Chapter 3

Vivienne's POV

It doesn't even ring twice before he picks up.

"Something up?" Julian's voice on the other end is low.

"Julian." I take a breath and try to keep my voice level. "I'm at the front gate of the water park out in the suburbs. Can you come get me?"

There's half a second of silence. Then footsteps, fast ones.

"Stay where you are. Twenty minutes. I'm coming."

The call ends. I stand in the shade by the gate and watch people go by until my heart stops pounding.

Not long after, Colton and Sienna come out too. She's still sniffling, one side of her face red and swollen. He's next to her, scrambling to calm her down, but his eyes keep cutting over to me.

He thinks if he leaves me alone long enough, I'll do what I've done a hundred times before and swallow it all by myself.

"Vivienne, are you finished throwing your fit?" He finally cracks and comes over. "You slapped her hard enough to leave a mark and she's not even mad about it, so what are you still standing here for? You seriously waiting on me to grovel? Get in the car. Stop embarrassing yourself out here."

I don't even bother looking at him. I check the time on my phone.

"Vivienne! I'm talking to you!" He's not used to being ignored. He reaches for my arm.

That's when a black town car glides up and stops right in front of me. Two SUVs come up behind it and park along the curb in a neat line.

A ripple goes through the crowd. Even Colton freezes, his hand still hanging in the air.

The door opens and someone gets out, tall, standing straight. Cold, clean features, and that particular kind of expensive that makes people step back without being told. Julian.

He comes straight to me. He looks at my swollen face, then my bleeding knee, and his jaw sets. "He do that?"

I shake my head. I don't want to waste another word on those two. "Just take me home, Julian."

"Okay." He doesn't hesitate. He bends down and picks me up, one arm under my knees.

"Julian! Hey!" Colton finally snaps out of it and points at him, yelling. "That's my girlfriend! What the hell are you doing?"

Julian doesn't even slow down. He just turns his head a little and looks at Colton like he's trash on the curb. "You did this to your own girlfriend over somebody else. Colton, where do you get off calling her that?"

A few bodyguards step in and close around Colton like a wall.

All Colton can do is stand there and watch Julian set me down in the back seat, one hand over the door frame so I don't hit my head.

"Vivienne! If you get in that car today, we are finished! You're gonna regret this!" Colton's screaming himself hoarse from behind the bodyguards.

I roll the window down. I look at him, red-faced and shaking with it, and at Sienna next to him, white as a sheet, her face twisted up with jealousy. I let out a cold laugh. "Colton, you stood there and let her crush my necklace. That's the moment you died to me. And when I said we're done, I meant it."

The window slides up and cuts off the rest of his yelling.

The car pulls away from the water park and leaves that pair of garbage human beings behind for good.

Inside the car, Julian pulls an ice pack out of the mini fridge and holds it against my swollen eyes. Then he gets out a first aid kit and bends over my knee, working on it like nothing else in the car exists.

"Does it hurt?" He looks up and I can see how much he hates that I'm hurt.

His face is right there in front of me and the tears come out of nowhere.

Being chosen. Being taken care of like I'm worth the trouble. It's been so long since anyone did that for me.

"Julian. Thank you."

He wipes the tears off my face. His voice doesn't waver. "I'm here now. Nobody's touching you again."

Break starts before I know it. Going by the original plan, today was supposed to be the day Colton took me to the Hamptons.

First thing in the morning, he loaded Sienna into his car and drove over to my house, all pumped, ready to pick me up.

He tried calling me on the way and found out I'd blocked him a long time ago.

"Colton, do you think Viv's still mad at me? Maybe I shouldn't come with you guys." Sienna tugged at his sleeve, feeling him out.

"She's just being dramatic." It didn't bother him one bit. "I left her alone all night, she's had time to cool off. Just say sorry when you see her and we're past it. The flights and the hotel are already booked. What, we're supposed to waste all that?"

That's what he was thinking when he rang the doorbell. My mom opened the door.

She looked at the two of them, cold as ice. "Don't bother. Viv left for the Hamptons with Julian already. Colton, don't come around here looking for her again. You're bad luck."