He glanced at Devlin so I lifted my head to look at him, too. “Lily,” Devlin said after thinking about it for a minute. “I remember Olive introducing her as Lily. One of the blondes.”

“No one was in the room?”

“Just you two. Could she be the one who spiked your drink? Because none of my staff would do something like that. I handpick them, you know that. And even if they could, why would they?”

“She is Olive’s friend for fuck’s sake, why would she do something like that?”

“Exactly how much do you remember?” Alvin asked again.

I thought about it. What the hell did I remember? I remembered going up to the private room with Olive. I remembered kissing her, wanting to do much more to her than just kissing. I could still feel her lips on mine, her hands in my hair. She always trembled when I kissed her, as if my touch sent small shock waves into her body, and I loved drinking it all down. I simply loved being near her, touching her…

I shook my head.

“Not much. I don’t remember Olive leaving. I remember talking to Lucy and Lily, but that’s it. Did you call her?”

Alvin grimaced, and I hated it. “We couldn’t find your phone, but her handbag was next to you, and her phone was in it. But,” he added hastily before I could explode all over again. “I called Lucy. She isn’t answering right now, but I’ll keep calling. Don’t worry, Jason.”

“Tell him the rest,” Devlin said darkly.

“What rest?” I glanced between them.

Another grimace. This one was worse. If I never saw Alvin grimace like that ever again, it would be too soon.

“Someone leaked photos of you and the girl. Every media outlet is running with the story of you cheating on Olive.”

Chapter Thirty-One Olive

I contemplated getting on a bus, but I had enough money to hop on a plane. I was a damn bestselling author now; the least I could do was buy a plane ticket back home without counting every cent in my bank account.

So I did just that.

First, I raced to Jason’s house. Being married to a fucking actor had its perks, like how you didn’t have to carry your wallet with you when you were going out with said actor. The smallest clutch could hold your phone and maybe a lipstick, but that’s it, which is why I had to stop by the house to grab a few personal items, a change of clothes, and of course, my ID.

I didn’t want to think about it, but it was hard not to notice that he hadn’t come back home. Where he’d spent the night…I didn’t want to think about that either.

By 12:30 PM, I was in San Francisco.

At 2:00 PM, I was standing in front of the door of my childhood home, where this whole mess had started.

I took a deep breath and lifted my arm to knock on the door.

My dad opened the door, and we spent a few silent seconds looking at each other, which only caused my lips to tip down and tears to start flowing freely down my cheeks.

“Baby,” he sighed.

I wiped at my tears angrily. Why was I even crying?

“I know you are angry at me, but—”

I burst into more tears.

Pathetic, I know.

But then, I was in my dad’s arms and he was whispering the most beautiful words into my ear.

It was worth being a pathetic little wimp. There, I was safe.

It felt so good when he was hugging me so tightly. I could let go of everything and know that he would take care of his girl like he always did. Who could hurt you when your dad had his big arms around you? Who would dare break a little girl’s heart? Didn’t every woman feel like a little girl when their dad gave them a good hug? Didn’t everyone just want to stay there until the monsters went away?

No?

Well, good for you and your independence then. Pop some champagne and celebrate. Congrats, you made it into adulthood. Me, not so much. I would take my dad’s hugs over anything.

“Logan, who is at—Olive? Oh, sweetheart.”

When I heard my mom’s voice and felt her hand softly brushing my hair, I buried my face harder into my dad’s chest and let them love their little girl.

Chapter Thirty-Two Jason

After living through the worst morning of my fucking life, we had finally found Lucy at the hospital with her boyfriend. She looked like a mess herself, and I couldn’t imagine what she’d gone through while waiting for her boyfriend to come out of surgery. I’d learned that Olive had been with her the entire time, which was progress since we couldn’t find her anywhere. She had left with Lucy and spent the entire night at the hospital while I was out of it.

It was a miracle we even managed to get that out of her mouth. She had seen the news coverage and was just as furious as I was, if not more. The only difference was she was ready to attack me and have my balls for her friend, not the bastard who had spiked my drink or taken the photos.

It took some time, but we explained what was going on and she looked like she wanted to believe us. After some begging on my part, she told me that Olive had flown to San Francisco hours ago.

At 10:00 PM, I was on a plane—fuck waiting for a private jet—flying to San Francisco.

***

It was weird being in the neighborhood where you spent a big and very important chunk of your childhood. All the houses looked the same as I remembered; even the damn air smelled like it had back then. The house my mother had decided to take her own life in was still the same, too. Sure, it looked more lived in, and there were flowers that hadn’t been there when I was a teenager, but it was right where it had been, tucked among the memories I wanted to forget.

I hoped the family who was living in it now was a happier and more functional one than ours had been. I hoped the kids who were growing up in the house weren’t witnessing their mother slowly losing the light in her eyes for no good reason. I hoped that they had another house they could spend their time in if things weren’t going that great for them, someone to care about them like Logan and Emily had cared about me.

Right then, standing in front of their house in the middle of the night didn’t feel as scary as I had thought it would feel when I was on the plane. It was more like coming back home, and that was a good feeling for someone who hadn’t had a good home for most of their life, someone who had lost both his parents along the way and for a very long time hadn’t had a real thing to hold on to when things got rough.

Maybe it wasn’t as scary as I had initially thought it would be, but I was still a mess. Apart from feeling like a mess, I also looked like a fucking mess.

After spending ten minutes in front of their house, not knowing how Olive’s parents would react to seeing me, not knowing if Olive would even agree to see me, I sucked it up and knocked on their door.

When Dylan opened the door and his eyes hardened when he saw who was standing on their porch, I was still trying to get over the shock of seeing my best friend after so many fucking years.

Dylan didn’t have that problem.

My lips spread out in a smile, but that was a mistake because his whole body tightened. Instead of being happy to see me again like I’d hoped he would be, he stepped out of the house and quietly closed the door behind him.

“What are you doing here, Jason?”

“Dylan. Shit, man.” I tried to stop my smile from spreading out more, but…hell, he was my best friend, and it had been years since I’d seen him. “Man, it’s really fucking good to see you.”

His expression didn’t change.

“I’ll ask again. What are you doing here? Don’t you think you did enough damage to her already?”

I dropped my smile, but it was too late to brace for the impact his words caused. If he wanted to act like a piece of shit, so be it. So could I.

“I can see that you don’t care to see me. I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t come to see you either. I’m here for my wife.”