Not even twenty-four hours later, my life blew up.
“Maisy! Over here!”
“Maisy! What do you think about Ryan and Skyler? Did he cheat on you?”
“How long have you been broken up?”
“Did you know he was with Skyler Smith the entire time you were together?”
Startled, I threw my hands up in front of my face, not only because I couldn’t see past the flashing lights but also because I didn’t want them to have a picture of me reacting to their words. How had the paparazzi found me at my new apartment? Why were they saying those things? Skyler Smith? What were they talking about?
I made it to my car, keeping my head down. Ryan and I had been apart for over a month. It was possible he’d started dating again. I quickly called Angie after I locked my door.
When she picked up, I said, “I know I told you I don’t want to talk about him, but why are the paparazzi taking my picture? What’s going on with Skyler?”
There was silence for so long on her end I thought the call had dropped. “Um, the tabloids say they’re dating.”
My heart scrunched up inside my chest, and it felt like someone had dipped my lungs in lead. They fell into my stomach, making it impossible to breathe. “I’ll call you later.”
I turned off my phone and started up my newly purchased used car. For some reason I’d thought being able to buy myself a car would make me happy.
It hadn’t.
I carefully pulled out of the parking lot, avoiding the paparazzi, who were still yelling my name and taking pictures of me. Fitz had called a family/band meeting, which was why I’d actually bothered to leave my apartment.
When I arrived at his complex, with no reporters trailing after me, I turned on my phone and went to the ENZ website.
Pictures of Ryan and Skyler. The captions indicated that they were recent. Laughing over dinner. Walking her Chihuahua together. He looked happy. I let my fingers outline the shape of his face.
I read the article under the pictures. Several insiders talked about their love rekindling, with Ryan telling Skyler he’d never really gotten over her. They talked about how perfect they were as a couple, so alike in every aspect. The title of the story even asked, “Maisy Who?”
There was a crushing sensation pressing down on my chest, making it hard to catch my breath. I felt completely destroyed. Skyler had promised to ruin my life, and it looked like she’d finally figured out a way to do it. She’d said she’d get back together with him, and she had. As if I’d never existed. Never even mattered to Ryan. I leaned forward, folding in on myself. My arms and legs shook as if they wouldn’t support me if I tried to stand.
But Ryan said she didn’t like guys.
He was assuming, I reminded that inner voice. Maybe he was wrong.
These pictures seemed to indicate that he had been.
I got out of the car, feeling like a shell of myself. Nothing had been right in my life since I’d walked away from Ryan.
Fitz opened the door before I could knock and gave me a hug. I tried to smile at him but didn’t quite manage it. He offered me something to drink, but I declined.
Cole and Parker arrived together about a minute later. Fitz asked everyone to sit down. “I have some good news and some great news.”
“Isn’t it traditional to start with the bad news?” Parker asked, nodding his head toward me.
My other two brothers turned toward me. “Maisy?” Fitz asked gently. “Is there something you want to tell us?”
“Nope,” I managed. “All good.”
“Lie,” Cole said. “If you don’t want to talk about what’s bothering you right now, that’s fine. But I think it’s time you told us what actually happened between you and Ryan. It’s been bothering me for weeks. I feel like I should have beaten somebody up for hurting my sister and didn’t.”
Large tears fell on my cheeks. I shook my head. “I can’t.”
Fitz came over and knelt on the floor in front of me, taking my hands in his. “Maisy, we’re the people you can trust. You know we’re always here for you. Let us help you carry this burden.”
I needed to tell someone. Through tears and sobs, I told them in a cracking voice everything that had happened when CeCe showed up at Ryan’s apartment.
When I finally finished, I expected . . . something. Threats of bodily harm, promises to make Ryan pay, a dramatic leaping to their feet and swearing to enact vengeance. Instead, I saw them exchange uneasy glances with one another.
“What?” I demanded.
“I’m sorry, Maze, but to be honest I don’t get why you’re so upset,” Parker finally said.
I blinked, too shocked to respond.
“It’s not like he knew about the kid and kept it from you,” Cole added. “Then you’d have a right to be upset.”
“Yeah. He didn’t make this happen. It sounds like he was just as surprised as you were.”
Fitz had moved onto the couch and put his arm around me while I’d recounted my story. “Maisy.” He said my name gently, like he was worried I might break. “Have you considered the possibility that Ryan needed you when he found out?”
The heartache inside me quickly shifted to anger. What was happening? “How are you guys not on my side? Don’t you see he’s just like our father?”
Cole folded his arms. “Ryan is nothing like our dad. And him having one kid he knew nothing about doesn’t make him like Louis. At all. Why would you even say that? I thought you loved Ryan.”
“I did,” I sputtered.
I do.
Then, annoyingly enough, my brothers started talking about me like I wasn’t in the room.
“She needs to get over this anger at Dad and move on with her life. It’s going to destroy any future relationship she ever tries to have.”
“I can’t believe she just took off. It must have killed him.”
“You can’t really blame her for that. Maisy has a tendency to overreact to things. She jumps to conclusions without having all the facts. Hopefully he already knows that about her.”
“I don’t even believe in love, and I thought they were really in love.”
“She’s going to regret this for the rest of her life.”
“Stop!” I yelled, my fists balled up in my lap. I wouldn’t be able to take much more of this. I felt completely overwhelmed by their observations. It was all too much to process. “Enough. I don’t need your judgments. I came here for Fitz’s news. Can we please get back to that?”
Parker looked like he was going to argue with me, but Fitz stood up, holding out one hand toward Parker. As if he was trying to placate him instead of me. “Okay. The first thing I should tell you is that Piper and I decided last week to become exclusive.”
That was what he wanted to tell us? Like it wasn’t bad enough that I already had three knives sticking out of my back? He wanted to make sure he twisted his in nice and tight?
