Trigger warning: I gave a warning at the start of this book that there may be some scenes that contain violence and situations that may be uncomfortable to read about and to read at your own risk, but because I haven't updated in a while, some of yall may have forgot, so here's ur warning <3
â
The ballroom ceased to exist as Jameson and I danced along to the music, his steady hands guiding me so that I wouldn't fall or falter.
Jameson ducked his head low so he hovered between the crook of my neck as he lowly spoke to me as we slowly swayed. He twirled me out to the dance floor and back, my ball gown sparkling under the chandeliers lighting up the ballroom in such a soft elegant glow.
When he brought his face back up to mine his eyes burned into mine so deeply that I thought he could see my every thought. The green darkened into a hunger so raw and magnetic as his grip on my waist held me firm in the same spot, making everything else drown out around me on the dance floor as the world continued to move around us.
I could still feel the many eyes watching us as we danced, but I didn't care, because being here with him in this moment was making me realise more and more just how much he means to me. I didn't want him to ever let go.
But as the song slowly came to a stop, and new dancers and couples began to pour onto the dancefloor, I gently took Jameson's hand in mine away from my waist and led him over to one of the many grand pillars in the room, where we found the others chatting amongst themselves.
"Clara! How's my favourite girl in the world?" Xavier greeted me with a hug and twirled me in the air. The alcohol was still going strong for all of us.
Jameson then squeezed my arm lightly and muttered something about needing to go and see his father, and so the twins, Xavier and I continued our drunken chats about utter nonsense.
Tom and Grey led Xavier and I to an outdoor courtyard where were all currently watching the stars, with me and Xavier sitting on the set of swings, with the twins laying flat out on the grass. I've never seen stars this clear before, and I feel like I could watch them all day.
"So guys, lets play two truths and a lie" Tom sat up onto his elbows from where he was laying on the floor, with Gray quick to follow. Xavier was flicking his lighter on a off repeatedly, shutting it off to focus on the game.
I was semi-focusing, yet I will still waiting for Jameson to return. "Should we go find Jameson? He's been gone a while," I sounded slightly stupid and clingy, but I just had a bad gut feeling.
Grey rolled his eyes and laughed, "Oooo someone is missing Jamie," I threw the small twig I was holding at his shoulder, yet the gut feeling stayed there. Xavier studied, and realised I wasn't just being a clingy emotional girl.
"Clara-" He reached over and affectionately placed his hand atop my shoulder "He usually disappears at events like these, he's a busy guy. Don't worry, okay?" I stiffly nodded in response but still, the feeling wouldn't leave my stomach. But, I tried to give them the benefit of the doubt.
"Okay, I'll go first then," I wiped both of my hands down my dress, thinking of two truths and a lie. "Okay: I have a younger sister, my first time going on a plane was joining this school and my favourite season is autumn." I looked at the boys expectedly, raising an eyebrow as I saw the cogs all turning in their heads.
"Second one has got to be the lie" Tom stated, furrowing his eyebrows together, as Grey nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, surelyy that wasn't your first time on a plane? You said your dad was like a multi-billionaire CEO-"
"That's all true lads, but," Xavier stood from his swing dramatically, "if I can recall correctly, he became CEO only a couple of years ago, meaning that you either haven't had time to go anywhere on a plane or because you simply haven't wanted too. Besides, I remember you saying that you had a younger brother, not a younger sister. The end, sorry lads. I win."
Both me, and the twins sat with our jaws hanging open, I was utterly impressed, and I felt a warn comforting feeling in my chest that Xavier actually really did value our friendship. I'm not used to people paying attention to anything I say really, and being friends with them has been to refreshing but also difficulty to cut out the old habits and thoughts that lurk behind.
"Okay, me next!" Tom sat up fully now, and by some horrible coincidence to make my gut feeling even worse, my phone began to ring, and when I slowly pulled it out of my pocket, the last name that I expected to see flashed on my phone.
Savannah.
The ringing made my breath hitch and my body visibly tense.
"One second guys, you carry on. I just need to take this." I sprang to my feet and exited the courtyard before they could reply so that I was back in the silent halls, with only the muffled sound of the music drifing from the ballroom down the hall to fill the suffocating ringing of my phone.
