Twenty-Five

David

David. Van. Pelt.

Those words.

Those fucking words.

I’d avoided them for so long. Put my past behind me. Hidden it, concealed it, literally court order–sealed my name away so that it would disappear into thin air. Float away like ashes from a burning building.

But I couldn’t run forever. Not from this apparently. No matter how far I ran, that name always caught up with me. And, now, it was here. In Lubbock, Texas. Ruining everything again.

It wasn’t enough that my father was in prison for God only knew how long. Or that my mother had been implicated in the family bullshit but managed to stay out of jail. Or that Katherine sided with them and not me. None of it mattered. Only my last name. Seven fucking letters that crashed a bulldozer through the Wright party.

Silence followed Penn’s proclamation.

Wide-eyed stares.

Jaws dropped open.

Tension roiled through the crowd.

Penn quickly realized he’d made a mistake. He was an expert at judging a crowd. He’d ruled them for a time in New York. I could see he was trying to find a way to backpedal. But there was no way out of this.

I’d made my bed. Now, I had to lie in it.

“Sutton,” I said, taking a step toward her.

She flinched as if I’d struck her.

Her eyes were disbelieving. A window to her confusion and denial. She seemed to be trying to reconcile this news. To make it fit together. But it didn’t fit. It would never fit.

I’d been planning to tell her. I’d tried to so many times. It had never been the right moment…and now, it never would be.

“What is he talking about?” Sutton managed to get out.

“Yeah…why did he call you Van Pelt?” Jensen asked.

I could barely look at him. Jensen, who had trusted me and believed in me, who had gotten me this job. Who I knew would never forgive me for the words that were about to come out of my mouth.

“Because that’s my name,” I told him. “Or…it was.”

“But…how?” Jensen demanded. “We ran a background check. We were thorough.”

“Court-sealed name change. It doesn’t show up anywhere. Not even background checks.”

Jensen looked flabbergasted. As if no one had ever deceived him like this. Not in matters of business.

“Hey, I’m sorry,” Penn said. “I didn’t know that you’d had your name changed. Katherine didn’t mention anything.”

“Would she have really said something?” I asked, knowing my sister and her plans to make her still look like the Upper East Side princess that she’d grown up as.

“I figured at least to me.”

“It’s fine,” I said. Not Penn’s fault. It was mine.

I saw everything burning down around me. Jensen knew. Sutton knew. Morgan would soon know. Would I have a job? A girlfriend? A life here in Lubbock? Would anyone forgive me for trying to be someone else?

Their faces said no. And I didn’t know why I’d expected anything else. They’d been saying all summer how much they detested the Van Pelts. I’d snuck into their midst, undetected, and now, I would have to reap the consequences of that duplicity. Whatever they might be…

“It’s not fine,” Sutton said.

Her expression was raw. Pain written across her entire body. Pain I’d caused.

“No, I meant—”

“I don’t care what you meant,” she said harshly. She waved her hand in front of her. “You’re a Van Pelt. You’ve known all along. You played us. You…you played me.”

“Sutton, I didn’t—”

“You did!” she cried.

Eyes were drawn to us, and I could tell the party was slowly realizing that a fight was happening. Right here in the middle of Landon and Heidi’s pregnancy party.

I didn’t want to lose everything. Not again. Not after I’d gone through it twice already. I couldn’t walk away from this job like I had the one in San Francisco. I couldn’t walk away from this family like I’d done in New York. And I sure as hell couldn’t walk away from Sutton. I’d never met anyone else like her.

“Please let me try to explain,” I pleaded.

“Explain?” She clutched her chest as if I were causing her physical pain. “There’s no explanation. There are no excuses. You deceived us on purpose. You knew what had happened with the Van Pelts. Even if you didn’t know, you found out on the Fourth of July. Oh God…is that what Katherine’s call was about? The parole?”

I nodded mutely.

“Christ. I’m such an idiot. We’re all idiots. You’ve been here over a year. You could have told someone. You could have told me.”

