“Addie, listen—”
“Why are you hiding her from me?”
I shake my head, my chest constricting like a million rubber bands squeezing far too tight. “I’m not hiding her from you, I swear, Addie, it’s just … it’s not that simple.”
“I swear, Tanner. Stop trying to handle me with kid gloves. Do you like this girl?”
My gaze crosses to my father, noticing the way he goes around the room, pretending not to listen. “I more than like her.”
“You’re in love with her?” I nod and her brows arch high, her eyes widening in surprise. That confirmation was the last thing she ever expected. “Well, shit.”
“Yeah.”
“So, she lives next door, right?”
Another nod.
“Channing’s latest gold-digger girlfriend?”
“Wife,” I confirm. “Gold-digging wife. He married her in Paris a few weeks ago.”
“Wait,” she says, her brows furrowing. “What the hell, Tanner? You’re seeing Channing’s new wife? I mean, I know you stoop low sometimes, but this is messed up.”
“What?” I demand, my eyes going wide, the flowers forgotten. “That’s messed up. I’m not fucking Channing’s wife, I’m dating her daughter, Brielle.”
Understanding dawns on her face, and she grins slowly. “Now that makes more sense,” she says, pressing her lips into a hard line to keep from laughing at my horror. “So, what’s wrong with this chick? Give it to me straight, Tanner. If she’s special, then you need to be upfront from the get-go.”
That heaviness returns and I hate how right she is. I move across the room, perching my ass against the edge of the hospital bed and looking across at Addie. “Brielle is from Hope Falls,” I start, watching as her face falls.
“She was there, wasn’t she?” she questions, assuming that’s the worst of it.
“Yeah, but there’s more to it than that,” I explain. “At the time of … the party, Bri was dating Colby Jacobs. They were together for six months or something like that, but she ended it with him toward the end of summer when she found him cheating on her. She was also best friends with Erica, the girl who—”
“The drugs.”
“Yeah,” I murmur, watching as Addie’s gaze falls to her hands in her lap, her expression completely void of all emotion. It’s almost as though there’s nothing but darkness behind her eyes, but I owe it to her to be honest about Brielle, especially if she’s going to be around my sister. She deserves every bit of the truth. “You need to know that a few weeks back, Erica admitted to having a hand in what happened to you, and the second that happened, Brielle cut all ties with her. There’s a lot of undeserved guilt riding on Bri’s shoulders. She hates that she wasn’t more aware that night and that the two people she’d gone to the party with, were … you know.” Addison nods and I go on. “Erica tried to have Brielle go down for what happened to save herself. She made a false statement to the police stating that Brielle was in the room with Colby. She submitted false evidence and Brielle was arrested at school for aiding and abetting the rape of a minor, drug abuse, and attempted murder.”
“Attempted murder?” she asks, her head snapping back up, her brows furrowed in confusion.
I press my hand to my throat. “Your breathing tube,” I remind her. “Erica tried to pin that on her too, however, the surveillance footage clearly shows a male.”
My father scoffs, and I whip my head around, having forgotten the asshole was even in the room. “I’ve heard about enough,” he says, his disgusted stare piercing straight into me like a thousand tiny knives right through my back. “Do you have no regard for your sister or what she’s suffering through right now? How could you, for even one second, think that being with this girl is a good idea? She’s a nobody, a poor girl from Hope Falls, with connections to the two main suspects in Addison’s case. She could have had a hand in this for all we know, and you’re going to parade her through our lives, rubbing it in your sister’s face like a constant reminder.”
I stand, towering over my father as my hands ball into fists at my side, more than ready to send this asshole to an early grave. No one talks about Brielle like that. “You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about,” I seethe, spitting the words through my teeth.
“I know enough,” he says, standing tall and holding his ground. “You’ll end it with this girl immediately. I don’t want that trailer trash in my house.”
And with that, Dad walks straight past me and latches onto the back of Addison’s wheelchair, pushing her from the room and leaving me boiling from the inside out.
Chapter 16
BRIELLE
The ball flies across the field, and I watch with a cringe as Logan catches it, the force of Tanner’s throw like a freight train slamming into Logan’s chest. Hell, I can see the power behind his throw from the student parking lot.