She was probably on some idiotic liquid diet to keep her figure.
Such bullshit.
Ash slammed into the mansion and crushed the door behind him. He made his way for the sitting room that looked out over the ocean. To his great relief, it didn’t look like the trip for booze was necessary. The minibar in the library was fully stocked. He strode over to it and screwed the cap off the first thing he could grab and filled a crystal glass with it. He dropped a few cherries into the mix to give it a hint of sweetness, then he walked to the french doors that led out to the beachfront balcony.
He threw them open and allowed the breeze to wash over him. He guzzled his drink, pouring the alcohol down his throat until it burned so badly that tears washed over his eyes. He chomped on the cherries, then went to make himself another. He could already feel the alcohol coursing through his veins. Settling his mind. Drowning the pain of his heart and blocking out the memory of Kallie in that grocery store.
As he walked back out onto the balcony and sat down, he tried to convince himself that none of this changed anything. Being in the Hamptons at the same time as Kallie didn’t change what he thought of her. If anything, it only proved what James had said in that interview. She was hanging out with her gold-digger friend who had sank her claws into his own friend. The proof was all there, staring him directly in the face.
And smelling of vanilla and lavender.
Ash threw the rest of his drink back and felt the drunkenness take over his body. His head fell back as the breeze coming off the ocean blanketed his skin and his mind began to spiral. He started thinking about why he always ended up alone. Why he was the one to drown in the loneliness that surrounded him. Initially, it was his defense mechanism. A way to not get hurt. To save him from the utter disappointment others could be in his life. If he only spent a night or two with a woman, then he didn’t have to worry about getting attached. About falling in love. About potentially getting his heart broken by that same woman.
Sure, he was trying to watch out for women who wanted him only for money. Who wanted to use him. But as his mind succumbed to the silent, drunken rambles, he figured that maybe there was something more to that. He’d been on his own ever since he was a child. Ever since his parents divorced when he was only three years old. His father left, and the only presence he had of him was the man’s money. His mother garnered millions upon millions from the divorce and sank into her own realm of Botox, plastic surgery, and expensive jewelry. And whenever one of them needed something from the other, they used him as a pawn.
Ash.
Their son.
A pawn to get whatever it was they wanted from the other.
His mind conjured images of that day. Of the last day they tried to sink their teeth into him. He had finally reacted. Yelled at his parents with tears streaming down his cheeks. His mother thought the child support wasn’t enough, and his father kept accusing his mother of being a “gold-digging, irresponsible bitch.” And Ash had roared out into the room and garnered their attention. It was the only thing he had at his disposal. He couldn’t break anything or throw anything. Fuck forbid he break something of his mother’s. It was in that moment that Ash had begged his parents to send him to boarding school. To send him away so he could escape their petty manipulations.
But even though his father footed the bill for his years of boarding school, and even though his mother came to see him whenever it was convenient for her, it didn’t stop their bickering. Their endless nonsense. Their topical, greed-fueled arguments. Ash picked apart their arguments in his mind as he leaned back farther into his chair, teetering it on its back two legs.
The arguments hadn’t been about him. Not really.
Ash was simply the artificial reason behind their bickering. It wasn’t the child support paycheck, it was the fact that Ash was the only thing his father would still invest in. It was a way for his mother to keep hold of the man she had once loved. And for his father, it was a way for him to keep taking swipes at his mother. To keep reminding her of the shell of a woman she had turned into after marrying such a vibrant, talented, well-to-do woman.
But it didn’t change the one fact that brought tears to Ash’s eyes.
All of his life, there was no one on his side.
No one to support him or protect him. No one he could trust. No one he could lean on or open up to or fall against when things got too hard. That was what made trusting people so hard for Ash in his adult life. That was the reason why this blow had burned him to his core. That was why he was so angry with Kallie.
That was why her betrayal had hit him especially hard.
He had finally trusted someone. Finally opened up to someone. Finally loved someone. Finally leaned on someone. And look what it had gotten him. Look at the ridicule he was experiencing. He found everything he never had as a child. Everything he begged for at three in the morning when he cried into his pillow at night as a teenager. Kallie had given him everything he wanted, and in exchange, she tried to leverage everything he had to give her.
Ash’s chair fell back onto its four legs and he got up, resolving himself to more alcohol.
He had to drink her memory away. He had to forget about her. He had to wash her from his system and get back to the life he was living. The only way of life he knew that protected him from the barrage of betrayal that clenched his heart.
No matter how much alcohol it took.
Chapter 3
Kallie
“Kallie?”
The small voice echoed off the chambers of her mind as she stirred in bed.
“Kallie. It’s time to eat.”
She groaned as she rolled over in bed, her cheek landing into the palm of someone familiar. Someone warm.
Ash?