Page 312 of Not Over You

“You bastard!” A voice shrieks from a space closer to the bar’s entrance. A blur of orange organza and dark cherry shoots passed me and I get a brief glimpse of Mimi charging toward Ashleigh and Justin as they sprang apart. “How could you?”

“Please don't do this,” Ashleigh warns. “Please don’t make a scene.”

Mimi's hand connects with Ashleigh's cheek and the crack echoes across the empty bar. “Don't make a scene!” Mimi yells. “Don’t make a scene. My sister is making a move on my boyfriend, and she says don’t make a scene!”

Wait-what?

I gasp as my gaze meets Ashleigh’s. She knows I’m here and that I’m filming them. Are Mimi and Justin dating again? Was this going on behind Ashleigh’s back? Is that why she flipped out on him the other night?

I drop my phone and end the recording, because this is clearly something private and shouldn’t be broadcast around the globe.

“I'm carrying your child, Justin.” Mimi declares. “How can you do this again?”

What!

“I wasn't.” Justin’s much quieter, pleading voice travels over the silent bar. “I’m here for you!”

“It doesn't look like it.” Mimi cries and spins on her heel to march away. “Fuck you! Fuck the both of you.”

“Did you even listen to anything I said yesterday?” Ashleigh asks. Her voice is calm, but the question stops Mimi in her tracks. “I destroyed my career for you. Walked away from the happy life I had in New York. For you. I left the man I loved for you. I came back to LA and took on your life, so that you could have time to heal. I would do anything for you. You’re my sister. Do you honestly believe I’d steal your ex-boyfriend? I don’t play those games with the people I love, Mimi. You do.”

When Mimi doesn’t reply Ashleigh goes on, “Do you even know me? If I wanted Justin, do you think I’d be doing this in public?” She waves her hand in my direction. “And do you honestly believe I’d put the man I love—the man, you turned against me out of spite—through the torture of watching it?” The next words are pushed furiously through her teeth. “I don’t play those games with the people I love. I don’t manipulate them or their children for revenge. You do!”

The wave of realization hits me like a punch in the face. The reason their reunion looked scripted is because it was. They’re using me. I do know Ashleigh and she wouldn’t have a public reconciliation with Justin if their relationship was real. She’d treat him the way she treats me; like a closely guarded secret.

“This is the difference between you and me,” she hisses, “you blame me for the outcome of your life and your bad decisions, so you’ve destroyed my life over and over for revenge. But me? I blame myself for your suicide attempt, so I’m the one paying for it. I’m the one sacrificing myself to protect you. Well no more, Mimi. I am fucking done with your bullshit!” There’s that voice again. The one that could kill people if it was possible. The one she used on Justin during the Baker’s Dozen reunion. “So here we are. JT Pretson cashing in on the secret reunion between Krystal and Justin. I hope you’re happy now! Because I swear to God, this is the last time I’ll ever do anything for you. You are dead to me from this moment on!”

“No! Ash, don’t say that. She’s your sister.” Justin cries out.

“With sisters like her, who needs enemies?”

“Mimi, please.” Justin turns to her. “It should have been obvious to you that she was seeing someone when we started dating. You looked like her, you sound like her, it’s impossible to tell you apart when you’re pretending to be Krystal. You didn’t think to tell the guy she was dating it wasn’t her! We’ve ruined that relationship for her and she’s devastated.”

“If I’m the one you love, why’d you go to her first?”

“Because she beat the shit out of a six-foot-five copper who’s built like a champion wrestler, knocked him out cold and the charges were dropped. I’m pretty sure she knows how to murder me and get away with it.” Justin takes Mimi’s hands in his. “Mellita.” He brings her fingers to his lips. “No one gets to you without going through her first, surely you know that.”

“Get out of my life!” Mimi hisses at Ashleigh. “Get out. Stay out. Never come back!”

“Oh, don’t worry, baby sister. I fully intend on staying as far away from you as possible.” Ashleigh walks past Mimi and stops. “Oh, and as you’re so fond of playing sick and twisted revenge games…” She cackles and presses a couple of buttons on her phone. She lifts the cell to her ear. “Hi Candice, it's Krystal Valentina.... I’m fine, darling, how are you?”

“You wouldn’t!” Mimi cries.

Ashleigh ignores her and walks toward me.

“Ash don’t.” Justin steps forward. But she ignores him too. “Please!”

“No… no… JT Preston has the full story… it’s on the record. It’s exclusive too.” Ashleigh turns to look at me and I know the message is for my ears. It’s delivered with the right amount of punch to make me listen. She’s given me permission to publish the story. The one she doesn’t want anyone to know. “You see, Justin’s been sleeping with my twin sister… Evidence? Yeah, she’s pregnant.”

Ashleigh hangs up the phone.

“What the hell?” I erupt. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“You didn’t want to know!” She hisses and barges passed me.

I grab her hand, stop her abruptly, and that flash of pain crosses her expression when she snatched her hand back. “Of course I wanted to know. I thought you’d run off with another guy!”

“I don’t care what you thought, Sean.” She steps toward me, pokes her finger into my chest. “I care about what you do. You don’t trust me. You believe her. But me, the woman you supposedly want to spend the rest of your life with, you don’t even ask if what that lying whore said is true.”

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