Page 58 of Protect

PRESENT

Violette just sits, expressionless, and absorbs everything I’ve just told her. Tears stream down her face as she registers a side to her brother that I’m not sure she even knew existed, and I hate that knowing this about him hurts her.

“I was planning to tell you one day when it didn’t matter, after Jacob went to school, maybe. Once he was on the straight and narrow and it was behind him. I was going to beg for your forgiveness. I just couldn’t leave Jacob hanging, he was my best friend.” I shake my head “And I cared about you too much. I couldn’t risk you getting caught up in it or into real trouble, Vi.” I take a deep breath. “You know, when you’re younger you think you have nothing but time and everything seems like an existential crisis.” I smirk.

She nods. “I understand that.”

“You do?”

“Yeah, and you’re not a bad person because you slept with Kyleigh, you were only sixteen. I know you wouldn’t want to hurt her even if she’s awful.” Violette half smiles and looks up at me with understanding.

“She was fucking awful.” I agree with a chuckle.

“I knew something was going on with him.” Her eyes are a million miles away. “I figured it was girls, or the stress of going to university. I never would’ve imagined he was involved with drugs or that he could do something illegal, something to hurt me so easily.” Another tear spills over her cheek, and I reach across the short distance between us and wipe it away, then tilt her chin up so I have her eyes again.

“He was good at hiding it. I was amazed he could play rugby the way he did and party like that all night.”

She sighs and nods. “My parents never knew this?”

“No, I don’t think so. He kept his end of the bargain, really laid off the drugs after that.”

“I just wish you would’ve told me then. I wish he did. I wish he never died. I wish a lot of things were different,” she says quietly.

“I’m sorry. I made myself believe you were better off not being involved until it was over, and Jacob and I spent the next two weeks cramming every day. Whenever we weren’t playing rugby or at school, I was just waiting for the prom to come and go. I thought about you every fucking minute,” I offer.

“That explains why he was gone so much.”

I nod. “Yea.”

“He passed trig,” she adds, remembering.

“Yup, fair and square.”

It takes everything in me to focus on anything but how fucking beautiful Violette is in the dim light of my living room.

“Of course, where Kyleigh is concerned I kept my end of the deal. I went to prom as you know, and she blasted her socials with every picture she could.”

“Yep, it sucked,” she says honestly, laughing now.

“I smiled for the camera and at the end of the night I pretended I was going to go to an after party with her. We got into the limo as a group, and I asked to see the photos she took. I knew she’d been drinking with her crew by that time so she let me, and the moment I had her phone in my hand I immediately went to her videos and deleted the one of Jacob and Max, then dumped it from her trash.”

I blow out a shaky breath. “She admitted that it was her only copy. And then she said she didn’t care anymore because I’d given her what she wanted. She had her photos, and the whole school watched me follow her around like a puppy all night. She told everyone the next day she dumpedme.”

“Including me,” Violette says. “I ran into her in the girls’ bathroom and she asked me how it felt being pushed aside for her. She said you asked her to the prom a long time ago. It only fueled my thoughts that you had used me even more.”

That is something I didn't know.Fuck.

“She added that she didn’t even like you, she just wanted to prove shecouldhave you, that she could take you from me. And then she told me I was kidding myself for thinking Rowan Kingsley could ever wantme.”

“You have to believe that none of that is true, Violette. Please tell me you do.”

Violette nods “I do but….” she surprises me by snorting, and then starts laughing—really laughing.

“She bribed you and she didn’t…have a backup copy?” she asks through laughter.

I start laughing too because the sound of her laughter is contagious.

I shake my head. “No, she didn’t use the Cloud yet. She really wasn’t a very stealthy extortionist.” I chuckle.

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