Chapter Four

~Quinn~

“Just stay low, clear your head for a week or two,” Alex tells me over the phone, his voice a calm and steady presence as I wheel my luggage across the hot tarmac towards the waiting private jet.

“Is Mom still angry?” My voice is barely a whisper, more husky than usual from all the crying I did last night. My eyes still feel puffy and raw.

“Yes and no. She’s angry about you leaving school, but she doesn't know yet about the you-know-what. What she really doesn't understand is why you're skipping classes all of a sudden,” he explains patiently.

“It's okay, I'll call her when I land. You've taken the post down, right?” I sighed as a uniformed hostess approached and smoothly took my bags from me.

“And disabled his account entirely,” Alex confirms. “Keep your own profile set to private and change your username to help bury it. Enjoy your time in Vegas, sweetie. You deserve it, after all of this. And please don't just stay in bed and cry all day over that d-ckhead. You'll get better boys, you have all the time in the world.”

My fingers froze around the phone, and fresh tears pricked at my eyes. That’s the thing. I don't have all the time in the world. I had four months left, and Kade was supposed to be the most important part of it. He was the reason that made the entire dumb living list feel worth it. Now it's all gone, just like that.

My mother was right about him all along. She's always right. Maybe I should just tell her about everything, about the cancer, and then simply follow through with whatever strict, smothering plan she has for me. What’s the point of fighting it now?

“I'll see you on Monday, Alex,” I tried to sound bright and normal before ending the call and starting my way to the private cabin after collecting a breakfast tray from another hostess.

I don't know what I'd do without Alex. He was one of my mother's most trusted allies, a guy who helped her cover up public scandals while managing all her social media accounts. If I didn't have that privilege, that horrible post would've gone even more viral than it already did. Alex had to quietly pay off several blogs and gossip pages that had already picked up the story, but regardless, people already knew. The humiliation was complete.

I could try to lie and say he tagged the wrong girl. I don't even care about my reputation anymore anyway; it's no use to me if I'm dying soon. But if he liked Esmeralda that much, then why did he say all those intense things to me in the car? Why did he try to kiss me? From the comments flooding the post, I found out that they had apparently been dating for a while, and I was being seen as the ‘home wrecker’. She got him after all. She won.

I let out a long, shaky sigh and placed my noise-canceling earphones on, letting Sombr's "we never even dated" blast through my ears until I finally fell into a fitful sleep. When I wake up, the jet is descending, and I'm in Vegas. I quickly block my mother's number for now as I wheel my luggage out of the private terminal. I can't have her calling me and asking a million questions. I'm just going to stay here for the weekend, hide away, and then head back to my miserable life and die full of regrets.

The Vegas penthouse is as lively and opulent as I remember. I've always loved it here. It felt like a comforting escape from my chaotic life back at New York. My mother visited here often when I was younger, usually with my older brother, Mason. We never talk about him now, and seeing the portrait of my mom that he painted still hanging on the wall brings back a flood of memories I have spent years trying to block out.

“Quinn?” a sharp gasp alerts me, and I turn to face Tracy, the head of staff for the house. She's one of the youngest staff members my mom has, in her late twenties, and honestly the best person in Vegas too.

“Tracy,” I squealed, rushing over to hug her. She smiled warmly as she patted my hair, “Oh my sweet girl, how nice of you to come visit us.”

"Yes, well, something happened.” My voice dropped to a confessional murmur.

"Alex told me all about it,” she says, her expression turning stern. “That d-ckhead is such a buffoon. He's lucky your mother doesn't know the full story yet, she'd have him locked up!”

“Now you sound exactly like Alex.” I giggled weakly as I collapsed onto the plush white couch. She sat down next to me.

“I threw away all his posters in your room here immediately,” she announced, matter-of-factly. “Burnt his jersey too. Donna took out the ones in New York. I've already called Hakeem to toss out the ones in Dubai, Celeste shredded those in Italy, Grace handled the ones in England and—”

“Yes, I've got it,” I signed, propping my head against a soft cushion. "You burnt all the posters in all my rooms in all the houses we own. The great Kade purge is complete.” I let out a tired breath. "But it still hurts though,” I pouted, the ache in my chest feeling fresh again.

"My poor girl. You are a drop dead gorgeous ray of sunshine, anyone would be happy to have you. Anyone would be blessed to. That Salvatore guy clearly has low standards. Esmeralda Sinclair? Of all the stuck-up bitches in the world?”

“Tracy, let's not talk about it anymore,” I whined, the name feeling like a physical jab.

She sighed, giving in, and then placed my feet in her lap. She slid off my socks and started massaging my feet gently. "What do you want, darling? Ice cream? Anything? Just name it.”

“I just want to sleep. I want to lay low and then just get back to school,” I mumbled, closing my eyes.

Her fingers stopped their massage. "No you're not,” she said, her tone leaving no room for argument. "Alex asked me to make a reservation for you already. Tonight.”

“A reservation?” I opened one eye to look at her.

“At Ricochet,” She chuckled, seeing my confused look. "It's a new club. They're hosting a huge pool party tonight and he insisted you go.”

I sat up straight. "I can't go, I — I look like a mess. I’m not in the mood—”

" Yes, you can,” she interrupted. "Life is too short to waste it over one boy when there are literally a billion others out there. And don't you hit me with that bullsh-t of him being different. You'll never know what else is out there until you try,” She smirked, a mischievous glint in her eye. "So get up, get dressed, and go get laid,”

"Tracy!” I gasped, but a real laugh escaped me.

"With protection, of course,” she added with a wink.

I laughed at her joke lightly, “I'm not sure...”

" It's strictly for 18-23 year olds, Quinn and the best part? They're going to play Sombr's songs, special request from Alex. Come on,  know how he hates wasting  money?"

She knows how to tempt me well,I guess it wouldn't hurt to go out. “Okay, fine, "

“Perfect, Darl would drop you off at eight and would pick you up whenever you call,”

“You're not coming?”

“I don't want it look like your mother dropped you off, go and fun, okay?”

“Okay,” I smile, "I'd really like the ice cream though,”

"Banana or strawberry?”

“Both,”

“On it,”

A smile is still on my lips as she left,the irony of it hit me hard. Isn't it funny? To one person, I still had all the time in the world to find someone new, and to another person my life was short to waste it?

It's just a party though, what could possibly go wrong?