“I wanted to. I tried.”

“Oh, I’m sure.”

I swallowed back my frustration. She had every right to yell at me. I’d never lied to her, but I hadn’t ever been forthright about my past.

And, now, the party was closing in. I could see Austin, Landon, and Morgan drifting our way. I knew, as soon as they were in proximity, with all the Wrights in one place…I was done. I was out of here. I just needed to…to do something. To make her understand.

“Can we talk about this?”

She shook her head and glanced away from me.

“Sutton,” Jensen said softly, “maybe we should move this to the conference room.”

“No,” she said, staring down her brother. She was a fire-breathing dragon, and not even Jensen could withstand the look of pain on her face. “No, we’re having this out now.”

“What’s going on?” Morgan asked. She had skipped over the quickest and was giving Jensen a questioning look.

“We have a…new development that we should take downstairs.”

“David is a Van Pelt,” Sutton said, throwing her hand out at me. “I mean…is anything you told me true?”

“Wait…what?” Morgan asked.

“Yes. Everything I said was true,” I assured her. “Just…not the whole truth.”

“You tried to build a relationship on lies. White lies are still lies. You omitted who you are, and you did it on purpose.”

Her words were a viper strike cutting across my skin.

They hurt the worst because they were true.

“What’s all the fuss about over here?” Austin said, finally joining the circle with Landon.

“Yeah. What’s with the yelling?” Landon asked.

“We’re trying to figure that out,” Morgan said.

“Oh no. There’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for all of this,” Sutton said. “David lied to us for a year. He’s a con artist. He pretended to be someone he’s not.”

Austin looked back and forth between Sutton and me, as if he wasn’t sure who he should be sticking up for.

“David is a Van Pelt,” Sutton said point blank.

The circle silenced again at her announcement. It was awful to watch the hurt in Morgan’s eyes. The loathing in Austin’s. The confusion in Landon’s. And, worst of all, Sutton’s…so hurt that she was lashing out. I wanted to make it better, but I was the one who had hurt her.

“I’m really sorry to have brought this up,” Penn said again. “David is a great guy. I can vouch for him and Katherine. They’re not like their parents.”

“You really are a Van Pelt,” Jensen said with a shake of his head.

“I was,” I corrected.

“How could you do this to me?” Sutton asked.

A tear slipped down her cheek, and I watched my butterfly’s wings get clipped. She’d put herself out there after everything that happened, and I’d ruined it. I’d thought I could heal her, but I’d only made it worse.

“You bastard,” Austin said.

He launched himself toward me. I took a stuttering step backward, but he reared back and punched me in the face.

“Fuck,” I cried. I covered my face and took another step away from him.

“Austin!” Morgan yelled.

“Stop it!” I heard from Landon.

But Austin was still coming. It took both of his brothers to restrain him. He was spitting mad.

“I told you I would kill you if you hurt her. You clearly didn’t listen.”

I had no words. I’d said I wouldn’t, and I had.

Sutton scampered forward and put herself between me and Austin before I could ever get words out. “Stop it. Just leave him alone.”

Hope glimmered in my conscience. Maybe…maybe there was still a chance. I could explain why I’d had those papers sealed, why I’d changed my name to begin with. I could tell her all the things I’d been holding back. Make her understand.

But her eyes were empty when they looked at me.

“Sutton—”

“You should go,” she said.

“Please, let me explain. My parents—”

She held up her hand. “No. Just…just go.”

“What about us?” I managed to get out. I could hardly breathe, waiting there for the answer I knew was coming.

“What us?”

A ten-ton weight dropped on my chest.

A tear slipped down her cheek, and she brushed it away.

The distance between us ballooned.

“I don’t know who you are, David,” she whispered, her voice finally cracking. The pain finally edging into her speech. “There is no us.”

Thud.

The sound of her heart closing back up.

Crack.

The sound of the world opening up and swallowing me.

Snap.

The sound of my new reality. Alone.