Cruel Fortune (Cruel #2)(62)

He kissed my forehead and pulled me against him. “I know. It’ll get easier.”

I sighed against his chest. It mirrored what Charlotte and Etta had said. But…would it get easier? Or would it fester and rot, only getting worse and worse until we all broke?



I wanted to be back at my place after the night I’d had. I had so much to think about and sift through. Conversations that didn’t make sense, that my writer’s brain needed to piece together. But Lewis took me back to his apartment, and I didn’t fight it. I’d been staying at his place more often. I just wasn’t looking forward to the conversation I knew we’d have to have now that we were here.

He undid his bow tie and left the first couple of buttons undone at the top before flipping on the record player and heading to the wet bar. “Wine?”

“Something stronger.” I kicked off the Louboutins Jane had given me and was glad that I’d left a spare change of clothes at his place. This dress was incredible but not exactly for relaxing or to be comfortable in.

Lewis returned to my side with two glasses. He plunked a bottle of scotch onto the table and poured us each a knuckle’s worth.

“I’m going to change. I need out of this dress.”

He pulled me hard against him, kissing me deeply. “I can help.”

“I’ll just be a minute.”

I was still too pissed to even think about being sexy. He must have read it in my eyes because he released me. I headed back to his bedroom and undid the buttons that held up the top of the dress and then the hidden side zipper. I hung the designer dress on a hanger in his closet before shimmying into leggings and a flowy T-shirt. I tipped my head upside down and gathered all my hair into a messy bun on the top of my head. I looked at myself in the vanity mirror, giving myself a second of breathing room before going back out there.

Lewis was waiting, pouring himself another glass of scotch, the overhead light illuminating his dark skin. I couldn’t judge him in that moment. I didn’t know where to even start. But I had more questions for him, and I wasn’t one who held them in.

“I saw Addie tonight,” I said.

Lewis turned toward me with a questioning look on his face. “I didn’t see her.”

“We ran into each other when I left backstage.”

“From your expression, she must have said something characteristically Addie-like.” He patted the seat next to him. “Come sit down. Addie has been a frequent menace in my life since high school. This wouldn’t be the first time.”

I walked across the room and took the seat across from him on the couch. I tucked my legs up underneath me.

“So, what’d she say?”

“She said that you’re…obsessed with me. That you have these obsessions. That it’s like being in the sun, but when you leave them, it’s like being on the dark side of the moon. She said that I’m the latest.”

He rolled his eyes. “How original of her.”

“I wouldn’t have thought anything of it, but Penn…might have said something like that a couple of weeks ago.”

“All right. First, I do have these obsessions. I’ve told you about them. The things that I fall for and then dismiss when I start falling for something else. But that isn’t people. Those are hobbies.” He reached forward, gently stroking my cheek. “Second, that isn’t you. Never you. I might have been like that with other things, but I could never be like that with you. You’re it for me, Natalie.”

My skin heated at the words. At the easy delivery and obvious affection. But something stuck out. Addie had been right before. She’d told me to look into the crew, and I had. There were skeletons and secrets, and I’d been burned.

“I just…they made it seem like more.”

“Point-blank, Addie is jealous.”

I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. What he was saying made sense. But I couldn’t seem to forget everything else Addie had said. “Yeah, but…she said, if it wasn’t true, then I should know about Hanna Stratton.”

Lewis’s back went rigid. “She said that?”

I nodded.

“Huh.”

“Who is she?”

Lewis shook his head. “She was a girl that we were friends with in high school. She left middle of junior year. Her parents pulled her out of school for drug use, and she ended up overdosing before they could get her into rehab. It was pretty horrific at our high school.”

“But…why would Addie think that I needed to know that?” I asked in confusion.

“Honestly, Natalie, that was what made us the crew. We’d always been close. But then leading up to and eventually losing Hanna changed everything. Addie didn’t take it well, and she left the group. While the rest of us got a lot closer. It’s still the defining point of our friendship.” He sighed. “I understand why she would think someone who was close with me would need to know that, but I don’t think it has to continue to define me. Addie wanted me to get out with her, but I didn’t want to leave, and it splintered our relationship. Now, she still tries to sabotage my relationships with this kind of information. Using things that she knows about me to try to hurt me.”

I still felt like I was missing a piece, but I didn’t know what it was. I didn’t know Addie well enough to judge if she was just jealous or trying to warn me of something. Or what even there was to warn me about.