Page 158 of The Grand Ruin: Lance & Scarlet-Part One

“I’d be careful what accusations you throw around if I were you, Lance.”

“Why? Why Nina? Why would you do that?”

They remain mute.

“Tell me why!”

Ben sits forward too slowly, his face a mask.

I flip the desk, smashing it into the granite stone floor. “Fucking answer me. Now!” I roar.

“Because!” Ben thunders back at me, face red with fury. “Because she was too easy!” He pulls at the roots of his hair in anger. “Jesus Christ, you wouldn’t let it go. I tried to make you drop it for weeks before you pulled me upstairs. And when I saw her name—the initials that matched Nessa Anne’s so perfectly, the distrust you had for her, it made her easy! You made it easy!”

Nessa Anne swallows so hard I see it in my peripheral.

One beat of silence falls between us, and then I slam my fist into his face, cracking the bones in his cheek.

“Lance!”

I round my dad’s now broken desk, dropping down on top of him.

I can’t stop.

Years and years of pain unleashing.

“Mum!” Nessa Anne screams. “Mum!”

Ben swings his fists in an attempt to halt me, but nothing works. I’m unhinged. Thoughts of Nina, Mason, and Ellis. Thoughts of Scarlet….

Fuck no.

What I’ve done. It only fuels me. Blow after blow.

I ease off the moment I feel my mother’s touch. Her arms wrap around me, my sister not daring to touch me.

I fall back to the ground, my chest heaving.

“What is going on?” my mum demands.

I’m in shock, my hands bloody and numb, eyes unfocused.

I stand, my knees shaking.

“Lance needs to leave,” Nessa Anne rushes out, bending to help Ben sit up. “Now. Go!”

I take a step backward, staggering. “I hate you,” I tell them, my eyes blurring with tears as my stare darts to my mum. “I hate you all.”

Her own eyes fill as I turn to leave.

And I won’t ever come back.

“Sullivan,” Ben mutters, spitting out the blood filling his mouth. “I know about Marcus.”

My back stiffens. My whole body coming to a stop as I think back to that night all those years ago.

“You think I wouldn’t cover myself? You had it hidden well, but then you gave me time to look for everything I needed. Jasmine included. Turns out you and your friends have skeletons far darker than any of mine. I’d think about that before you walk out that door.”

I don’t turn, don’t give him the satisfaction of seeing my face.

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