. Some big misunderstanding. Because Idowant him. Ilovehim. I’ll never love anyone but him. And I’ll never be the same without him. But that’s exactly what I am now—without him. And there is no way it can ever be any different. I won’t take him back. Not ever. Not after what he did.

“I know that’s what it looked like, but Mallory, I need you to listen to me. I need you to hear what I’m telling you. Chad didn’t use cocaine. He didn’t cheat on you.”

I scoff at him. “I suppose you’re going to tell me that wasn’t Chad. Does he have some evil twin I don’t know about? Because that would be the only explanation that would even come close to making any of this okay.”

Please, oh please, let him have an evil twin.

“The whole night was orchestrated so you’d walk in on them, Mal.”

“What? What do you mean?” I shake my head and then look up through the hole in the ceiling, catching a sliver of the moon. “It doesn’t matter if I was meant to see it or not, the fact is it happened.”

“Look at me, Mallory. Listen.” He cups my chin and moves my head towards him so I have no choice but to watch his face as he speaks to me. “His dickhead manager set it all up. He didn’t want you two together. And he wanted Chad to do the movie he kept turning down. So they came up with a plan. Heather drugged him. It wasn’t cocaine, although it looked like she tried to get him to do that, too. She put PCP in his drink. Angel dust. Kyle said it’s a quick-acting hallucinogen that loosens you up and makes you feel invincible.”

I stare at him in disbelief. “How do you know all this? How can you be sure Chad isn’t trying to cover up his actions by blaming everyone else?”

“Lila told us,” he says. “She was beside herself after everything went down. She just thought they were there to convince Chad to do the movie. It was her job to distract you so Heather and Paul could corner him and talk him into it.”

I blow out a deep breath. “The tour of the apartment,” I say, remembering how Lila seemed overly interested in everything I showed her.

I nod. “Yup. Lila had no idea about the drugs. Or at least that’s what she told us before the police came.”

I snap my eyes to him. “The police?”

“After I punched Chad, I realized he would never do that to you, Mal. He loves you more than I’ve ever seen a man love a woman. And then it all started to make sense. I mean, why would Paul tell you that you were needed in the bedroom? And why would he call the rest of us along? So I pinned Paul against the wall until he cried Uncle. He said he had no idea she was going to drug him. But at the time, nobody had said anything about Chad being drugged. Then Ana dumped Heather’s purse on the floor and saw a tiny non-descript bottle of liquid along with a bag of cocaine. We asked her what was in the bottle. She wouldn’t say, but she insisted Chad took it willingly. That’s when we called the cops. I stayed at your place while Kyle and an officer took Chad to the hospital. A urine test confirmed the presence of PCP.”

I gasp. “Oh my God!”

“They tested his blood, too. Nothing else was found in his system, not cocaine—nothing. Paul, Lila, and Heather were all taken for questioning, but Heather was the only one arrested. She’s been charged with possession, not to mention assault and battery.”

My hand comes up to cover my mouth, trying, but failing to hold in the cries that pour out of me. She drugged him? Assaulted him?

“Ethan thinks the hate mail you got was probably from her as well. She’s been obsessed with him for a while now, so it makes sense.” He scolds me with his punishing stare. “He told us about the package you got last week. You can’t keep that shit from us, Mallory.”

I sniff back more tears and then wipe my nose with the back of my hand. “I was going to tell him after the party. I didn’t want to ruin it for him.”

“Chad is a wreck,” he says. “He’s physically okay, and the drugs are out of his system, but he’s scared of what you must think of him.”

I get on my knees, wanting to plow past him to go find Chad. He must be out of his mind with worry. I can’t imagine if the tables were turned and he was the one to find outIwas drugged. “Where is he? I have to find him.”

Julian grabs my shoulders, settling me back down where I was. “Hefoundyou. He’s here.” He nods out the door of the treehouse. “Right down there. We came straight here as soon as they released him from the hospital. He wanted to come up first, but I thought hearing the truth from someone else might be best. He’s already been punched once tonight,” he says, raising his injured hand. “I was afraid you might give him a second shiner before he could tell you everything.”

“Thank you,” I say to the person who knows me almost as well as the man standing at the base of the tree.

“Are you ready to see him?” he asks.

I nod over and over as tears well up in my eyes in anticipation.

Julian touches my hand in support before he backs out and climbs down the rope ladder. My heart is beating so wildly I can hear it pounding in my head. Never in my life have I been so happy and so sad at the same time. He didn’t use drugs. He didn’t cheat on me. We’re still Chad and Mallory. But at the same time, he’s been violated. And I’ve never wanted to kill someone as much as I do right now.

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