Page 67 of Where You Are
“So I just found something out, regarding the whole Eli situation,” he informs me as he locks his hands together, looking down at the floor.
Fuck.I thought we were past the worst of this.
“And I’ll fill the rest of the guys in, but I needed to tell you first.”
“Alright…” I cue him to continue with a shaky breath. This is going to be awful, there’s no ifs, ands or buts about it, seeing as how Jack needs to tell me, one-on-one, before anyone else, not to mention in person and with alcohol.
“Turns out, he has a history with my sister… Melanie.”
My body goes rigid as my blood turns to ice. I don’t even think to hide my reaction. After telling my lungs to inhale and expel air for a few breaths, I chance a look up at Jack. The way he has me pinned with his gaze says it all. He knows.
“He dated her in college,” he continues, and I can tell it’s taking every ounce of his resolve to keep his voice level and his body still. “When he found out about us last year, our music, the fans response, the records we were breaking, he did his research and remembered us from when he went to a show with Melanie.”
I have to run his words through my head at least three times to grasp what he’s saying, and I feel the bedrock of my soul start to crumble.
“He knew our contract was running out, wanted to be the first to swoop in and sign us, knowing we’d be his next cash cow, but knew his history with Mel would complicate that the moment she recognized him. So he preemptively got rid of her.”
“What?” I ask, feebly trying to raise my head and look at him. His eyes are glassy as he takes a drink and looks out the window for a second.
“Matt, Melanie didn’t leave again because she wanted to. He blackmailed her to get her out of the way.”
A ton of bricks just fell on my heart.
She didn’t want to leave. She wanted to stay here. She didn’t want to leave me.
Images of my girl float and flash behind my eyes. Her green eyes, so alive with light as she smiled at me, the way she happily buzzed around the lake house kitchen, her kisses in the water, waking up to her head on my chest, coloring with Luna… Then I think of the way she looked on the street a few weeks ago; somber, with not a trace of sunshine anywhere inside of her, as if someone had beaten every ounce right out of her.
She didn’t want to leave.
“What did he do?” I ask, all of a sudden having trouble stringing words together.
Jack takes a deep breath, stealing himself for what he has to tell me next.
“He had a sex tape of them from when they were together. A pretty graphic one,” he closes his eyes in disgust and I unconsciously bring my hand up to cover my mouth, feeling like I might vomit. I try to process this though. Sure that’s disgusting, but it’s a fire she could’ve gotten help putting out. Jack is way ahead of me, though.
“He used the same tricks with her as he did with every other female he’s manipulated and controlled. He told her not to think about going to Mike because he’d be the David to Eli’s Goliath of a legal team he had put together, and also warned her that he had a handful of cops in every major city on his payroll. He told her if she made a single move to fight this, it would take one click of a button for the video to hit the internet and the celebrity news networks.”
I’m thinking of Melanie being cornered by this fuck, the way he did with Mayzie, and the solidarity I feel towards Jack just multiplied.
“He knew what buttons to push too,” Jack shakes his head and takes another drink and it cues me to do the same. “Tried to get her to think of all the ways I would react, our dad, you, your family…” My brain is going haywire and in so many different directions. But the vision that’s taken center stage is the one of Eli threatening and intimidating my girl. Scaring her; shaming her; making her feel she had no choice but to exile herself from her home and everyone she loved. It’s the most horrible image I’ve ever conjured in my brain, yet I still don’t understand.
“He did the same things to Mayzie…” I barely manage to stammer out. “Well, not exactly, but still… she came to you…” I point out, trying to make sense of why Melanie would let this monster defeat her; why she’d just fold and do what he wanted.
Jack shakes his head. “Mayzie felt every bit the innocent victim, guilty of nothing,” he says, laying it out for me. “She was minding her business when the piece of shit came on to her and threatened us. Plus, she and I had already been married for a while. We’re a team and she knew she could tell me. Melanie on the other hand… felt some guilt, some responsibility because of her relationship with him…”
And while we were in love, it was new, I think to myself. We hadn’t established the union Jack and Mayzie have. I wanted to, and I like to think we were real damn close to doing so, but it was a new love that she didn’t know she could burden with something of this weight.
“Besides,” Jack continues.
How the fuck is there more?!
“Eli threatened Melanie with more than just a sex scandal,” he says looking up at me and leveling me hard with his eyes. He’s about to drop some serious shit on me, and I’m torn between panicking and passing out because I just don’t understand how there can be more to tell me after all of these revelations. “Matt,” he leans over and squeezes my shoulder and waits patiently for me to look up at him. “He threatened Kasey.”
The world stops.
“He knew about that little slip-up she had with the pills. In fact, he had a video of it. It’s possible he even set it up. He was watching Melanie on some seriously disturbing levels, looking for any weakness of hers that he could use against her. Turns out, one of the biggest ones she has, is you.”
My blood runs hotter by the second as I listen to what he’s telling me. The sick fuck went after my family. He was going to expose Kasey’s addiction and her perfectly human mistake, causing a CPS circus that could’ve gotten Luna taken away from her mother. I’m gripping the glass, threatening to make it shatter with the pressure when my mind shifts to those last few words.