She’d gotten hurt because of me, and then I’d hurt her more when I’d turned away from her.
Guilt dug its claws in a little deeper, irritating the anger, which nearly had me breathing fire as I started for the door. How dare they hurt Zoey because of me?
“Uh…before you go.” Ten winced, lifting a hand to stall me.
I paused to send him a stony stare. “Don’t even think about trying to stop me.”
“Man, we’re not going to stop you.”
“We’re going to help you,” Asher added. “Zoey’s too sweet to be treated this way.”
I nodded, but Ten still had his hand in the air. “I swear, I’m not trying to talk you out of going after the whore, but, uh…there’s something you might need to know about Cora before going over there.”
Of course there was. Cora was layered with secret after secret. She probably had so many she didn’t even know who the real Cora Wilder was.
“She’s kind of sick.” Ten winced again and shrugged. “Kind of really sick. Like...she’s dying.”
I kept staring at him, waiting for the punch line, but when he said nothing else, I blinked. “Excuse me?”
“Okay, so...” He lifted his hands, letting me know he had an entire story to explain. “I never really trusted her, right? Right. So, after we fucked that one time and I found out you were still hooking up with her, she told me she hadn’t known then that you wanted to see her again, but I wasn’t sure I could believe her. And I couldn’t go and ask you about it, or you’d get suspicious and figure out the truth, so I started kind of, I don’t know, following her, hoping I could catch her with some other dude. Then I could tell you about her being unfaithful with him, but she was always too crafty to get caught. She wasn’t as sneaky about the treatment center she went to three times a week, though.”
“Treatment center?” I shook my head, utterly confused.
“What? Like, she’s a drug addict?” Noel asked, just as boggled as I was.
Ten glanced at both of us. “She has kidney failure.”
I backed up a step, not expecting to hear that at all. Actually, it was probably one of the very last things I was imagining. I had known something was going on with her health-wise, but I’d been thinking more along the same lines as Noel, that she’d been doing something to herself to provoke an illness.
“But...she can’t...what?” I backed up a couple more steps.
With a solemn nod, Ten kept talking. “She’s bad enough along that she needs dialysis three times a week to keep going.”
“End stage,” I murmured. Shaking my head, I sank down until I was sitting on the sofa. “That’s just... That’s not even possible. I would know. How could I not know something like that? And w-w-why would she...”
But I had known something was going on with her, that she was keeping things from me. Covering my mouth with my hand, I looked up at my roommate.
“Why wouldn’t she say anything?” I think the fact that she’d kept this from me was more of an insult than realizing she’d cheated on me.
Ten sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “I guess it takes a really selfish person to understand why she’d want to keep that silent, but I get it.”
“Then, please,” I barked, “Explain it to me.” Because I didn’t get it at all. I didn’t get any of this. The Cora Wilder I had started dating months ago was nothing at all like the Cora Wilder I was learning truly existed. How had she been able to hide this side of herself for so long? And why?
Sociopath, I reminded myself. But a sociopath with kidney failure?
I gripped my head with both hands, because oh yeah, my temples were throbbing like crazy.
“Sickness and disease is gross,” Ten said. “Stupid, careless people like me, like Whora, look at people with cancer and terminal illness with revulsion. They’re weak and repugnant and should be hidden away from society. To learn she’s one of them...” He laughed and shook his head, “She’s in denial, man. She doesn’t want people to know she’s not perfect. She wants to stay the fucking queen bee. She can’t have a flaw, or no one will follow her. So she hides it.”
“Even from me?” I had to ask. I felt sick to my stomach. Ten might’ve classified himself in that same category with her, but I knew he didn’t belong. He didn’t really see others that way, no matter how much he wanted us to think he did.
Sympathy filled his eyes, letting me know just how right I was. Cora wouldn’t have been sympathetic right then. But Ten was. “Especially from you,” he said.
