Cruel Legacy (Cruel 3)

But it was Court who was paying the price. The news was saying that he was an accessory to the crime and was potentially being charged with aiding and abetting. I wondered how far that would hold up with Kensington money when his mother was the mayor. Wouldn’t be pretty either way.

I slouched back against my couch and covered my eyes. What a disaster. The party. Jane. Penn. All of it. It had all gone down in flames.

Still, I waited for Penn to reach out. For something to change. I waited up until the minute we were supposed to leave for Paris. Sitting in a first-class seat and sipping champagne as we soared off into the sunset.

But it never happened.

Penn never reached out.

He’d left. And I was here without him.

I bought the first ticket to Charleston without a second thought. Grabbed the bag I’d packed for Paris and took a cab to LaGuardia. I touched down back home in a matter of hours. I hadn’t called or texted Amy or my family. I didn’t know what to say, and I didn’t trust myself not to break down. I held back the panic with sheer will. Someone else needed to tell me that this would be all right before I unraveled completely.

I landed on Amy’s doorstep and banged on the door. But when it swung inward, I took a step back in shock. “Enzo?”

His eyebrows rose in surprise, and his thick French accent rang out. “Natalie, what a surprise.” He called out into the apartment, “Amy, darling, Natalie is here.”

“Natalie?” Amy yelled back. “Natalie who?”

I laughed, but it sounded strained and choked, even to me. “Me, silly.”

Amy appeared then in nothing but a paint-splattered white button-up that must belong to Enzo. “Holy shit! Look at you. What are you doing here?” She wrapped me in a hug. “Why didn’t you call?”

“I…Penn…” And then I couldn’t hold it back any longer. I was here with my best friend. There was nothing I could do, nothing I could hide from her. The tears hit like a tidal wave.

Amy shushed me and drew me into her apartment. Enzo reached for my suitcase, depositing it inside, as Amy sat me down on the couch. A half-finished pizza sat on the coffee table. A Marvel movie was on in the background. It was all so nice and normal, and it made it hurt so much worse. So, so much worse because I hadn’t even known that Enzo had moved in.

“Nat,” Amy said, brushing my hair back, “tell me what happened. Are you okay?”

“Penn went to Paris without me. And Enzo moved in?” I gasped out.

“Yeah…that’s, uh, why I renovated the guest bedroom.”

“You didn’t tell me.”

“You’ve been kind of busy,” Amy said with a shrug.

I stared at her in horror. All of this shit in my life, and I’d even neglected the one person who was always there for me. Fuck. Maybe Penn was right. Maybe I’d really fucked this up.

“I’m sorry.”

“Hey, don’t apologize. I don’t care. It’s me. We’ll always be friends.”

Enzo appeared a minute later and held out a container of chocolate icing. It was like he really understood us.

“Now, tell me about Penn. He’s in Paris?”

I downed a giant dollop of frosting, and then it all spilled out. Every excruciating detail from the very beginning. Every horrible thing I’d done from convincing Penn to teach me how to belong to taking down Katherine and everything in between. Even Jane and Court even though I’d had nothing to do with that nightmare.

Spilling it to Amy was a balm. It was finally getting it off of my chest to someone who had seen me at my lowest at Christmas and knew why I’d decided to do it. And now, how it had all worked and then backfired completely.

“Well, sounds like you got what you wanted,” Amy said, rubbing my back as the tears finally dried up.

“Careful what you wish for,” I murmured.

“Yes. Sounds like you were a real bitch,” she said with a laugh.

“Thanks.”

“Anytime.”

“I guess I was. But they were horrible to me, Ames. They ruined everything.”

“I know,” Amy said. “But everything you just told me, that doesn’t even sound like you. It sounds like a stranger. The person who could kick Michael down to his size without blinking. And he deserved it, but that doesn’t mean you had to do it. Any of it.”

“Yeah,” I whispered. “I didn’t want to lose Penn over it.”

“Good news: you haven’t lost him yet.”

“Yet.” The word sounded horrible on my tongue.

“You know what you need?” she asked.

I shook my head.

“A cleansing.”

I choked on a chuckle. “Seriously?”

“Let’s end this cycle the way you started it. Close the circle, as your mom would say.”

“You’re right. You’re so right.” I wiped the tears from my cheeks. Leave it to Amy to have the answer. “Let’s do it.”