Page 25 of Perfect Sin
Sin takes my hand and leads me to the plane without speaking to his parents.
“Jackson, please don’t go,” Carina begs.
“Get in the car, son. If you make me go around this order, I’ll–”
Sin stops and turns toward them. “What, you’ll lock me up in another institution? Lock me in my room and take away my phone? For the last time, I’m not a child, and that isn’t going to change despite you trying to treat me like one.”
Carina cries, and Sin’s shoulders stiffen. “We just wanted to make up for lost time. To give you the life you were destined for. We’re your parents.”
“We could have had a relationship if you’d bothered to get to know me. Instead you tried to force me to be the Jackson you imagined I’d have become. That person doesn’t exist, and you can’t wish him into being.”
He looks at Arthur. “I warned you, and you ignored me. Don’t contact me. I don’t want anything to do with either of you.”
Sin tugs on my hand and leads me up the stairs into the plane. His mood is dark, and I don’t know how to fix this for him.
“Fuck, I hate them. For a moment, when I realized I wasn’t sold like I always believed, I had hope. It turns out they’re just as bad as I imagined. They don’t care about me. Sure, they pretty it up and act like they are thinking about my future, but really they want to use me as a tool like everyone else.”
“Not everyone,” I mutter.
He takes one of the sofas lining the side of the plane and nuzzles his face in my neck. “True. You’ve shown me what it’s like to be loved for who I am. With you I never have to wonder what your agenda is, or how you plan to use me. Only you.”
Lucien comes over and kicks his foot. “Hey, asshole, she’s not the only one.”
Sin lifts his face from my neck. “Fine, you too. Let’s go home.”
Playa Pacifica is a place we ran to. It was somewhere to get lost in a crowd, but it was there we found ourselves. It’s there we will start our lives, and this time we can do it openly.
* * *
A few hours later,we roll into Playa Pacifica with several suitcases, two federal agents, and many of the same issues that brought us here in the first place.
“Please tell me we don’t have to stay in another shady motel until we find a place.”
“Holbrook?” Lucien asks.
“It’s covered. I contacted your friends. Ford found a house for you guys.”
“We could barely afford that shitty apartment, and that was with Lucien working. How are we going to swing a house?” I ask Sin and Lucien.
“You know what I said in the interview about your trust fund?” Lucien reminds me.
I nod. “That was just a line for the reporter, wasn’t it?”
“No, actually. Our mother’s family was loaded. When she married Damien, they cut her off. They got back in touch soon after you were born. You don’t remember because you were really little. They used to visit you with your nannies, and me whenever Damien would allow it. Since we were the last in the family, they left all of their money to the two of us. You didn’t know, but as soon as you got married you gained access to your half. I’ll get mine when I get married, or turn twenty-five.”
“I have enough to get us a house?” I ask, trying to wrap my brain around this new revelation.
“More than enough. You’re worth millions.”
Sin frowns and looks out of the window.
“Hey.” I rub my hand on his thigh trying to get his attention. “Please don’t let this bother you.”
He turns his face back towards me and gives me a slight smile. “It should scare me that you know me well enough to understand that would bother me.”
“If it were you with the trust fund, how would you feel then?”
“It’s my job to take care of you.”