I nodded and blew out a breath. “And Zoey?” I asked, my voice going hoarse because thinking about her keeping this from me hurt worse than knowing Cora had. And I knew she had to have known about it.
“She’s going to donate one of her kidneys for the transplant,” Ten answered quietly.
Closing my eyes, I bowed my head. “Of course she is.” I wouldn’t have expected anything less from her. And wow, now that I thought of it, that was why Cora had brought her here. I was sure Zoey had willingly volunteered the transplant; she probably thought it’d been her idea entirely. But Cora had orchestrated the whole thing because she knew Zoey, and she knew what Zoey would offer.
How had Cora phrased it? Zoey will do anything for me, because I’m like, I don’t know, her god, I guess.
Everything made so much sense now. All the times Zoey had been so guilty around me, unable to divulge Cora’s secret, knowing it would probably impact my relationship with her, because let’s face it...if I’d known Cora was going through what she was going through, I never would’ve dumped her, faithless whore or not. It just wasn’t in my chemical makeup to be that cruel. And Zoey had known that, because she would’ve done the same exact thing if she’d been in my shoes.
Cora had been right; Zoey and I were the same.
I pushed to my feet.
All three guys watching me warily jumped as if they expected me to start raging and tearing the room apart or something.
“So, what’re you going to do?” Noel asked.
“I’m going over there and getting Zoey’s things out of that apartment. She might be donating Cora a kidney, but that doesn’t mean she has to live with her another day. I’m getting her as far away from that crazy, lying bitch as possible.”
“Man, you don’t think she’s still going to cough up a kidney, do you?” Ten asked incredulously. “Even after tonight?”
I nodded. “Yes. She will.” Because I would if I were her. “You guys coming with me, or not? It’ll probably take a couple trips to move all her things out.”
“That was Noel.”
Aspen’s voice in the other room made me sit up. Caroline had tucked me into her bed about half an hour ago. Then she settled in next to me and booted up a movie on her laptop. She was all about romantic comedies of the eighties. But tonight, I just didn’t care if Baby had been left in a corner or not. I couldn’t concentrate on anything except the ringing of the phone a couple minutes earlier, or Aspen when she appeared in the doorway to wave Caroline into the hall for a hushed conversation.
I shoved the sheet off me and hurried to the door to listen in on them.
“Did Quinn finally make it home?” Caroline asked.
Closing my eyes, I held my breath and waited to hear Aspen’s response.
“Yeah. And they’re headed over to Cora’s apartment right now to—”
“No!” I yelled, leaping into the hall. “He can’t.”
Quinn couldn’t hurt Cora, no matter what.
“Zoey!” Aspen covered her heart. “You scared me. I didn’t think you were—”
“We have to stop him.” I grabbed Caroline’s arm and started tugging her away. “He can’t touch Cora. He can’t hurt her.”
“Zo—” She tried to resist, but I was having none of it.
“We have to go.”
So, we went. Aspen stayed home with Noel’s sleeping younger brothers. But Caroline drove me to Cora’s apartment.
“There’s Oren’s
truck,” she murmured when we pulled into the parking garage.
“And Quinn’s,” I uttered with dread. I wrung my hands, hoping he hadn’t done anything he’d regret, because if he knew about Cora, he would definitely regret it. And here I had thought Ten was going to tell him about her condition.
As we raced toward the front door, Henry held it open for us. “Evening, Miss Blakeland,” he said with his ever-present cheer. “Sure are lots of visitors in your place tonight.”
I thought he meant Quinn and Ten, and possibly Noel and Asher too. I had no idea someone else was there until I blew through the front door, with Caroline hot on my heels.
When the visitor I wasn’t expecting turned to face me, I skidded to a halt. “Mr. Wilder?”
What was Cora’s father doing here?
The room grew quiet, and he looked very grave. A scowling Cora had slumped herself against the opening of the hallway and moodily crossed her arms over her chest—wearing, hey, was that my nightshirt?—while Quinn sat on the couch with his face buried his hands. Asher, Noel and Ten seemed to stand guard around him. The three looked at me with sympathetic expressions.
