Reese cleared his throat, regaining my attention.
“It’s not well-known, but I’m Hispanic.”
“Bullshit,” Mason said, tilting his head back.
“You don’t have to believe me,” Reese said, shooting silver daggers at Mason with his eyes.
“But you look so white—” Oliver said.
“I know. And for my entire career, I’ve pretended to be one-hundred-percent caucasian. Back when I was an actor just starting, my first production company advised me to change my name and pretend to be white.”
We were all leaning forward, shocked by this sudden realization.
“Wait, so your accent—” Leo asked, running his hands through his hair.
“That’s real. I was raised in London. Long story,” he said sharply.
The scowl was deepening on Mason’s face. I could tell he didn’t know that about Reese, even though they dated.
“My parents are immigrants. They spent time in the U.S. And had me, so I have citizenship. They do not — and none of my cousins do, either.”
The pieces were starting to fall into place. I was still picking at my thumb cuticle.
Reese pulled a barstool to the small living space and sat on it. He looked like a model — all long limbs and nice shoes and an expensive suit, posing on a mundane stool. “Those guys you saw in my basement, Mason… they were my cousins.”
“That’s what you said then, too!” Mason scowled. “You expect me to believe that — none of them look a thing like you!”
Reese sighed heavily and shrugged. “They were my family. I was doing a favor for my aunt and uncle — hosting my cousins. They were having visa issues, and ICE was looking for them. It turned into this whole legal thing…”
“So you hid them in your basement?” I asked softly.
Reese nodded. “They were staying with me for a few months, just until we could get their visa situation straightened out. Unfortunately, it only got worse and worse as the administration cracked down on illegal immigration. It got to the point where I told them if they heard someone come in the house, to hide in the secret closet I had in the cellar.”
“That’s when Mason found them,” Oliver said, glancing at him.
“Shut up, this is all bullshit,” Mason said through gritted teeth.
“Just because you’re sour about what happened with us doesn’t make this not true,” Reese said.
“Wait, so about the blackmail…” I said.
“Right, there’s that,” Reese said, rubbing his temples where the silver hair swirled. “As you can imagine, it’s… untoward for a relatively famous director to be harboring illegal immigrants in his home for as long as I did. And what it looks like to most people — that I have sex slaves in my basement or something. I can see the headlines now…”
I could easily close my eyes and picture the headlines, too. The media would have a field day with it.
“If this ever gets out, I’d be under multiple investigations,” he said. “Up until recently, I didn’t think there was any evidence—”
“Wait a minute!” I said, standing up. “You’re trying to brush this all under the rug, acting like it’s okay?!” I cried.
Five pairs of eyes in the room were all on me. I knew I was making a big deal out of this, but I didn’t care. I couldn’t stand for this kind of injustice.
“It was for family, Charlie,” Reese said carefully.
“It doesn’t matter,” I said, pinning him with my stare. “It’s not right — you broke the law,”
“Laws can be bent,” Crim said gently.
I whipped around to stare him down. “Oh yeah? You sound like a freaking sociopath, you know that?”
“It’s not the first time I’ve been called that,” Crim said, staring at his black nails.
He was about to say something else, but I cut him off. I wasn’t done yet. “Laws exist for a reason,” I said, wound up by an intense sense of justice. “And you broke it.”
“Charlie, you’re being obnoxious,” Oliver said, rolling his eyes. “We all know this immigration crap is a bunch of stupid shit designed to make brown people’s lives difficult—”
“Even if it’s stupid, the laws is the law,” I said, standing up a little taller. All of these guys staring at me was stirring up familiar feelings within me — this was just like that time in high school when I threatened to report a bully for breaking the rules. He was bragging about getting away with taking me to a party and getting me to do things. He dared the other students around him to tell on him. No one would; he had too much social power, and it was known that if he didn’t like someone, he could make their lives miserable.
So I did. And I paid for it for the rest of my high school days.
“Reese, you have to admit you did something wrong,” I said, mimicking my old self when I confronted the bully.
“I did what was best for my family,” Reese said cooly.
“No. You did what was best for you,” I said.
Reese narrowed his eyes at me, and I was suddenly overwhelmed by the feeling of being unwelcome in the trailer. All the guys’ eyes were on me, compelling me to leave.
Just like all those years ago, I was trying to stand up for what was right, and every person I thought was my friend turned against me.
“Do seriously none of you have a problem with this?!” I asked the room, making eye contact with each of them.
Five times, my eyes were avoided.
“I can’t believe this,” I said, turning around to leave.
I lingered there for a moment at the door, waiting for someone to stop me.
No one did.
And just like that, I left Reese’s trailer and walked off into the night.
Chapter Twenty-Six
I went back to my trailer, the one place I could be alone to think.
One minute passed. Two minutes passed. Fifteen minutes went by, and no one came to my trailer.
I buried my face in my pillow. As
