Chapter 4
Hazel's POV
Preston starts breaking things.
"Go find her. I don't care how. Just bring her back." His eyes are red when he screams it at the security detail.
Vanessa walks in with a coffee, voice soft, trying to calm him down. "Preston, maybe she just needs some space —"
"Get out." He slams his hand down and sends the coffee flying off the table, and the look on his face makes her go pale. She scrambles out of the room.
Eventually, using every contact the Maddox family has, Preston finds me.
Riverside Magnet High.
One afternoon after school.
It's pouring.
I didn't bring an umbrella, so I'm standing in the lobby of the main building trying to figure out my next move.
A black umbrella appears in front of me.
Sebastian is standing beside me, easy, unbothered. "I'm heading out. Walk with me."
I'm about to say thank you.
"Hazel!"
The shout cuts through the rain like something thrown.
Every muscle in my body goes rigid.
Preston's car is stopped crookedly at the front gate. He's already out of it, no umbrella, eyes red, charging toward me through the downpour.
He looks at me, then at Sebastian standing next to me, and whatever composure he had left just goes out the window.
"You disappeared without a word. Blocked me on everything. Do you have any idea how long I've been looking for you?"
He takes the steps in two strides and reaches for my wrist.
"You're coming with me."
His hand never makes it.
Sebastian steps in front of me and catches Preston's wrist, steady, no hesitation.
He's got a few inches on Preston. His voice doesn't go cold. It just goes flat.
"She doesn't want to go with you."
"Who the hell are you? Get out of my way."
Preston tries to shake him off. Sebastian doesn't move.
"Let go." Sebastian twists his wrist once, clean and controlled.
Preston hisses and stumbles back, forced to release. He stares at Sebastian like he can't process what just happened. No one does that to him. No one except Lucas.
"You're dead."
He swings at Sebastian's face.
Sebastian doesn't flinch. He steps to the side, takes the arm, and pins Preston against the wall before Preston even registers what happened.
"This isn't your territory. You put your hands on anyone again, I'm calling the cops." Sebastian's voice is level. Almost bored.
"Sebastian." I grab his sleeve, startled.
Preston is pressed against the wall, cheek against the brick, completely humiliated. He looks down at my hand on Sebastian's sleeve and something ugly crosses his face.
"You left me for him? That's what this is?" He's practically spitting. "You're pathetic. Absolute trash."
I look at him. Really look at him. The twisted expression, the desperation dressed up as rage.
I just feel sick.
"You're pathetic, Preston," I say, and I mean it. "Not everyone is as filthy as you are. I left because you make my skin crawl. That's it."
Then several cars pull up hard to the curb outside.
Preston's mother steps out, bodyguards flanking her, heels clicking across the wet pavement.
She takes one look at her son pinned against the wall and screams. "Preston! What are they doing to you? Let him go!"
The bodyguards surge forward. Sebastian releases Preston and steps back, putting himself between me and all of it.
She rushes to Preston, checks his face where it scraped the brick, then turns on me with something vicious in her eyes.
"Hazel Calloway. You little jinx. After everything the Maddox family has done for you, you pull something like this? You bring some stranger here to put his hands on my son?" She steps toward me, voice dropping to something uglier. "Trash like you shouldn't even exist."
Her hand comes up.
"Touch her and see what happens."
Lucas comes through the crowd with a black umbrella, moving fast. He happened to be picking me up. He walked straight into this.
He catches her wrist before she connects and shoves her arm down.
She staggers, barely keeps her footing.
"Lucas Calloway." Her voice is shaking with fury. "You have lost your mind. I will make sure neither of you ever works in this city again. You hear me?"
