Page 41 of Until We Burn
This is so fucked up.
“Kai?” Diana’s voice is so soft against the all-consuming storm in my mind. “What’s the matter?”
“Nothing. It’s something I have to do for my internship.” Heavy exhaustion piles on top of the anxiety from having to pull my weight into something that gives nothing back.
I just need to get out of here and handle it as fast as I can. “We should hurry and get what we need here for Mellonbaum’s project.”
My hands twitch at my sides, my heart pounding harder and harder as I fight to keep myself from spiraling and breaking.
CHAPTER 20
DIANA
The silenceon the drive back to Kitsilano grips me in a chokehold.
I sneak a look at Kai. He stares ahead at the road, the muscles in his jaw tense as his hands tighten on the wheel.
My hands nervously wrap around the notes we had taken about the giants. Across the page, my research-infused analysis reinforces Kai’s rambling yet insightful analysis on the use of color.
Now, he barely speaks.
I drop my head against the window. This is all my fault. If I had just agreed to work with him in the first place, Kai wouldn’t have been so distracted at practice, and none of this would’ve happened.
As soon as we get back to the apartment, an apology scrambles out of my mouth. “Kai, I’m so?—”
“I’ll come back to the project later. I promise.” Kai unzips his jacket and hooks it in the coat closet. “I just need to focus on the business presentation.”
He goes back to his bedroom and shuts the door behind him. I drop onto the couch, throw my phone on the table, and brace my crinkling forehead between my hands. Guilt sinks into me, relentless and all-consuming. My stupid actions created a mess that Kai has to clean up and I hate knowing there’s nothing I can do to fix it.
My phone vibrates. I irritably snatch it up to flip it face down.
Until the screen flickers on.
Dread drops in my stomach at the news release.
Pop singer Sasha Vellair cancels world tour amid private relationship leak by Diana Huang, heiress of the HMG
The dread inside rots into a dizzying sickness. I hardly get through the first sentence before a conference call from bàba rings on my phone.
My heart pounds hard. This has to be a plan on how to clear my name.
It has to be.
I settle onto the couch before switching the call to my laptop. I quickly survey my surroundings, making sure nothing gives away where I am. I told Hans I was staying in an apartment the DHU residence office rented to me. But the moment the conference call opens, where I’m at hardly matters because the look on bàba’s face shows he’s too livid to care.
I can tell by his laughter piercing the silence.
His shoulders shake, and his slender cheeks are ruddy against the smile stretching across his face. It chills my bones and makes every one of my siblings in the conference call stiffen.
“Does our family’s reputation mean so little to you all?”
Our voices answer in unison,“No, bàba.”
“Oh, really?” His smile sharpens into a snarl. “You say that only to embarrass our name!”
I flinch. My body grows taut under the apprehension gripping the air.
Bàba simply leans into his chair with his fingers draped across his chin. “Diana, what do you have to say for yourself?”