With a shaky hand, I lifted the phone slowly up to my ear and almost visibly jumped at the sound of her chirpy voice.
"Clara! Girl where have you been?! I've been worried sick about you and the guys and you all just vanished out of thin air! Yes, of course I noticed that you left. Which FYI, leaving me behind was not cool-"
"Savannah," I gently cut her off by saying, has I released a big sigh of my own. "I don't know what's going on, but I noticed some things too, so please stop this act-"
I heard a nervous laugh down the phone "Clara, what are you talking about?"
"I saw you talking to Ruby Savannah, which last time I was aware, you were scared shitless to do. So yeah, I have no idea what's going on but I sure as hell don't like it." I was getting angry, I know I was, but I couldn't let this slide. Not again. I thought she was a genuine friend, but I've realised that in this new world that I am apart of, you have to really watch out for who is real or not. I heard someone mutter in the background, and I had to bite my tongue and withhold from saying something that I'll regret even further.
"Pfftt, Clara please, do you even hear yourself."
"Don't even try to deny it anymore, I can hear someone in the background."
"Why are you always such a bitch. I've done nothing but be nice to you since the first day of school. I was the once to took you in. I was the one who showed you and told you everything you needed to know. And what do I get? I get lied too. I get left behind and abandoned. For what? For those posh pack of pricks?"
What. The. Actual. Hell.
I almost wanted to laugh at the version of Savannah that I just heard. There's no way, surely this is all a joke. How did I not even notice all of this.
"Savannah, we both know that none of what you said was true. I am grateful you were there for me on my first day, but it all makes a lot of sense now. You always pushing me to speak with the guys." I let out a strangled laugh as all of the pieces slotted together. "That day at lunch, you chose to speak to me because I had that interaction with Xavier in the lunch que. You always pushed me to hang out with them because you wanted in with them. Hell, you even fooled Tom into your manipulative game, which he really doesn't deserve by the way. Why?" I almost couldn't breathe after getting all of that out.
Pressing a hand to my very much to tight corset of my ballgown, I paced down the corridors loosing myself in the many halls of the palace because I simply couldn't stand still. Again, more muttering was heard down the phone and shuffling? A new voice appeared on the other end.
Ruby. Well, doesn't my day just get better and better?
"Clara!" Her sarcastic high pitched squirrel voice made me want to physically be sick. This girl needed help. "Yeah so my good friend Savannah here tells me that you and your little boy toys ran off somewhere?" She didn't even give me time to answer before he screech filled the phone again. "So, heres' the deal. Remember our lovely little trip in the woods about your dad? Well, it seems that he has exactly 48 hours to give John Sutherland the cash that he so so long ago should have been given."
"Or what?" My voice came out as nothing more than a croak.
"Oh yes, how could I forget the best part. Well you see, I have a few wonderful screenshots from your phone that seem like quite aggressive threats from your father made towards you. And..well, you know, that would bring very bad business and all. I'd hate to see what would happen to your family if you were to loose all of that new money."
"Why are you even doing this Savannah?"
"Because you see. If John Sutherland gets paid, then Lewis gets paid. And, dearest Clara. When Lewis gets paid, then I get paid."
"I thought I may have been wrong about you Ruby, and I really wanted to give you the benefit of the doubt sometimes. But you really are just a cold hearted bitch." I didn't know what to say. How could I know what to say? They've somehow managed to tangle themselves into my father business because they are desperate for even a tiny amount of his loaded cash. Those messages between my father and I, I will admit, they are bad. We have never really had much of a relationship, especially once my mother died, because he never wanted a daughter. I'm glad I was able to leave my younger brother at home knowing that he was being treated like a king compared to what I was treated like, all because I was the daughter he never wanted it.
But to protect my brothers future, and my fathers company, I would still fight for them. Because I knew that if my mother were still here, she wouldn't deserve that either. Besides, where would that land me? Back to my old school with the bullies? My stomach twisted in knots at the thought.
"And how am I supposed to come into any of this?"
I heard three voices chuckle in the background, before the third and final voice appeared on the phone.
Lewis.
