I leave the Bean Song with no fanfare. No one pays attention as I walk by. Outside, my tears fall. I shouldn’t drive, but I need to find Quinn. I must explain myself, so he knows Sofia’s lying to him. Surely, he would believe me over her, even though I haven’t been completely honest either.
What have I done? I’ve lied to the only man I’ve ever been madly in love with. I don’t care if it’s been days or weeks, the connection I have with Quinn runs deep within me. The love I feel, it’s not a fling or something I’m using to pass the time, it’s all-encompassing. It’s heartbreaking and earth-shattering. It’s what I need to breathe.
The tears become too much, and I pull over to try and calm down. My phone rings deep from inside my bag. “Quinn,” I say aloud, except when I look at the screen, it’s Susannah. As much as I don’t want to talk to her, I need to hear a familiar voice.
“Hello,” I cry out into the microphone.
“Darling, what’s wrong?”
“Oh, Sus, I messed up so bad.” I fill her in on what I know, which isn’t much becau
se a lot of it doesn’t make sense. What I do know is that Sofia is evil and she’s the mastermind behind some odd plot to make things worse for me.
“I’m in love with him, Susannah. He’s everything and so much more, and I’ve lost him, and I don’t even know how or why.”
“Sweetie, you need to talk to him and explain your side. I’m sure that once you tell him your side of the story and show him your messages with Sofia, he’ll understand.”
“I deleted her messages. I was so angry with her after I went to see her, I erased every part of her from my life. I have no proof that I didn’t know who he was and never thought I would need it because she told me he isn’t her brother. I was so stupid.”
“You’re not stupid, Eleanora. You made a mistake.”
“Changing my name and forgetting to tell the man that I’m in love with that I was engaged, and my former fiancé still thinking we are engaged isn’t a mistake. It’s a flat-out omission of the truth. I haven’t told Quinn much about my life. He knows I have a brother, a sister, and parents. That’s it. I kept everything bottled up.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. I’ve thought about telling him, but never found the right moment.” I stop and laugh, but it comes out more like a cackle. “Rhett’s here. He’s come to take me back and Quinn saw the text message and assumed Rhett was here to help me move. I told Quinn I needed to tell him something, I was going to come clean about everything and then all hell broke loose.”
“And you’ve been made out to be the bad guy.”
“I am the bad guy, but not in the way he thinks. I have to talk to him, Susannah. I have to tell him everything.”
“He probably needs some time, sweetie. You should wait until the morning. It sounds like the both of you need to cool down and take a minute.”
“I’m afraid that if I wait, it’ll be too late. My daddy always says you have to strike while the iron’s hot.”
“Well, I guess he’s right.”
I close my eyes and set my head back against the seat rest. We talk until she has to go. I wish I could say I feel better after speaking with her, but I don’t. She thinks it’s best that I don’t go to Quinn’s, but I’m not so sure. I don’t want him to spend the rest of the night thinking I’ve been lying to him about Sofia.
The drive to his house is done in a blur. I believe I ran a few red lights, almost ran someone over and missed a curb or two, but I’m at his complex and I’m climbing the steps. His door looms in front of me, and my feet grow heavy. Each step is more painful than the last. I knock. It’s quiet at first, but louder the longer the seconds tick by.
“Quinn, open up. We need to talk. Please, Quinn.” My knocking turns to banging, and finally the door opens. His sister is here, and I don’t know what’s worse, facing her or him right now.
“Elle—”
“It’s Peyton.”
“Oh, the nice one.” As soon as she tilts her head to the side I know I’ve made a mistake. Right now, I should be on the ground, kissing her feet, begging for her to let me in so I can speak to Quinn. “I’m sorry, that was incredibly rude of me.”
“Listen, when it comes to my family, I’m as wicked as the next person. My brother, he doesn’t want to see you. In fact…” She pauses and bends down to pick something up. She hands me a bag, full of my clothes. “I believe these are yours. He says you don’t have a key, so I don’t need to ask for that back. I suggest you run along back to the Tuckers because you’re not wanted here.”
“Wait, please?”
She sighs, clearly not in the mood to listen to me. Not that I blame her. “Please tell Quinn that I love him. All I lied about was my name and who I was, not because I was hiding anything from him, it was because I was hiding from myself. I can’t explain Sofia and Alicia, other than I went to school with Sofia and we were roommates and best friends. She talked about him all the time.”
“So, you knew who he was?” Peyton crosses her arms over her chest. “You knew who my entire family was and pretended like you didn’t.”
“Yes and no.”