In the Dark (The Rules #2)(83)

“It doesn’t matter if they believe him or not. Now I look like some gold digging whore out to trick you and steal all your money or whatever via child support. And that’s not the case at all. I don’t want your money. I don’t need it,” she practically spits at me.

“Right, because your rich daddy takes care of you and gives you whatever you want.” Spoiled little princess not liking her reality right now, is she? Well, me either. I wonder how sheltered she’s been. I wonder if anyone has said something about her as shitty as Tristan just did.

“Not quite,” she mutters as she starts to walk away from me.

“Wait a minute.” I grab hold of her upper arm, my grip loose so she could slip right out if she wanted to. She watches me, her eyes wide, her lips trembling, like she wants to cry and is holding back. I search her face for some sort of clue, something to let me know what’s wrong but…

Something’s off. I can feel it in my bones, sense it in my blood. It’s like everything’s going to change between us with whatever she’s about to say next.

“What did you just say?” I brace myself for the verbal blow.

She stares at me, her eyes glistening with unshed tears and damn, that look on her face is almost unbearable. I hate it when she’s sad. When I can’t fix whatever it is that’s bothering her.

“I don’t even know who my daddy is, okay? My mother got pregnant when she was sixteen and he ran out on her before I was even born. So she had to raise me by herself with no support. In a tiny, one bedroom shitty apartment in a terrible neighborhood in the middle of Los Angeles with no help, no money, just me and her. We didn’t have anything. Nothing.”

What the hell? “Are you serious?”

She sends me a look that says she’s so f*cking serious it hurts.

All I can do is stare at her, my mind going over what she just said. I had her pegged all wrong. Completely and totally wrong and she never corrected me. Not once. Just kept up the lie like it was no big deal. Hell, did she laugh at me? Talk with her friends about what a sucker I was? The longer I think about it, the more pissed I become and I stare at her in shock, her words slowly starting to sink in. She’s not rich. She never was rich. But some of these things aren’t adding up. “What about the house in Santa Barbara? How’d you score that?” I ask like a dumbass.

“I was housesitting for the family who owns it. My mom is their maid and cleans the main house they have in Beverly Hills. They usually come to Santa Barbara for the summer but for whatever reason, that plan fell through. Mama got me the job for the summer so I could earn extra cash to help pay for my tuition.”

Her mom is a f*cking maid. Jesus. I lean against the wall, so shocked by her story I’m afraid I’ll keel over. Glancing around, I see that everyone has miraculously gone back inside the house, thank Christ. I don’t need an audience for this particular conversation. “So there’s no rich dad.”

She shakes her head. “He was eighteen and scared shitless when my mom told him she was pregnant with his baby. He ran. Never to be heard from again. She refuses to even say his name so I have no idea who he is.”

That sucks. But she should’ve told me the truth. I wouldn’t have cared. “You’ve been lying to me this entire time then.” When she opens her mouth to defend herself I shake my head. “You’ve been lying to me. Your entire story until now is false. Right?”

Slowly, she nods, her teeth sinking into her lower lip, worrying it before she lets it go. “I thought it was just going to be temporary between us, you know? A fun fling over the summer, where I could pretend to be whatever you wanted me to be. And it worked. You made up my backstory, took care of the minor details for me and I just…ran with it. We had a few ups and downs but overall, it was a…magical summer.” The fond expression on her face makes my heart crack. Yeah, it was good between us but shit. She lied. And like a dumbass I believed every word she said. “Then you left and I figured I’d never see you again.”

“Until you did,” I add.

“Exactly. And I felt like I had to keep up the pretense, you know? I was scared, Gabe. Scared you’d leave me once you found out the truth,” she admits softly. “Especially now, with everything that’s happening.”

I run both hands over my head, gripping my hair so hard I pull on it, making myself wince. Fucking hurts. All of this f*cking hurts. Is she lying about the possible pregnancy too? Is this all one big trick and I’m just being played?

I never asked for this. I didn’t want a serious relationship this year. Hell, this is my last year of freedom and instead I get myself involved with a girl who’s nothing but shackles and chains. “I don’t know if I can handle this.”

She frowns. “Handle what?”

“All of it. The lies. The truth. The fact you might be pregnant with my baby. Or maybe you’re not. I don’t know. I can’t trust you to tell me the truth.” I drop my hands and stare at her. “I’m not ready for any this.”

Her expression freezes, eyes filled with shock and horror. “I-I understand. You have every right to hate me.”

Her words make me feel like shit. I don’t hate her. I could never hate her but…damn it, she lied to me. She betrayed me and I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to get over it. Don’t know if I’ll be able to get over Tristan’s betrayal either.