Page 146 of Red Flag
I grinned so hard it almost hurt.
“But that’s not even the best part,” he said and picked up the bag from beside his feet. “They didn’t have cherry blossom, but they did have this!”
From the bag, he retrieved a box ofLegosthat made a cherry blossom branch.
My chest felt ever so warm. My smile hurt.
And, yet, I couldn’t help the stinging behind my eyes.
Chapter 32
There had never been the intention for Nix to join me at the trial. Not before rumours that we were together started and definitely not after.
But when I stood back in the mirror in my ensemble for the courthouse, I could already feel my breaths quickening.
And I was sick of it.
“Hit me with it,” I said, placing my bag on the kitchen island.
Nix turned, whisking an egg yolk, a piece of toast hanging out of his mouth. He cocked his head to the side in question.
“Show me,” I begged.
He put down the bowl and turned to me before dropping the toast on his plate. He swallowed. “There are some positive—”
“No. All of it,” I demanded. “I need to know before I feed myself to the sharks.”
Sitting me down, he started to scroll through his phone, getting up his pictures. He’d saved different albums.
Livie Positive.
Livie ALL.
Livid.
Livie Support.
“Go from the bottom up,” he said when I clicked on ‘Livid’. “It didn’t start off well, but it is now.”
But what I opened was not articles. It was all of my nudes and selfies.
“Shit, not that one,” he laughed and reached over to click ‘LivieALL’. “This one.”
I laughed too but it was a nervous one. He put his arms around me from behind as I swiped through. Cocooned in his hold, I could do it.
The last videos and posts were from celebrities I had worked with or befriended. They had all been on the list I’d made with Nix’s mum.
“Did you…” I whispered.
“That was your plan, wasn’t it?” he asked and kissed my neck. “To have your own trial. Well, here it is. All I did was reach out.”
I swallowed the knot of emotion in my throat. He would have spent ages going through the list. Probably while I slept when the tears exhausted me.
“I learned from the best,” he said. “Cesarilooks particularly serious in this one.”
He did.Cesari,Lucaand Dickson all held a huge card that said ‘#JusticeforLivieQuinn.’
“There are thousands of tweets,” he added. “Thousands.”
