Once Kade emerged from his room fresh-faced and showered, I had already escaped to another bathroom in the penthouse after dodging quirked eyebrows from half his team that I'd never met and a sly smirk from Hollin coupled with a surprised Jackie.

Considering the stocked bathroom with overnight guest necessities, I was starting to wonder just how many girls a powerhouse like Kade Hendrix brought home every night after a show or dinner, but brushed it aside when I remembered that we weren't together, he owed me nothing and I owed him the same.

"Kade, so wonderful of you to join us."

Jackie's sarcastic quip was like a balm to my frayed nerves as Kade shot me a megawatt smile that had my panties a mess, just like they'd been the night before.

He was even more attractive all ruffled up from the night before and his hair a mussed up mess sticking out and the strands awry like I'd been running my hands through them the entire night, which then led to thoughts and images of me actually doing that, and running my hands elsewhere, like the wide expanse of his chiseled chest or—

"Ivy, does that sound okay with you?"

"I'm sorry, what?"

Kade's mouth twitched as he strode across the room and my mind whirled a million miles a second and before he could reach me, I stepped closer to the door, the clouds in my head parting until I realized what a monumental mistake I'd just made. 

I had slept in his bed.  

I slept in Kade Hendrix's bed. 

Sure, we didn't actually had sex, but we'd done enough the night before to bring a scarlet blush racing across my cheeks and my chest. 

Kade stopped short at the sight of the panic clear as day across my face and a wall slammed down in place over his features. 

Good.  It would be better that way. 

"I said that since the single is doing so well, Kade is probably going to be tied up with appearances and interviews all week, so you two probably won't have time for your daily songwriting sessions, but he's got a show on Saturday that we'd love for you to attend."

"Oh.  Yeah, that sounds good.  I can just send song ideas through voice memos in the meantime.  I'm sorry, I really have to go, I've got some school and family stuff I need to deal with."

Kade dipped his head in Hollin's direction while searching my gaze, but I had no idea what he was trying to find. 

The entire room was silent before he spoke, like we were all walking on pushpins and he was the only one who could pull them out of our feet.

"Hollin, can you take Ivy where she needs to go?  We can drop your car off wherever you need it, since you left it at Corbin's place right?"

I could only nod in confirmation before Kade turned to his manager. 

"So, what are the numbers?"

Had I just been dismissed?  

I was still lost in my own head when Hollin appeared at my side with a pinched smile on the face that I had to crane my neck to see. 

He grabbed ahold of my elbow gently before steering me to the door. 

"It's so much better than what we initially thought.  So far, reviews have been mixed with critics but the fans are all over Twitter blowing it up, your streams are already at three million and climbing on Spotify, you're at the top with Apple music, and total gross sales are showing to be more than any other single by a male artist this year."

"You hear that Ivy?  Looks like you're my good luck charm."

He threw me a sly wink with a guarded smile, but I only gave a half-hearted wave.

"That's amazing, congratulations."

"It wouldn't have happened if not for you."

I was already at the door when he said that, and I couldn't help but turn around and find something like trepidation staring back at me. 

This new dynamic between us was harder to traverse than Mount Everest. 

"Maybe.  I'll see you later."

And then the curious faces of busy worker bees like publicists, assistants the like were shut out by the closing of the door as Hollin addressed me. 

"So, where to?"

"Home.  There's something I need to take care of."

***

My father was sitting regally at the head of the dining room table like a king overseeing his court.  

My stepmother was nowhere to be found, thank god, so all I had to stare at was the gilded edges of her fine china as James Bennett sipped out of a tiny teacup that looked absolutely ridiculous in his hands. 

The quiet roar was deafening, and after stirring my coffee for the twenty-seventh time, I broke.

"Are you going to say anything?"

"What do you want me to say?"

"I don't know—something.  Anything is better than your silence."

"Alright, I'll go first."

He sat up and put down the comical tea cup that looked like it belonged in one of my half-sibling's Christmas gifts when they were five.

