Chapter 197
SIERRA.
I don’t sleep. I think I do, for maybe an hour, but when I wake, it’s with my heart pounding against my ribs and the memory of a hand over my mouth replaying in my head like a glitching film.
It’s morning and soft light filters through the curtains, but my body feels like it hasn’t rested at all. My mind keeps looping through every second of last night… the grip on my arm, the muffled panic in my throat, and then Adrian. His voice, his strength, the way he came like an avenging reason and his warmth when I couldn’t stop shaking.
I exhale slowly, pressing the heel of my hand to my forehead.
I should never have agreed to stay here. Danger finds me everywhere, but being under Noah’s roof makes everything a thousand times more complicated. And yet… I stayed. I still don’t fully understand why.
A ringing jolts me out of my thoughts, and I nearly fall from the shock of it. It’s my phone and it’s Lilly calling.
I grab it quickly and answer.
“Hey…” My voice cracks embarrassingly. “Good morning p>
“Good morning.” Lilly scoffs. “I heard what happened, Sierra; I was so worried. Are you okay? Are you hurt p>
My throat tightens again, but I force myself to breathe. “I’m okay. Really. it was just overwhelming p>
“That’s an understatement.” She exhales sharply. “I swear, Si… if something had happened to you…
“Don’t think like that,” I whisper. “Nothing happened and I’m grateful for that p>
“I was going to call yesterday, but I knew that you were probably exhausted and Noah had already told me you were safe p>
“Yeah,” I reply with a sigh, “By the time I got home, all I wanted to do was sleep and forget someone tried to kidnap me p>
“I bet my money on Brook,” she growls her name, like it’s something distasteful. “I told Noah that p>
“I suspect her too… she tried to frame me the other day, but things didn’t exactly go according to her plan. That must have pissed her off p>
“Why the hell am I hearing this now p>
I sigh, “Because just like with the kidnapping, I just wanted to forget it happened p>
“What happened p>
The next couple of minutes, I explain everything that happened that day at the staircase, and let me just say if I didn’t stop her, Lilly would have been ready to come here and teach Brook a lesson she’d never forget.
Sometimes I sit back and watch Lilly and wonder how I got so lucky in the best friend department. She’s soft, but such a badass at the same time.
“I love you,” I tell her on a sob, wiping a tear.
“What’s happening?” she asks in panic. “Why are you crying p>
“I don’t know,” I muffle. “Everything makes me cry nowadays p>
“It’s those hormones. I hear they can be brutal p>
Silence fills the line for a moment as I pull myself together.
“What did Noah say when you told him you suspect Brook?” I ask once my emotions are under control.
“Of course, that idiot didn’t believe me!” she all but screeches through the phone.
“It’s not nice calling your cousin an idiot, Lilly p>
“Well, he is p>
I can’t argue with that… Sometimes I wonder if Chloe and Brook were just that good at manipulation… or if there was something else involved. Something darker. Because how can someone be that blind?
I’ve gone over it a thousand times. Turned it around in my head until it hurt. And nothing ever made sense. No matter what angle I looked at it from, Noah always believed them. Even when the facts didn’t add up. Even when I was standing right in front of him, begging him to see me.
I don’t even know if love potions exist, but there was a time I genuinely believed he had to be under some kind of spell. It was the only explanation that didn’t tear me apart. Because there were small stupid moments. when he was good to me. When he’d look at me a certain way or say something soft or choose me in a way that made my chest feel warm and stupidly hopeful. 1
And then the moment Chloe snapped her fingers and decided she wanted her toy back, Noah would spin on his heel and turn into someone else entirely, and I was left feeling like I’d imagined every good moment between us. Like I’d never mattered at all.