“Kade, I’m sorry—”
“I don’t care. You cost me and Mon three months. You better pray Mrs. Tabitha doesn’t find out.” Without giving her a chance to say more after his threat, he hangs up the phone and drops it in his pocket.
He’s quiet, staring at me, giving me time to come to terms with what just happened. I’m still trying to connect the dots; I know there is more, something just out of reach.
“Princess.” My eyes fall closed as the sweet pain of hearing him call me that after three month moves through me. I’ve missed him calling me this. I miss the way his voice grows raspy whenever he says it.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I’m so sorry. I jumped to conclusions when I heard that, I just… when you called—”
“Stop,” he orders, but his voice matches mine as his hands grab my neck and his forehead drops to mine. I watch as relief washes through his gaze. “I would have done the same. Hell, I would have been worse, we know that after the way I treated you in the beginning.” A small smile plays around the corners of his mouth, and it’s so sexy I’m tempted to lean up and kiss him. Something I’ve been dreaming about for three months. “I understand. It couldn’t have been easy hearing that and thinking what you did. I’m so sorry you were hurting.”
I shake my head, still unable to wrap my head around the last ten minutes. Kade showing up after he chased me to the other side of the world, and then finding out that Veronika, my fucking mother, once again managed to nearly destroy my life.
“We both made mistakes, Princess. This probably won’t be the last time.”
“I’m just still so confused. Why would she…” I trail off as a thought strikes me. I keep saying everyone underestimates Veronika’s maliciousness, and yet, I’ve done the same thing.
I look past Kade as realization starts to spread. “She didn’t just stop by because of the tabloids.”
“What?”
“That day, Veronika showed up in Vegas right after we arrived. She saw the tabloid and was furious. I haven’t seen her this mad in years, not since I moved out.” I trail off, still trying to make the last pieces fit. I still didn’t know who told the tabloids, but I’m sure she took full advantage of that situation, wanting to make sure the seed was already planted that Kade would betray me by going to the media.
“What did she do?”
I shrug, my mind distracted. “Same as always. She took her anger about what was written out on me, accuse me of ruining her life, of going to the press.”
“Took it out on you how?”
I wave my hands in the air dismissively. “That doesn’t matter. Nothing she hasn’t done before. But she wanted me to think you or Dad would be the ones who leaked the story, who else was there? It’s the only logical conclusion, everyone else who knew had plenty of time to tell but never did. It’s the only thing that made sense.”
“Mon, slow down. What are you talking about?”
When my eyes connect with his, my breath grows choppy. His eyes shine with love and understanding—like he’s finally figured me out—all my idiosyncrasies and secrets I’ve been trying to hide for years.
“She planned this. She’s always been good at manipulating me. We all know I have trust issues. I made it easy for her.”
“Wait, you think your mother came to see you in order to rile you up enough to do what?”
“To make me doubt you so I’d believe you were cheating on me with Amber when she’d call. In my mind, I already questioned you about whether you leaked the truth. My trust in you was already on unsteady ground.”
“That’s insane.”
“No.” I shake my head. “That’s my mother. I can’t believe I didn’t see it. You didn’t tell the media, did you?”
“Tell them what?”
“The truth about the accident.”
“No, why would I? It wasn’t my story to tell.”
“Do you think your mother told them herself?” I whirl around in shock at Bob’s voice behind me. I’ve been so engrossed in what’s going on I completely forgot where I am. That I still have the jump-off to compete in. I didn’t even hear Bob or Dakota with Whisky walk up behind us.
“Who would do that?” Kade asks, confusion and disbelief clear in his voice.
I look at my watch and realize I don’t have time for this. I was one of the last to start in the final, which means it has to be over and the jump-off is about to start.
Dakota scoffs. “You have no idea what her mother is capable off.” She looks at me, confusion stamped across her features. “Are we still mad at him?” She nods at Kade to let me know who she is talking about.
“No, it wasn’t him. It’s a long story.”
She dismounts gracefully and shoves the helmet at me. “Okay, you got a competition to win. He can explain to me the misunderstanding worthy of a romance novel.” Her smile is gleeful, like she can’t wait to tell me the ‘I told you so’ I can see is on the tip of her tongue. She looks away in sudden thought, and I can hear her mumble under her breath, “I should probably tell Mav to abort the mission before he goes through with it.”
The announcer’s voice can be heard as he explains the rules of the jump-off to the audience. There’s five of us competing with me starting second to last, which means I was ranked second after the final.
“Holy shit, I’m second?” I can’t contain the awe that fills every part of me as I look at them.
They’re all wearing matching smiles, filled with pride and happiness. “Yes, you are,” Bob