"How about I ask you about the fact that you're so dead set against me and my career that you thought it was a good idea to file a fake complaint about my biggest donor's son?  How about you using my money and my lawyers to strike a deal with some party boy singer to put yourself even further in the spotlight than my being in politics could put you?  I never had you pegged as stupid, but your actions lately have shown me that I was more than wrong about you.  You're more like your mother than I ever thought."

Tears sprung to my eyes unbidden, clogging my throat and smearing my eyes until all I could see were blurry images and shapes, a messy streak of my father's greying hair, a slash of his once kind features that resembled mine so much I could pick him out in the mirror when looking at myself. 

He was all I could see, not Carmen Hart, not my mother anymore.  

He'd gone and erased her, just like he was trying to do with everything I'd gone through. 

"Who said the complaint against Caleb was fake, dad?  Him?  His dad?  You never once asked me what happened, or if it was true.  Do you want to know what happened?  Do you want to know what he did to me?  The boy you told me to date?  Because I don't think you want to know what he did to me, daddy."

My voice broke, and finally the tears cleared enough so that I could see my father in picture perfect clarity. 

His hair was unruffled, his shirt tucked in neat and tidy like always. 

The epitome of the kind and well rounded candidate.  

'You can trust me with your vote', his persona screamed.  He just couldn't be trusted to watch over his own daughter.

"Ivy, where is this coming from?  You never said anything about Caleb being—"

"It started off with him being obsessed with wanting to fuck me."

My father jerked at my words, but I wasn't finished.  Not in the slightest.  If we were going to have this conversation, then he was going to learn exactly who he was throwing away his relationship with his daughter for. 

"I was a virgin, you know.  But he didn't care.  He always got what he wanted, I mean, look at who his father is.  He would start acting differently around me, too, unless I did what he wanted.  He'd punish me with temper tantrums and acting out around our friends unless I sent him pictures of me.  But that wasn't enough for him, not at all. 

"He started trying to feel me up in public, in class and in the cafeteria.  My friends started asking me why I was dating such an asshole like him, but I brushed it off.  He was different when we were alone.  He'd make it up to me by being so sweet I figured I only imagined the times when he'd grabbed my wrist too hard or shoved me against the wall so hard my head hit when he wanted to kiss me.  But then he fucked me.  He fucked me right up against a wall in a shadowy corner at a party, took my virginity in a crowded room and when he was done he took one look at me, told me to 'clean myself up' and walked away to go get wasted.  He fucked another girl that night, too.  Actually I'm pretty sure it was a threesome, the video got spread around, but he didn't get in any trouble.

"Are you seriously saying you don't remember me begging your lawyers to do something about the pictures he spread around school the next week?  The next morning after the party, he texted me.  He told me I was a boring lay and he didn't have time to teach me 'the ropes', so he dumped me, and then proceeded to send my photos to everyone we knew.  I thought I loved him.  I thought we were going to be the perfect couple and that I was going to finally make you proud of me.  It was only after you said and did nothing that I realized that was never going to happen, so I took what I could get from you.  Now, though?

"Now, all I see is an empty man with empty promises with a big bank account.  I want absolutely nothing to do with you from now on.  I know you got my mother locked up in that place with no way of letting me see her, but that's going to end now, too.  I'm going to get paid for the songs I'm writing, and I am going to fight you with everything that I have in me.  I refuse to sit here and listen to your shit.  My stuff will be out by the end of the week, I'll have someone come by to get everything.  You won't see me again.

"I won't pull my complaint for Caleb.  In fact, I'm going to fight him just as much as I'll fight you for a relationship with my mother.  Because you were right about one thing, dad.  I am so much more like my mother than you ever thought."

My father's face was pale and gaunt, but it was the sharp gasp that echoed across the marble floors from the foyer that had me turning my neck sharp enough to break. 

My stepmother stood there in a red sheer and feathered robe that cascaded along the ground like she was already a rich, widowed woman gliding the halls of her grand estate, a glass of pink champagne in her crystal flute clutched in blood red nails. 

