Even In Pieces [Bxb] Chapter 30

Zachary

Miserable is exactly what I feel. I didn’t want to leave Everett. All I want is to go back to the club and let him wrap his arms around me like he had on that dance floor. Feeling his warmth against me. Just drown in him. But I can’t, I have to get back home. I need to see my father. That damn bastard has gone and done it this time.

The taxi drives right up to the gate of my father’s mansion and stops. I get out and pay the driver. By the time I make my way inside, I am fuming. I see him sitting on the couch nursing a wine glass. He looks up at me, not showing any sort of recognition.

“You fucking bastard.” I grit out.

“I didn’t do anything yet, Zachary. All I did was say that I would make your relationship with your boyfriend public, or you can just drop out of your college course and join the filming industry, just like I have always told you to.”

I stare at him in disbelief. This was the reason I had left this house so long ago. The fact that he hadn’t cared about me till I was grown up to enter the industry, which I never wanted. “I left here for that reason. I am not joining any industry. I am no longer part of your family. I left and made my life by working day and night, and I am one of the best students in finance.”

Father doesn’t even acknowledge me. “If your relationship comes out public then the media will hog you because of your sexuality and of course that would put you in the middle of a scandal. All the attention will be on you and that boyfriend of yours.”

I clench my fists in. God, I can’t put Everett through that. I know exactly what my father is planning. To get all the attention towards me so that I will be more involved in his work. From there I will become a public figure, just like I was in my high school days. It had taken two years for me to fall back into the shadows. Having a kid in Hollywood only increases attention and that’s exactly what my father is aiming for.

“I am cutting off any legal rights you have on me. I am breaking off everything. And if you do anything more, I am going to call the cops. Fuck that, I am going to release my own video saying how you are a piece of scum. And fuck if that puts me in the attention of media, as long as it brings bad publicity to you too.” I look him right in the eyes.

“Do you really think your new movie is going to go over smoothly after I do that? After your son does that. The media I can handle you asshole, but if you bring Everett into this, I swear to fucking god I’ll destroy that image that you have build up so carefully. That man is everything to me. Everything you never were.” Finally, saying it all out feels like a relief. Getting in contact with a lawyer and removing him from my will or from my emergency contact is way easier.

Father’s face goes visibly blank. He stares at me for a while. “You piece of—”

“Don’t. I am recording this. And now I won’t hold back on releasing it to the public. Did you really think I was that helpless and that’s why I did everything you told me to? I was just holding onto you. You were the only thing I had in my life so I held onto you hoping you would come around and see me, actually see me one day, but now I don’t have to. I know what it’s like to genuinely care for someone and to be accepted for who I am.”

We both stare at each other and when I realize that he wasn’t going to say anything more, I turn and leave the house. Just as I step out, I feel like the weight of the sky has been lifted from my shoulders. All I want is to see Everett.

I call his number even though I know he won’t pick up. I need to explain why I had to leave him there. The truth is I panicked. I didn’t want him to see me with my father because I am afraid he would see me differently. And If I had waited, father would have released that picture of us together, which would have led to both of us being hunted by the media.

I call him again, but he doesn’t pick up. I leave texts for him to call back. God, I messed up. Leaving Everett there was the only way I could have reached here on time. It was a long time coming that I needed to have that conversation with my father. I needed to end it on my own. Everett still doesn’t pick up. The dread that fills my chest feels so much worse than anything I have ever felt. I can’t lose him too.

Everett

The knocking on the door becomes louder and louder. I put my head under the pillow. Every knock on the door feels like a punch to my chest, I want him to go away but Pierce groans and gets up.

“Don’t fucking open it!” I hiss at him.

He narrows his eyes at me. “I am going out of this room for a while because I am not staying here with someone banging the door off. You are just being stubborn. You need to hear him out.” Pierce says, leaving me no time to protest, he opens the door and Zachary comes inside. Pierce gives him a nod before leaving and closing the door behind him. I get up from the bed. Zachary locks the door and I stare at him.

“Let me explain, please.” He says. I notice the dark circles under his eyes and that he is wearing the same clothes he was wearing yesterday. Seeing him like this all I want to do is hold him in my arms. I am furious at myself for feeling that way even after everything he did. So I Steel myself and look right into his eyes.

“Why? So that you leave when things get too hard? Just like all the others you did?” I spit at him.

He flinches like he took a hit to his face. I don’t care. I don’t want to be like one of his other boyfriends or girlfriends that he left before even thinking about them.

I won’t survive that. Because I want more from him. I want everything from him.

“You were never like that, Everett. You could never be.” He says. He brings up a hand to touch me but when I pull back his amber eyes go blank, he steps back with a crestfallen expression. The hurt flashing in his eyes almost breaks my resolve but I hold myself back from grabbing onto him.

“Then why didn’t you tell me your dad called? You thought just a message was enough, Zachary? Am I that insignificant?”

“I did want to tell you, but he wanted me there, immediately!”

I snort at him. “And just like always you went like the craving kid you are! You said you were done with him. And seriously, sending a text saying that you would be okay was enough for me!”

My voice sounds too small for even me. No matter how hard I try I can’t conceal the hurt from my voice and by how Zachary is staring at me, he heard it too. His expression is not hurt anymore and more like detachment. Why the fuck should I care?

“I can’t believe I thought I mattered to you. God, Zachary, I can’t stop everything I feel for you and the moment I wanted to tell you, you pulled the same shit and left because that damn man called you to be there! Do you really think that’s what I want? Someone who just leaves? Someone who can’t tell me how he feels? Someone who didn’t tell me if he was going to be okay and that I shouldn’t be worried? I am done waiting for you to understand that I care. Why didn’t you just sent me a text, I thought… I thought he was going to hurt you. I was so scared for you.” The hoarseness in my voice is so dry I don’t know how I am talking anymore.

Zachary looks stricken, but he rights himself and looks down at his feet. “I wanted to meet him alone.”

I tense at that and ask slowly. “And you thought I was going to stop you from doing something you needed to do?”

Zachary bites his lip and when he looks up his face is contorted in pain and coldness. He schools his expression and everything I knew of him is gone. Just like that. “I thought you would leave if I told you I was meeting with him.”

My heart beats turn painful as he says that. “You thought I would leave you just like that? That’s how much you trusted me? You thought I wouldn’t be there for you? Fuck, Zachary. You really know how to hurt a person.”

Zachary doesn’t look at me. He doesn’t meet my eyes. I am thankful for that because otherwise he would see the tears forming in them. He really knows how to break me.

Maybe he was always going to break my heart.

“Please, leave.” I tell him, looking away from his face because I can’t look at his beautiful face without breaking down anymore.

Zachary stares at me for a moment as though he is taking it all in. “Yeah, you shouldn’t have to wait for me to get my shit together. But Everett, I’ll tell you again. You were never just anything to me. You were more. Always more.”

Zachary doesn’t wait for me to say anything more, he just leaves through the door and I fall into my bed. Holding together, my own trembling arms.

It was good while it lasted. So much more than good.

To have everything you ever craved given to you and then snatched away before you could even claim it.

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