Page 116 of The Lair

Silence is the only response I get until Paul shatters it with the very last thing I ever expected him to say.

“You owe me twenty bucks, Jae.”

I blink. “What?”

Jada shakes her head and throws a glance at her husband before her softened eyes land on me again. “It’s nothing, honey.”

I glance between them. “I want to know.”

It’s Paul who cracks, a sly smirk on his lips. “When Jae told me you were moving in with your boss, I told her you probably had a thing for him.”

“What? Why would you even think that?”

He shrugs. “I wasn’t wrong, was I? It was just an inkling.”

Jada shakes her head, but she can’t hide the amusement in the slight tilt of her mouth. “To be fair, honey, I also thought you had a crush on Travis.”

My heart somersaults. “And youbeton it?”

“That was just Paul being silly.” Jada waves it off. “But let’s go back to the important stuff, because you’re clearly upset about Travis. Did he say anything to you?”

“I left before he could,” I admit, seeing—and not for the first time—how childish that was. If I’d stayed behind to explain myself, maybe now I wouldn’t be getting nauseous wondering what he must be thinking. For better or for worse, I would know where I stood with the man I was starting to see a future with.

“I called Travis days ago,” Jada blurts out, catching me and my poor heart completely off guard.

My tongue feels like sandpaper. “You did?”

The two people in front of me exchange a secretive glance. “You weren’t answering your phone. He told me what had happened. That your parents had been there.”

I drown out the part of me that tells me it’s better if I don’t know what went down, exactly, because I refuse to be that Allie anymore. I don’t want to be a coward.

“Did he say anything about me?” I ask, my pulse erratic.

“Other than explaining what had happened, no. He sounded…”

“Gruff?” I offer.

“I was going to say pissed off, but yeah.”

Pissed off.If I had any doubts after not seeing a single text or a missed call from him, now I know for sure—Travis wants nothing to do with me, and I can’t blame him for it. It’s all on me.

“How about we take a walk around the neighborhood?” Paul suggests, getting to his feet, probably after seeing the distress all over my face. “Remember the Jenkins? They got the tackiest garden gnomes on their front porch. Jae thinks they’re cute, so we need your deciding verdict.”

“Fresh air will do you good,” Jada encourages.

I glance between the two people who have held my head above water for more than ten years. Even though all I want is to go back to bed and sulk, they don’t deserve to see me crumble. For them, I’ll pull myself out of this hole.

“All right.”

The garden gnomes end up being tacky after all.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

The interview airson Friday night. By Saturday morning, the witch hunt starts.

I don’t hide behind Jada and Paul anymore and instead face the music by reading article after article about my parents. About myself.

It starts with the public. The same people who mere hours ago worshipped the ground my parents walked on have now turned against them. They demand a statement explaining the footage they’ve seen in my video. They demand an apology they won’t accept anyway. They demand they take my siblings off their pages immediately, especially Cindy.

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