"Isn't that obvious darling, you are our messenger. Let Mr Rose know that he has exactly 48 hours before the photos are leaked and his company that he worked ever so hard for crumples before it even begins."
"You're a sick bastard Lewis, you know that?" I pressed my other hand to my forehead as I tried to find a way out of this, but came up short every time. His vile laugh burst down the phone.
"48 hours. Time is ticking." And with that, the phone line went dead.
What was I supposed to do?
I looked around the corridor's, realising that I had stumbled into a section of the palace that I have never been too before. How I'll even get back, I'll have no idea.
I could no longer hear the music drifting from the ball, that was for sure. I couldn't even see any servants in sight, and even the lights were dimmed on the all...alas for the room at the end of the hall to the left. I crept closer, hoping to find someone to help my foolish self get back to the ballroom, where the others were surely wondering where I'd gone off too. My heels echoed loudly down the corridor, making me cringe against the silence.
That was until I started to hear it.
A crack of a whip and shouting.
My body froze.
Yet I crept closer, my feet somehow managing to move quietly against the marble until I flattened myself against the side of the door, so that I could peek through the orange glow of the room between the crack in the door that sat ajar.
There was a large office, with bookshelves lining all four walls, with a huge dark oak desk scattered with papers and a globe. The map of Lacuna encompassed by a golden frame hung on one of the walls, and a huge set of floor to ceiling windows sat behind the desk, with stained glass images of Lacuna dotted throughout. A dark leather sofa and coffee table sat opposite the desk, and that where my blood ran cold.
It took everything in me to not physically throw up at the sight.
Slumping on the sofa, knocked out cold from having put up such a fight by the way his knuckled were bruised and bloodies, Jameson lay almost lifelessly against the leather, his father retreating away from him, adorning bruises and blood of his own, but not nearly as much as his son. Jameson would have had a fair fight, and to be fair by the looks of his father, he was winning for a while, had his father not have been so much larger than him. My heart shattered at seeing him lay so helplessly like he was, and the fury I felt when I looked at the man responsible was enough to have me locked up for treason for the rest of my life.
Jameson's black shirt had been ripped in so many places, showing what was his once brutally toned muscles to be slick with blood and dark purple bruises. His trousers were intact but had blood dripping from his torso and nose onto it. His hair was dishevelled and matted, and his beautiful face made my heart crush into the pit of my stomach. I could barely see his ocean green eyes from over here, they were so swollen and bruised. His lip and nose was busted and bloody, he had a cut above his left eyebrow, and the rest if his face was bruised severely.
His father casually walked over to his office desk, picking up the crystal glass of whisky that he clearly has had a lot off, and downed the rest of it, before he re-adjusted his clothes, and made a believe to exist the room.
"Won't be king, my arse." Was all I heard him mutter as he started to make his way over to me. I jumped back against the wall, finding sanctuary behind one of the many large pillars so that I was hidden from the wrath of the king before me.
I knew Jameson and his father didn't get along, but this?!
I watched until his father drunkenly disappeared around the corner until I shakily slipped into the office room, slowly clicking the door shut behind me.
Then my heart broke into a million pieces for the boy I cared about so much, who slumped unconsciously against the leather of the now bloodied sofa as I made my way over to him.
âââ
Heyyy, PLEASE DON'T BE TOO MAD, the new chapters here...a lil late. SORRY!!!!
I'm excited for the next couple of chapters, yall aren't ready for the Jameson and Clara content.
Also I need to work on my deadlines...idk what I'll do when I write an actual book...but I'm hoping yall will be with me on my journey for that one when it happens!!
Anyway, what did you guys dress up as for Halloween?!
I'm so excited for Christmas it's insaneee as soon as those Christmas markets are open I'm THERE.
Also, I was thinking about what the next book I write after this should be (not me saying that this book is done at all but I've been thinking about the next one for a while now hehe). Did you want to see a book on the other guys e.g Xavier, Tom or Gray? Or did we want something completely new? I'm leaving the decision in the hands of you guys.
ILY ALL SO MUCH THANK YOU FOR OVER 700K READS. Honestly never thought I'd ever get that much, so thank you thank you thank you.