Page 6 of All Bets Are Off

She was never like that with us. She was playful and loud. In our faces with wide smiles and belly laughs. Her hair was almost always pulled up into a messy bun on her head and her favorite thing to wear was one of our t-shirts or sweatshirts.

I don’t recognize this perfectly polished version of her. Well, that’s not true. I do. It’s who she is when we go to events; galas and charity foundations. When she’s the daughter of Sterling and Camilla Montgomery. Where her last name is the only thing of true value.

Why is she becoming that girl here?

We always thought this version of her was the fake version, that only we got the real Brielle. The messy, imperfect girl who loved life. Who found joy and laughter in the smallest moments. Then why choose this life? Unless it was what she always wanted. To be the Stepford wife, a carbon copy of her mother. Image, wealth, and bloodlines the only things that matter about a person.

What if we only ever got a fake version of Brielle? If we were just a phase before she settled into this life. A fun chapter to one day tell her and Carson’s grandkids about. Her wild youth before she grew up. What if that’s all we ever were to her?

It’s the only answer that makes sense as to why she’s cut us off so effectively. She didn’t have to do that to be with Carson. She’s dated other people while we were all friends. We never got in her way, no matter how much we might have wanted to.

Yet, she hasn’t said a word to us since before we got hauled in. Not a phone call or text. We even tried to get Vanessa to talk, but she said she had no clue what was going on either.

Hudson kept us from pressing the issue too far with her anyways. They might be twins but Vanessa is like the day to Hudson’s night. She doesn’t have the same dark side as him, as us. Vanessa knows about the bets and the fun we have with them, hell she has even done a few herself. Her and Brielle were the epitome of double trouble when they did them together, but we never invited her all the way in. A fact we are all grateful for after that night everything went so wrong. Hudson doesn’t want Vanessa too close to this and digging too deep, not when the answers could get us all in trouble. It’s better this way, safer.

Vanessa was the only one to join her boyfriend, Tristan, at OCU like we had always planned. I know it hurt her feelings that we did this behind her back. She didn’t know any of us, even Bri, had changed schools until she was packing up to leave a few days ago.

Pissed doesn’t even begin to describe how she felt at being blindsided.

None of us wanted her here for this though. We all know that she would interfere. The guys wanted their chance to get revenge for Brielle’s betrayal, for turning her back on us. But the more I watch her with Carson, the more I need to find the truth of the why behind the knife in our backs.

I slip back into the shadows as I watch them head to the door. His fingers wrapped firmly around her arm as he guides her. A shiver works down my spine. Something about seeing the two of them together makes my skin crawl. She looks up at him, a small smile on her face. I move closer, trying to see them better.

Everything about it just seems so goddamn wrong to me. Like what I’m seeing just can’t possibly be real. Like maybe it’s all just a bad dream. It’s not like I have never imagined her on another man's arm before, I just always thought that arm would belong to one of my brother’s if not my own.

I’m close to the exit as they push through the doors and head towards his obnoxious car. The vibrant red Audi R8, impossible to miss. He leans down to whisper in her ear as he opens the door for her and her face changes. Her mask slips so quickly I’m not even positive I saw it. Not even sure what I saw. A fracture in the façade she’s putting on for the world to see. I just can’t figure out what it means.

Her hand drifts up to caress where he was holding her arm before she drops into the passenger seat and he shuts the door behind her. A smug smile pasted on his face as he turns to walk around the car.

None of it makes any sense and I have too many questions burning up inside of me. How am I not supposed to dig deeper and tear up their perfect little picture when it seems like nothing but a mirage to me? I need to rip it apart until I hold Brielle’s reasoning between my hands and end all of this bullshit.

When I get back to the house, I’m not at all surprised to find the guys at each other's throats.Again.

We’ve never fought like this before. We’ve never had a reason to fight like this. Everything is different now. We lost our golden thread that weaved us all together and now we are only tied by the bitterness of betrayal.

Zaide shoulder checks Hudson into the wall while he yells, “Why wait?”

Eli tuts under his breath, shaking his head at the pair of them as Hud pushes Z back. “She doesn’t know we are here yet,” Eli reminds the other two. “Let’s keep it that way until we are ready.” Great, so they’ve been having the same argument since I left.

I hadn’t initially set out with the intention to find her. I just needed to get out of this house. They all want to destroy her. I just want to know why. How. When. If I’m crazy for thinking there has to be an explanation for it all.

They thought so too. At first. But then days of silence turned into weeks, and weeks of being ignored turned into months. The final straw was when we found out she rescinded her acceptance to OCU.

It was when we all knew. She wasn’t just mad at us. She wasn’t playing some elaborate prank. She wanted nothing to do with us. No future with us. We risked everything for her only for her to walk away. And so damn cruelly.

“Let her settle in,” Eli continues. “Get comfortable. Think she’s left her demons in the past.” The bitterness rises in his voice as he spits out the words. He never wanted to be her nightmare, he only ever wanted to be her knight. She broke that. She broke a lot of things. “As soon as she lets her guard down, we unsettle her.” He gives a pointed look to Hud. I know the plan. We all know the plan. Every aspect of our being here has revolved around it. It all starts with Hudson.

The maniacal grin on his face stretches across his cheeks like all of his grins, but this one is more cold and calculating than I’ve ever seen. It has none of his usual playful edge, now serrated by his hurt. I don’t think Bri will even recognize him.

I barely do.

He’s nothing like the boy she once knew.

None of us are.

Zaideslams the controller down on the coffee table. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

I sigh as I catch sight of the smirk on Hudson’s face. He’s been itching for a fight all weekend and I think he’s finally got one. I look around the room to find Eli also backing away from the pair as Vanessa curls up on her loveseat in the corner, her phone tucked tightly in between her hands as she stares down at it. When the two of them go out at it, it almost always ends with them wrestling on the ground. Or breaking something. Oftentimes, both.

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