Chapter 2

I scrambled out of bed. The second I saw what was happening at the door, my heart nearly leaped out of my throat.

Vera stood there with a face like a storm cloud, ordering the staff to throw a cat outside because Sebastian was allergic to cat hair.

The cat was Biscuit, the twelve-year-old tabby I'd brought from my parents' house, the one who'd grown up right alongside me.

She lay listless on the floor, and it felt like someone had taken a punch straight through my chest.

I scooped her up immediately, my voice gone cold. "Leave if you want to leave. Don't touch my cat."

Before Vera could even respond, Sebastian, wearing my pajamas, cut in indignantly.

"This is Vera's house. You don't get to kick her out."

I gave a short, humorless laugh. Both our families had put up the money for this mansion as a wedding gift.

If anyone here had no right to open his mouth, it was Sebastian.

My eyes landed on him. He'd grown up dirt poor, his mother dead young, his father useless, until he ended up pouring drinks at a bar for a living.

That was where Vera had run into him.

Some customer had been giving him a hard time, and I'd stepped in to help him out because I couldn't just watch.

The second I looked away, he'd wrapped himself around Vera, turning on the charm, and my stomach turned like I'd swallowed a fly.

After that, there was no getting rid of him. He stuck to the two of us like gum on a shoe.

Sebastian noticed me watching. Instead of even pretending to be discreet about it, he reached out and brushed the hair back from Vera's collarbone like he owned the place.

That wasn't even what bothered me. I pointed at the pajamas on his back.

"Take those off. Are you too poor to own a single pair of pajamas?"

My mom had bought those for me. Seeing them on him made me sick to my stomach.

"Grayson, watch your mouth!" Vera snapped the second I finished talking. "Don't you know Sebastian has depression? I don't know what he ever did to you, but you keep insulting him over and over."

Sebastian's face had gone pale, his whole body trembling like a willow branch in the wind.

He stared me down and said, slow and deliberate, "It's my fault. I'll take it off right now."

He yanked the shirt off in one motion, and just as he reached for the pants, Vera's eyes went wide with fury, and she threw her arms around him.

Her voice shook with concern. "Do it inside. We don't want his clothes anyway. Whatever you need, I'll buy it for you."

The two of them rushed into the bedroom, but only Vera came back out.

She hurled the pajamas at me, her face dark, like she was finally letting out days of pent-up rage.

"Grayson, you have a problem, you bring it to me. I used to think you just didn't have any empathy. But what you've been doing lately actually disgusts me."

My chest tightened, but I caught exactly what she was implying underneath it.

"What do you mean? What did I do?"

Vera let out a cold huff and grabbed my arm, demanding an answer.

"Did you have something to do with Sebastian getting drugged?"

My mind went blank for a second, and then a wave of humiliation rose up in me.

"You think it was me?"

Vera's eyes were ice. "It was your family's hotel."

What a ridiculous leap of logic. I shot back immediately, "Then why hasn't he called the police?"

Before she could answer, I pulled out my phone and dialed 911.

Vera was quick. She slapped the screen and killed the call.

Her tone turned sharp. "That would just make Sebastian relive everything. He lost a kidney over this. He's on the edge of a breakdown, and he can't take any more of this torment."

I listened closely, and just as I was about to say something, Sebastian came bursting out of the room, bare-chested with only a towel around his waist.

He was screaming like a lunatic, like he'd just seen something filthy.

Vera immediately dropped the subject and pulled him into her arms, murmuring to calm him down.

I frowned, watching her back, feeling like something about this didn't add up.

In my last life, Sebastian had never once tried to find out the truth, and Vera had gone along with everything he wanted.

But what normal person wouldn't want to know who'd hurt them?

Unless he already knew exactly who it was.

Something clicked into place in my head, and I called my mom right away.