“What’s going on?” I asked, though I was sure Quinn knew the truth now. If Ten hadn’t told him, Cora’s father would’ve clued him in to her health.
He must hate me right now.
But when he lifted his face and looked at me, I didn’t see hate. I just saw despair. “She doesn’t know,” he said, not talking to me but to the room at large. “Someone needs to tell her.”
Wait. What? I already knew about Cora. He couldn’t be talking about that; he had to know I was already aware of her defunct kidneys.
So what was he talking about?
I took a step backward and ran into Caroline, who instantly snagged my hand and gripped it hard.
Turning my attention to Cora and her father, I shook my head. “Tell me what?”
Cora sniffed and rolled her eyes. “I’m bored. I’m going to bed.”
As she turned away, Quinn surged to his feet and stepped into her path. “You’re not going anywhere.”
His hard tone and piercing gaze made me jump. I’d never seen him so livid.
Apparently, neither had Cora. Because she actually heeded his command and reluctantly came back around.
“Tell. Her,” Quinn commanded.
But Mr. Wilder lifted his hand, wincing. “Cor—”
Ignoring him, Cora glanced at me with a sneer. “Nine months before you were born, my dad fucked your mom.”
Half an Hour Earlier
Henry greeted us at the entrance of Cora’s building. I sent him a respectful nod, realizing this was probably the last time I’d ever see him, because once I got Zoey’s things out of here, I never planned on going near this building again.
“Evening again, Mr. Hamilton. Did you ever find Miss Zoey?”
“Yeah,” I murmured as I passed. And then I’d made the ultimate mistake of walking away and hurting her.
Henry glanced curiously over Noel, Asher, and Ten as they followed me inside, but he didn’t say anything about their presence.
Once the four of us were packed into the elevator and waiting to reach the eighth floor, Noel glanced at me. “So, what’re you going to say to her?”
I didn’t want to say anything to Cora. I didn’t even want to look at her, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to get back to Zoey’s room for her things without getting past her.
“I don’t know,” I admitted.
“Well, I know what I want to say to her,” Ten started, but I held up a hand in warning and shot him a look.
“I’ll take care of her. None of you say a goddamn word.”
Ten opened his mouth to argue, but in the next instant, the elevator let out a ding and stopped, admitting us to the eighth floor. I ignored him and the other two as we marched to 8E. Then I had to pause in front of Cora’s door and wipe my hands over my face to collect myself before knocking. I’d be winging this big time because I still had no idea what to say.
I still wanted to hurt her, to wrap my hands around her neck and never stop squeezing. But I was going to be civil. At least, I was going to try to be civil.
Cora opened the door, wearing Zoey’s nightshirt, the one that liked to slip off one shoulder and expose her perfect creamy skin. I growled at her. And civil went right out the window. But seeing her in Zoey’s clothes made me lose my temper all over again. Plus my skin crawled big-time over the creepy Single White Female thing she had going on. When she pushed out her chest as soon as she saw it was me, displaying the fact she wasn’t wearing a bra, I snorted.
“You really are pathetic,” I couldn’t help but say.
She opened her eyes to respond, but a surprised Ten exploded from behind me. “What the fuck happened to your face?”
Cora glared past me toward him. “None of your damn business.” Then she blinked up at me. “What’re you doing here?”
She was embarrassed by the bruise. I suddenly realized how she’d gotten it. “Zoey gave it to you. Didn’t she?”
When Cora glared in return, I knew it was true.
“Damn,” Ten murmured as if impressed. Then he slugged me in the center of the back. “Blondie gives a better black eye than you do, Ham.”
I ignored him. My icy gaze on Cora made her step back. I couldn’t even imagine what she’d done to sweet, pacifistic Zoey to make her lash out as she had. “I’m getting her things,” I said. “Now.”
