Sweet Liar (Candy #2)(77)

“Because pretending everything is fine when it’s definitely not is a skill I happen to know a little about.” With a sigh, I wet a towel and looked at her.

She glared at me at first, but slowly the hostility drained from her face and she lowered herself onto the toilet seat with a look of defeat.

Sympathy guided my hand as I washed away the tracks of mascara on her cheeks. “I’m sorry for what you’re going through.”

She pushed my hand away and scoffed. “Did Lea tell you? She has such a big mouth.”

I’ve known for a while, I thought, but I didn’t answer as I finished wiping her face.

She watched me with glazed eyes. Finally, she asked, “Is Jonah here?”

My hand stopped before moving again. “No.”

“Good. He’s the last person I want to see.”

“Why?” I asked, trying not to let her get to me.

“Because he’s probably the last faithful guy on earth, and I don’t need to be reminded of that today.”

I gave her a curious look.

“He wouldn’t mess around on you, okay? That day I went to his locker, he said, “I’m taken.” Parker lowered her voice an octave, making fun of Jonah. “I told him that you said you guys were done. He told me it didn’t matter, that he was still taken—by you.” She wrinkled her nose like the thought was distasteful, but what he’d said inspired the opposite reaction in me.

“Why are you being nice to me?” she asked once I finished.

“You’re hurting. It would be pretty heartless of me to be a bitch to you right now.”

Her eyes narrowed, but she didn’t say anything as she stood and grabbed her purse on the counter. “Don’t tell anyone about this. Okay?” she asked, looking at my reflection in the big oval mirror over the sink.

I nodded.

“And thanks, I guess,” she muttered before walking out of the bathroom.

For another moment, I stood there a little shell-shocked. I did something nice for Parker and she thanked me, albeit grudgingly. It was like being in an alternate universe.

When I left the bathroom and entered the large sunken living room, I spotted Ethan and Malcolm standing in the middle of the room, talking to girls I recognized as cheerleaders from school. I decided not to interrupt them.

For the next half hour, I wandered around, glancing at my phone every few minutes, looking for a text from Jonah that never came. I hoped things were going okay with Heather’s parents, and I really wished I’d talked him into letting me come with him, because killing time here was slowly killing me. I hated waiting, and I hated feeling useless.

When I went into the kitchen to get something to drink, I ran right into Ethan and Lea going at it. My own face felt hot watching them. Ethan had Lea pressed against the wall with his leg shoved between hers. She was angling her body to get closer to him, and his hands were squeezing the back of her thighs. Oh my.

Realizing I was standing there gawking, I whipped around and headed back the way I’d come. When I reached the hallway, an arm wrapped around my waist, and my stomach dipped at the familiar feel of it. I rammed an elbow back and heard a harsh grunt as I was released.

“What the hell?” Drew grimaced as I turned around.

At the sight of him, I was filled with so many emotions. I thought of his mother and how she’d told Victor about the safe, and I thought of the last text he’d sent me, calling me a bitch.

“I thought we decided you weren’t going to touch me that way. What are you doing here?” I asked.

“Lea’s posting pictures of the festivities on Facebook. When I saw you, I decided to stop by.”

“Lea posted a picture of me?”

“A little while ago.” He bent down close to my ear. “Can we go somewhere and talk?”

“About what?” I crossed my arms and gave him a stony look.

He blew out a breath. “You know what. Come on, Candy. Can we step outside for a minute?”

I looked at him like he was nuts. “It’s freezing out.” The hallway we were already standing in was fairly private. “You can talk to me here.”

I let him lead me farther down the hall. When I stopped and faced him, he scratched his head, looking uncomfortable. “You should have told us Jonah worked for the organization. I knew there was something off about that guy. I can’t believe you didn’t say anything.” He bent closer to me. “You should have warned us.”

“I was worried about my father, Drew. I’m sure you can understand that.”

He reared back like I’d wounded him. “But you should have trusted us. You should have trusted me, Candy. You know you can.”

I swallowed, trying not to say anything I would regret. The last thing I needed was to get into a fight with him at Lea’s party where pictures were getting posted publicly. “We hadn’t seen in each other in a long time.”

His lips turned down. “Do you know how close your family has come to ruining mine? All because my mother wanted to help out a friend? The organization knows about us helping your parents, and they’re putting pressure on us to give them evidence against your father. Except we don’t have any. But you do. You have it in some stupid safe your father wanted us to hold for him. If you know where it is, you have to tell them because they’re threatening us now.”