not the young man who had saved my life. It was startling to come face-to-face with the damage I’d done to someone who meant so much to me. I was never going to be able to make amends to him. The only way to right this kind of wrong was to make absolutely certain I didn’t do exactly what he was accusing me of. I had to live a good life and stay perpetually on the straight and narrow if I ever expected him to believe in me, rather than look to my history.
I fucked up a lot. I didn’t realize that I’d fucked him up in such a spectacular way as well. No wonder his mom hated my guts and wanted him as far away from me and my life as possible.
Speaking of his mom, I hovered my finger over one of the tiny video clips that were stored on the security app’s cloud. “Did your mom come over to the house before we left for Vancouver?”
Jeno grunted his response, refusing to turn to look at me. Maren cocked her head in a curious tilt and frowned at me. She probably knew bringing up his mother when he was already heated wasn’t a good idea, but I didn’t have a choice. She was the key to this entire debacle, and I wasn’t even surprised. I gave Maren what I hoped was a reassuring smile and put my phone down on the table between us.
I didn’t have words to describe how elated I felt when she declared she believed in my innocence without proof. I thought for sure she would side with Jeno, and I’d be guilty until I could prove my innocence beyond a shadow of a doubt. Nothing prepared me for the rush of relief that almost took me to the floor when she said she trusted me. The only other time I’d felt so strongly was when she tried to keep me from making all the wrong choices when I was younger. How she always managed to find something inside of me worth saving, I would never know, but it explained why she was the only woman I loved completely since before I even knew what love felt like.
I tapped on the video clip, and the footage filled the screen of my phone. For the first few minutes, it looked like Toren was walking into my bedroom to drop something off. All in all, not suspicious because she liked to do Jeno’s laundry for him, and he and I often shared clothes. She tossed a leather jacket on my bed and turned around like she was going to leave.
“You have a security camera in your room?” Maren pulled a face and pointed at the phone. “I’m glad I never stayed at your place. We’d end up with a sex tape that would probably get leaked by the security company.”
I chuckled, and then immediately hissed out a sound of pain through my teeth. My cheek was killing me, and my jaw was hella sore. Jeno hadn’t pulled those punches. “I just had it installed. I only turn it on when I’m not at the house. I had to up the security measures after that kiss went viral, and the news of us working together again went public. Reporters and paparazzi were crawling all over my neighborhood. Plus, I knew Jeno’s mom was extra pissed about being banned from coming in and out of the house when he wasn’t around. I put cameras in every single room of the house, as well as the garage, just to be on the safe side. I had a feeling she was going through my stuff, looking for a stash or something she could use to convince Jeno to move out and quit working with me.” I hit pause on the video right as it showed Toren coming back into the frame, this time holding the very suitcase that Jeno had torn apart and turned inside out to find whatever was hidden inside the lining. “I didn’t think she would stoop so low as to plant something on me, though. I underestimated how much she despises me. And I overestimated Jeno’s faith in me.”
Maren moved my hand and hit play on the video. It showed Toren opening the suitcase, unzipping the lining, and dropping a couple small packets of something inside before closing it all up and taking the suitcase back out of frame.
“Do you really expect me to believe my mother went