When I took a decisive step forward, she dodged out of my way with a squeak. But a second later as Noel, Ten and Asher filed in behind me, Cora sniffed at us as if unimpressed, even though I could see in her eyes that we spooked her. She wasn’t sure how much she could push me tonight. Zoey must’ve really rattled her by fighting back; she wasn’t sure if I would too.
“I should’ve known she’d give you a sob story about what happened so you’d feel all sympathetic toward her,” she muttered.
“You mean, you should’ve known she’d give me the truth,” I deadpanned before I strode past her down the hall.
“Hey!” She snagged my arm. “I didn’t say you could go down there.”
I shrugged her off. “So stop me.”
She didn’t. She merely sniffed as Ten, Noel and Asher followed me.
After seeing her in Zoey’s clothes, I’d been forewarned that she’d been in Zoey’s room, but I still wasn’t expecting what I saw. Shock made my jaw drop as I jerked to a stop in the opened doorway.
All of Zoey’s clothes had been dragged out of her closet and drawers. They’d been slashed with scissors or a knife, something sharp. So had her bedding and pillows. But what dug into my gut the deepest was seeing the shelf above her bed bare. All the notebooks full of stories she’d written were now strewn across the room and torn to shreds, making the place look as if it was covered in confetti.
“No.” I set my hand over my heart, feeling the loss of Zoey’s precious words stabbing me through the chest.
“Holy shit,” Noel breathed from behind him.
Ten stepped around me and entered the room. “What the fuck?” He picked up the metal ring from one notebook, the only thing left of it. When he glanced at me, I swallowed.
“Her stories,” I said. “She wrote stories.”
“Damn. What kind of fucked-up monster would do this?” The surprise in Asher’s voice made me turn just in time to watch Cora straighten her shoulders in self-righteous indignation.
“Well, what do you expect a girl to do when her boyfriend and roommate betray her?”
“You...bitch.” I started toward her without thinking. My hands raised to wrap around her throat, and she backed herself against a wall before I’d even realized what was happening. I stopped myself before making contact though. My rage scared me so much it made my hands shake as I balled them into fists and dropped them at my sides. I’d almost touched a woman...in anger.
My God, what was happening to me?
“Why!” I growled into her f
ace. “How could you do this to her? She was here to save your worthless life!”
Though I’d already stopped myself, I still must’ve scared my friends. Hands grabbed me by the shoulders and yanked me back.
I let them pull me away, glad to know they would’ve stopped me, and then ashamed that they almost had to. Cora whimpered and started crying as she sank to the floor and covered her mouth with shaking hands. I wanted to snort at her innocent, abused act, but guilt and fear assailed me for going as far as I had. I dug my hands into my hair, breathing hard.
“She deserved it,” Cora cried out. “You were mine. How dare she touch what was mine?”
And here returned my rage. “No, I wasn’t. We were over, not that I was ever really yours anyway, not when you had so many other guys on the side.”
“But you bought me a ring. You wanted to marry me.”
“You what?” Ten spat incredulously.
I ignored him. Shaking my head, I rolled my eyes. “Why did you throw out those proposal hints in the first place, when you weren’t faithful, when you never planned on being faithful?”
From the floor, Cora looked up at me, but her wet eyes were filled with more hatred than fear. “Why do you think? I can tell you already know the truth. Precious friend that she is, Zoey told you she was here to save my life, so you already know I’m dying. I just wanted to experience everything I could. I wanted the wild, party college life as much as I wanted to know what it’d be like to plan my own perfect wedding.”
I shook my head. Wow. She was completely serious. “And you really thought you could just have it both ways?”
She lifted one shoulder and slid up the wall, regaining her feet. “Why not? I have a right to live my life to the fullest while I still can.”
“No,” I disagreed. “Not when it hurts others the way you have.”
“I guess that just shows how different you and I are. When I want something, I go after it.”
“Actually, it just shows how lucky I was to break free of you.”