Page 90 of Burn It Down
“Love you too, baby. Now, listen close. It’s about to get good.”
“Look, Gigi, I came to make things better between us. Finn just…he does not care if he hurts you. It kills me that I ever let him touch me or use me to hurt you.” Bree didn’t even bother to cover up as she pouted up from her perch on the floor.
“Damn, you don’t think I believe you, do you? You don’t think I know it’s been you stalking us and following me. Using my own trick to track me, to hack into my phone? Think I forgot who you were once? Once upon a time, you were a little hacker nerd. Used to hack into school records when sucking the teachers cock didn’t keep you from flunking. I remember Bree. I remember Rome, too,” Bree cocked her head and listened, looking hopeful. I hated, even now, to have to hurt her.
“I remember getting drunk. Letting you touch me. Letting you make me come. Do you remember that I said Finn’s name? That I said how much I loved him when you held me after? That I wanted him so badly it was breaking my heart? I never should have blurred the lines; I never meant to confuse us, Bree.” Bree leapt to her feet and crossed the room, her hand reaching towards me.
“Gigi…it was so good between us once. I love you so much, and for a while, I think you loved me too. Enough to forget Finn for a while.” My head shifted side to side as I shoved her hand away.
“I never forgot Finn, you know that. I couldn’t. I tried, but I never meant to make you think that we could happen. I was drunk. You know you got me drunk and took advantage of my feelings for Finn. I didn’t…I never knew you had feelings for me, Bree. I loved you once. I really did. Like I love Tegan or Regan. Charli. Not the way I love Finn. I wish you had just…told me.” Bree backed away, shaking her head as if refusing to believe me.
“No. No, you came for me and you wanted me. You touched me and kissed me, and you wanted me. Me! You loved me. Finn just hurts you, baby. He always did, honey bun. Don’t you see that? How can you not see that?” I sighed and moved closer, even when Finn tried to yank me back.
“Oh, Bree. I did love you. Not like this.” I nodded towards her disheveled appearance. “Not the person you have become. I loved the girl who laughed with me about hot boys in books. Who sat on my parents’ deck and braided my hair. The girl I swam with and who taught me about makeup. I would have always loved that girl. You are not that girl any more. Not just because of me. Not just because of this. I talked to your father today.” Bree let out a string of curses as she began pacing the foot of the bed. Naked as the day she was born.
“Why? Why would you talk to daddy? You know how I feel about him. I hate him. I fucking hate him.” Sighing, I stepped closer, Finn moving with me.
“Bree. Your father is coming tonight. You need to go home. You need to face your father. He wants to see you, pretty girl.” I reached out, closing my arms around her slender shoulders.
Though I coldly commented on her relationship with her father once, I knew it was not good. For years, it had been strained between them, and her mother just sat by and watched.
The trip we took to Italy, that ultimately changed us forever, was a feeble attempt on his part to mend fences. What I didn’t know at the time was her mother didn’t just ignore their relationship; she wasn’t entirely aware of it.
I reached out to Jackson Whitmore on my L train ride here. I didn’t know what else to do. How else to contain or control Bree. I needed help and her father was my last resort. In ten city blocks, I learned a helluva lot about Bree.
“Gigi, thank God. I had no idea how to reach you. We have been looking for Bree for ages. Months. I need her home right now. Things with her mother have worsened.” Jackson, the man I knew as her father, was cool and collected. That was not the Jackson I spoke to today.
Bree was good with secrets. Especially ones close to home. The affairs her father, a powerful lobbyist, had since we were kids. The brave face her mother put on while she was dying inside. More so than we could have known. Seems that trip to Rome was more than penance for him being a shitty father. It was a diversion.
Almost three years ago, Bree’s mother had been admitted for a suicide attempt. Jackson never brought his wife home. When asked at press events or at a party without his stunning wife on his arm, he lied.
Marta was off in Europe. Safari in Africa. Never locked away dealing with demons Jackson’s money could never tame. Bree seems to have inherited those demons.
“Marta wants to see you, pretty girl. Been asking for you, Jackson said.” I held Bree close, rocking her a little.
Anger coiled through my veins, settling deep in my chest. Not at Bree; though, I’d felt that tonight too. At her worthless father who had to have seen the signs.
Who threw money and gifts, lies and avoidance at Bree when he did see them. Bree was a lovely girl once and might still have been. I loved that Bree.
I sank to the floor with her and Bree sobbed. Finn thrust clothes at us and turned away while I dressed her. Sometime later, Cage and Diggs showed up. I had not exactly bluffed about the cops. I mean, Diggs was kind of a cop. I say kind of because he should have seen the signs too.
Instead, when he started figuring out it was Bree, he let her sickness be confused for something else. Because Bree was smart and realized when he had her figured out.
Took just one romp in the front of his unmarked car for him to let the trail of her stalking go cold. Cage and Finn would make Diggs pay for that somehow, I have no doubt.
Tonight, I didn’t want cops or cuffs or any more angry words. I held Bree until her father showed up late in the evening. Told her I didn’t hate her, even though I could. Part of me thought I should.
All the pain Bree had tried to cause us earned her that. When I thought of the pain she was about to face, of the pain she likely struggled with in her own head every day, I knew I was lucky. I had Finn and we were golden, and that meant I had it far better than most.
I might not ever forget the past months of hell Bree’s infatuation had caused us. To be honest, I was kind of thankful for it. It truly had forced Finn and I to figure our shit out. It let us find what parts of the truth we needed to move forward. I knew I didn’t want to lose him. Didn’t matter if he had slept with Bree. Apparently, I had too.
Bree went with her father, and I truly hoped she could get better. I could not let her in my life again, and I would miss her. Would mourn the girl she once was.
I forgave her before she left and it just seemed to hurt her more. I don’t think until she saw her father, Bree truly realized how bad it had gotten. We said goodbye and both knew it was likely the last time we would see each other.
Diggs was still apologizing to Finn, who broke three fingers on his face. It had been kind of hot seeing Finn lose his shit like that. Not going to lie.
Finn stripped the bed and joked about burning it. We did burn the photos, along with the roses and notes. I didn’t think Bree needed an assault or stalking charge added to her troubles.
