Page 29 of Burn With Me

I turn to face him fully. “If that’s true,” I say, “then why all of the bullshit?” I gesture absently around me, but he has to know what I mean. It’s fucking obvious.

“Because hopes don’t make reality,” he says. “He won’t divorce her.” There’s no hesitation in his words. It’s as if they are absolute in his mind. That ticks me off like nothing else.

I cross my arms over my chest as I stare him down. “What makes you think he’s any different from her other husbands?” I demand.

“Whatever Damien Icari wants, he gets, Aurora,” Isaac says. Something in his tone makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. The bomb he drops a second later explains why. “And right now, his sights are set on Summers’ Industries.”

My lips part in shock.Summers’ Industries.Not Emilia Summers, herself. He’s practically announcing the truth behind their marriage. “Why are you telling me this?”

Isaac takes in a breath, and it seems to break the spell that has left him motionless in front of me. He straightens and takes a step back.

“Be careful, Sunshine,” he says. “Playing with fire will only burn you in the end.”

“You started this war, Isaac,” I tell him. “I’m only finishing it.”

The corner of his mouth tips up. “We’ll see.”

Isaac doesn’t let me respond. He simply turns and strides away, ruining what would’ve otherwise been a damn good exit on my part. Prick. I grind my teeth the entire way to my next class. By the end of the day, my jaw and my head are both throbbing.

When I walk through the door to my dorm apartment and spot Selene on the couch with her phone in hand, I frown. “I thought you weren’t feeling well,” I say as I drop my bag next to the dining room table and take a seat.

“Oh, no, I’m fine,” she says, her eyes locked on the screen in front of her. “I had a modeling thing in town. I just got back like five minutes ago.”

“Okay…” I pull out my laptop and open it up, pulling up the video I’d taken over the weekend. The front door opens, and Hel stomps in, muttering under her breath. “You good?” I ask as she passes me and enters her room.

She doesn’t immediately respond and even Selene lifts her head, glancing to the door to Hel’s bedroom before meeting my gaze. A moment later, Hel comes back out and slams her laptop on the table across from me.

My eyebrows skyrocket. “Try not to break the table,” I say, voice full of sardonic amusement.

She doesn’t even look my way as she starts typing furiously and then she flips her computer screen around and presses play. The second the audio hits my ears, I’m up and out of my seat. I grab the top of the screen and stare in horror at the grainy visual of a familiar scene. It’s me and an old high school memory I thought I’d buried.

A disgusting sickness curdles deep as, on screen, the younger version of myself stands in the middle of a crowd with an almost absent look of utter humiliation.

“It’s all over the internet,” Hel says, her voice low and angry. “Some girls in class were talking about it today.”

It’s hard to tear my gaze away, but when I do, they meet hers with somber seriousness. “When?” I demand.

“Last period,” she says. “It hasn’t been up for long.”

My eyes return to the screen. “Can it be taken down?” Something nasty festers in my throat, threatening to rip open a hole.

Selene drops her phone onto the couch and stands up, hurrying over. She shoves her face in front of the screen and stops. I know when she recognizes the scene being displayed before us because her face goes white and she clasps her hand over her mouth.

“Oh my god…” She looks from the screen to me.

I lick my suddenly dry lips, but no words come out.

Selene turns to Hel. “Where did this come from?” she asks.

Hel sits back with her arms crossed over her chest and a dark look on her face. “Stupid question. You know exactly who it came from.”

She’s not wrong. I’d heard nothing about this before the last class I’d had with him. That can only mean he already had this information—this … evidence. This is his payback for what I said. He doesn’t waste fucking time, I’ll give him that. He must have had someone ready to upload it at a moment’s notice. The timestamp of the posted video only marks it as being up a little over an hour ago.

For the first time in a long time, tears prick at the backs of my eyes, threatening to overwhelm me.Playing with fire will only burn you in the end. Isaac’s earlier warning spills into my mind, almost like an extra dose of punishment to remind me.

I don’t want to watch what I already know will happen in the center of that crowd, but for some reason, I can’t seem to pull my gaze away. It’s like when you’re driving down the road and you pass the remains of a gruesome accident. My mind fights it, but my body wants to see. All of it. All over again.

The video, obviously taken on someone’s cell phone—an onlooker, someone who can’t possibly know what I was thinking at the time—shakes as a bucket of honey and syrup is thrown over the front of my high school prep uniform. It soaks into the front of my white button-down shirt until the bra underneath is visible. The ‘video me’ crosses her arms over her chest, eyes wide and horrified.

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