“And Piper wants to become our manager. She’s ready for a change in her career, and she’s been doing this for long enough that she’s got the right kind of connections.”
“I thought Piper didn’t crap where she eats,” Cole said.
“She does now.”
Ugh. That was completely gross. “What if you break up?”
“We’re adults and professionals. We’ll be fine.”
Raging anger blinded my vision for a second. So it would be fine for Fitz, but it hadn’t been fine for me. They’d all given me such a hard time about dating Ryan, fearful for their careers. I guess now it didn’t matter. I really couldn’t call Fitz out on his hypocrisy, given how badly Ryan and I had ended and that we were no longer together. Another sharp, stabbing pain throbbed in my belly.
“The great news,” Fitz went on, “is that Piper has already booked us another tour. We’ll be flying over to Europe to tour with Many Maus.”
“We’re going on tour with Minnie Mouse?” Parker asked.
“No, the German rock band. Many Maus. Bunch of Top 100 European hits. It won’t be as nice as . . .” Fitz’s voice trailed off as he looked at me. “But if we want, they’ll send us the contracts tomorrow, and we can all sign. So I thought we should take a vote.”
While I wanted to vote no on Piper as our manager purely out of spite, I reluctantly and angrily raised my hand as a yes for her and the tour.
“Is that it?” I asked, standing up. I wasn’t sure how much more brotherly love I could take.
Fitz nodded. “Yeah, that’s everything. But, Maisy, I really think we should talk.”
I went to his front door and put my hand on the doorknob. “You know, after all we’ve been through together, the one thing I could always count on was my brothers having my back. No matter what.”
Cole got to his feet as well. “We still have your back. Just not the way you wanted. You messed up. Who else is going to tell you that kind of truth?”
Furious, I slammed Fitz’s front door behind me before Cole could say anything else. He was lucky I didn’t punch him first. How could they pretend that they were on my side and trying to help me after the horrible things they’d accused me of? Weren’t they supposed to love me no matter what? The utter and total betrayal of my brothers not standing by me was more than I could bear. Tears blurred my vision as I stomped out to my car. I was careful not to take my anger out on the road. My brothers’ idiocy was not worth getting in an accident over.
Problem was, I didn’t know where to go next. I didn’t want to go home. Where I would sit and seethe.
I wanted my mom. I needed her.
So I drove to Century Pacific, and I wiped away my tears of frustration and anger as I followed behind the orderly. This really wouldn’t do me any good. She couldn’t actually help me. Not the way I needed her to.
I couldn’t even hug her.
Taking in a big breath, I reminded myself to be thankful for what I had. At least she was still here, in some form.
I introduced myself again, and she immediately started chatting about the prom. “You seem sad,” she commented in the middle of her monologue.
“I am. My boyfriend and I broke up.”
“This close to prom? Why?”
I so badly wanted her to comfort me and tell me everything would be okay! “Because he got another girl pregnant.”
She gasped. “Is she going to drop out of school?”
“No, she’s done with school.” It was probably a lot more shocking to think this had happened to a couple of teenagers than to adults.
“He cheated on you, then?”
“No.” I blinked. “Technically he didn’t cheat on me. It happened before we ever met.” Saying it out loud made me realize that my brothers, stupid and awful as they were, had been sort of right. Ryan hadn’t set out to hurt me or betray me. Which just aggravated me more. I tried to justify my anger. “The thing is, my father always does this. He has a bunch of different kids with a bunch of different women. It ruined my life. My mom’s life. I can’t go through that.”
My mom nodded, looking thoughtful. “Do you think you’d feel the same way if your dad wasn’t the way he is?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.” Maybe I would have felt angry or betrayed, but if I didn’t have such a dysfunctional parent, would I have gotten over it? “That’s hard to imagine, though.”
“It doesn’t really seem fair to punish your boyfriend for your hang-ups.”
“I’m punishing him for not using birth control correctly. It isn’t about my hang-ups.”
“Okay.” My mother raised one eyebrow at me, the way she used to do when I was little and she didn’t believe me. It made my heart squeeze. “Whatever you say. I think you should forgive him.”
“What?”
“I go to church with my mom every week. I don’t know if I believe everything they’re saying, but I do think forgiveness is important.”
My mouth literally dropped open. My mother had never once taken us to church. She’d grown up religious? How did I not know this?
Was this why she put up with my father for so long?
“So I just forgive him?” The way she had when she adopted Cole? “Just get over it?”
“Well, yeah. You’d be a lot happier. Like when my best friend and I got into this massive fight junior year over Frank Cadieux. He was my boyfriend, and she kissed him! We didn’t speak for months. I was mad for a long time, but then I missed my friend, and it was all just . . . stupid. A waste. So I forgave Elaine.”
I let out a sigh. It wasn’t quite the same thing. “And then everything was fine?”
“Not so much. Elaine was still mad at me. The thing is, though, when you forgive someone, it allows you to let go of your anger. When I stopped being angry, I found a way to fix our friendship.”
I realized she was right. That this could be the answer to my situation. Maybe it wasn’t what I had come here for, and even though she didn’t know who I was, she’d still managed to help me.
Not wanting to keep talking about Ryan, forgiveness, and the doubts that had started to creep into my mind, I said, “Hey, I don’t know if you remember, but I told you about how my family has a secret brownie recipe.”
“Mine, too!”
“Right. Anyway, I found out the secret. It was made from a mix.”
She let out a low whistle. “That must have been a letdown. I would have been furious.”
“It was a letdown. But I’ve been making them, anyway.”
“Are they good?”
I twisted my lips and cleared my throat, making the tears go away. Then I reached over and put my hand on her arm. “They’re good. But it isn’t the same.”