"Ivy, what has gotten into you?  Your father has done nothing but try to take care of you to the best of his ability—"

"Yeah, well, he failed on that one.  Don't worry, Catalina.  I'll be out of your hair soon enough and then you won't have to worry about the reminder that he was married before you walking around and ruining all your press shoots.  If you'll excuse me, I have somewhere to be, but I have a few things I need to get from my room."

They didn't stop me as I stormed up the steps and passed my half-siblings who were eavesdropping on the landing.

Their faces were crumpled and Blythe had tears in her crystal blue eyes. 

"Are you really leaving?"

I bent down to her level, her age of twelve shining through as I realized that she'd heard each and every terrible thing that had happened to me at the hands of Caleb and my family. 

"Yes, I'm sorry.  I have to leave.  I can't stay here anymore."

"Why didn't daddy stop Caleb from doing that to you?  It doesn't make sense.  He's supposed to take care of us."

Bronson rolled his eyes and scowled at his twin sister. 

"Adults can't protect you from everything, Blythe.  That's why you have me.  What dad did was totally messed up, but I won't let that happen to you.  I'm sorry I couldn't help you too Ivy."

His brown hair and blue eyes were so similar to my own father's that I almost wished he'd taken after his mother, but I sucked it all up and gave him a timid smile before reaching out to hug my siblings. 

"Don't you worry about it.  Take care of your sister like you're supposed to and we'll call it even.  We can always text.  Don't stop sending me those funny memes and videos just because I won't be living here again."

I pulled away but before I could make my way up the stairs again, Blythe stopped me with a crushing death hug. 

"You promise you won't forget about us?  And that daddy won't be mean to us now that you're leaving?"

"I could never forget about you.  You're my little sister.  My only sister.  And sometimes our parents mess up, but its up to us to tell them when they've done something that hurt us.  Dad hurt me too many times, so I need to go, but that doesn't mean you need to hold it against him.  I'm sure he'll try harder with you, anyway."

And as the truth of those words sent shockwaves of heartbreak shooting into my chest, I realized just how true they really were. 

He'd try harder with Blythe, mold her into what he wanted instead of trying to shove me into my own mold that I'd already grown out of before he got me full time. 

"Just make sure you don't do anything you don't want to do, tell him how you feel, and you'll be okay.  You've got your mom, too. I love you, both of you, okay?"

"We love you too Ivy."

My chest stuttered as I walked away from them and gathered up everything I'd left at home that I would need for later.

My father was nowhere to be found when I reached the foyer again and took one last glance at the home that had never really felt like home. 

Catalina was sprawled in one of the chairs at the entrance to the house with tears streaking down her face. 

"Ivy, I didn't hear everything that happened, I only caught the tail end of your conversation."

She stood up, a frantic energy buzzing around her that I'd never seen before. 

"I am so sorry that happened to you, I had no idea Caleb was like that.  If I'd known, I never would've supported the relationship between you two.  Please, you have to know that."

Her hands were clutching her chest like it was her heart that was breaking, but my face was a mask of unblinking calm. 

"How could you have known?  You never asked."

I turned on my heel as she called after me and my father could be heard yelling at someone in his office but I didn't give my family another thought as I opened the door and strode for Hollin with two large bags in my hands that contained everything I'd need to try and start over. 

He took the bags and didn't comment on the state of my face that had surely turned blotchy and streaked from crying, and for that I was thankful. 

I didn't let the dam break again until he dropped me off at my dorm and escorted me into my room, passing inquiring faces as to why I had a lumbering bodyguard behind me carrying my things, and staring back at me were the two faces of the people who used to be my best friend. 

I wasn't expecting yet another confrontation, but I always knew I was a glutton for punishment.

***

Author's Note:

What did you think of this chapter?

What do you think will happen next?

What do you want to happen next?

Until next time my lovely readers,
Kristen :)