wall, leaving a thundering boom echoing around me.
“Bree, wait up,” Liv’s voice said.
I stopped and turned.
She was right there, arms around me, hugging me.
“Tell me what’s going on,” she whispered. “Don’t just run off. Let me help you.”
“You want to help me?” I asked. “Get me out of here. Get me out of this hotel and this city…”
Liv stepped back. “You’re in a shirt and nothing else.”
I looked down at myself.
Heat flooded my cheeks.
I pictured myself running. No bra. Just a t-shirt. And if the bottom of the shirt lifted up enough…
I covered my face. “Did I just give them all a show?”
“Well, it’s nothing nobody hasn’t seen before,” Liv said.
I moved my hands from my face. “I’m going to be sick.”
“Talk to me, Bree,” she said. “What happened?”
As I wiped the corners of my eyes, I took a breath. “My mother left me a note telling me I was adopted. I had no idea. She left the names of my birth parents. Sab gave the names to Toby to find their address. I told him I was nervous about what to do and wondered if they were even alive. I didn’t ask him to go find them. I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to know at all…”
I felt my throat close for a second.
“Fucking Sab,” Liv whispered.
I lowered my head and Liv hugged me again.
“I’ve got you, Bree,” she whispered. “Let me go get Sab into Nash’s room and then we’ll go get your stuff, okay?”
I nodded. “Okay.”
“Stay right here,” she said.
Liv went back to the hallway and I stood alone.
My eyes filled with tears again.
This was not the time for reality to rear its ugly head.
Liv kept to her word.
I rushed around the hotel room to make sure I had everything that was mine. Not that I had anything of true value with me. It wasn’t like I was carrying around a special necklace worth millions.
I just wanted my clothes and wanted to leave.
Oh, and I also got changed.
Last thing I needed was to keep walking around in a long t-shirt with nothing else on, seconds away from giving anyone near me a free show.
I wasn’t some woman with that band that did that kind of thing.
Not that I was suggesting Liv or the other women did that.
But the band… before they found love… they had their groupies. That I was sure of. What rock star didn’t? And that’s what Sab needed. He needed groupies, not me.
Definitely not me.
Did I fall in love with him? Of course I did. It was Sab. My Sebastian. That would never change. A piece of me had been in love with him since we were teenagers. Before he took off and became a famous rock star.
And seeing him like this…
“What’s your plan, Bree?” Liv asked.
I froze, two steps from the door.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I just have to… go…” I took a breath. “Thank you for everything, Liv. You, Candice, Abby, and Wren.”
“Whether it matters or not… he’s in love with you.”
“I know he is,” I said.
“He shouldn’t have done what he did,” Liv said. “I’ll agree with you there. That would piss me off too.”
“You’re not going to talk me out of leaving.”
“I’m not trying to,” she said. “I’m just talking to you. I’d hate to never see you again. And I want you to know what they said was true. There were a lot of times at parties with wild stuff going on… and there’s Sab… face down in his phone. And everyone knew he only did that for you.”
I nodded. “I understand, Liv. It’s just…”
“I know,” she said. She closed in on me and hugged me. “I hope you’re okay, Bree.”
“I will be,” I whispered. “I just have to go.”
I opened the hotel room door and checked the hallway.
It was clear.
I told Liv to stay behind.
Face it, it wasn’t hard to get around anymore. I’d use my phone to get a ride… to anywhere.
The main goal was to get away from the hotel.
I hurried down the hallway and opened the door.
Sab was waiting for me on the steps.
The door shut with the same echoing sound as before.
“What are you doing, Bree?” Sab asked.
“Leaving.”
“Why?”
“You know why.”
“Because I found your birth parents?”
“You took something from me,” I said. “And… what is this?”
He pointed to me. Then himself. “This? This is you and me finally together.”
I shook my head. “It can’t work, Sab.”
“What can’t work?”
“Us.”
“Why?”
“Because I said it can’t,” I said.
I took a step and he blocked the way. “Bree…”
I