Theirs (Possession #2)

28. Camila

28

Camila

I didn’t want to see Genevieve tonight, if she wanted to talk she would have to wait. That day she dismissed us, we didn’t know what the hell happened and it made it worse when she didn’t reach out like we thought she would. We were starting to lose hope that this had ended without a conversation. She had gotten scared and left us with nothing.

In true Camila fashion, after that day, I was pissed. I went from being sad to wanting to go over to her house just to give her a piece of my mind. It didn’t help that Luke had gone quiet and I didn’t like the defeated look on his face that said he felt guilty that this had been his fault. A part of me felt guilty too. Why had we been stupid enough to bring another woman into our bedroom?

The knock on the door made me still. Luke and I looked at each other. Hopefulness shined in his eyes while I was skeptical. We took a deep breath together and got up to head to the door as Luke’s phone rang. His sister's name popped on the screen, but he ignored it.

I opened the door as Luke lingered in the living room by the fire. Genevieve stood there looking small and meek, biting her lip.

I nodded my head to come in. “We are in the living room.”

“Ok,” she said, holding onto her purse for dear life.

She walked in slowly and when I closed the door she jumped, looking back quickly. Her eyes were wide until she realized what had made the loud noise. What the hell had happened to make her so jumpy? We walked into the room, the heat of the fireplace warmed up the room perfectly.

Genevieve stopped on the side of the sofa looking at Luke and then looking at me. Her lip trembled, a tear slid down her cheek, “I’m sorry,” she whimpered.

All the anger I had been holding onto melted when more tears came falling down.

“Evie,” Luke said, walking up to her and pulling her against him.

“I’m an asshole, I was so mean and I’m so sorry,” she cried, grabbing onto Luke’s shirt. “I was, am scared, I don’t do this and… and… I have no idea what I am doing, but I know that these last few days have been awful.”

I made my way to them putting my hand on her back.

“You made us feel really shitty,” I said, getting a scowl from Luke.

Luke wasn’t big on confrontation, he also hated rubbing things in anyone's face. This was different though, we were talking about our hearts. If this was going to continue, then we needed to have that uncomfortable conversation.

“Cheryl reamed my ass and I was too stubborn to see that I was wrong,” she said looking back at me. “I… I didn’t have a good example, my mother thought she needed a man to survive and I never wanted that. I've pushed everyone away because I have never wanted to depend on anyone and I've never seen what a real, stable relationship could be.”

“Is that what you want, a relationship or is this going to continue being a contract without a contract?” I scooted closer.

She looked so young and lost.

“I think we are way past a contract,” she sighed. “But if you still want me. I want to discuss what we each expect and…”

My phone rang loudly, interrupting Genevieve.

“It’s ok, I’ll call them back,” I said, when it stopped ringing.

“Can we?—”

My phone rang again.

“Hold that thought,” I said, looking for my phone.

Finally finding it, I saw Luke’s sister's name and I instantly knew something was wrong.

“Cari?o,” I said, taking him my phone. “I think you need to give your sister a call.”

My phone rang again, and it was from his brother Theodore. Luke released Genevieve, grabbed my phone and answered. He walked away from us to the kitchen, leaving us alone. It was an awkward silence, something that was never an issue before and I hated it.

“I know I said it already, but I am really sorry,” she said, looking sincere, wiping her face. “I know I messed up and there is a lot to talk about.”

“There is a lot to talk about, but are you here because you are all in or will you give us hope and walk away?” I asked, sitting on the sofa motioning her over to sit too.

She bit her lip, sitting on the sofa, looking nervous. “That's what I want to talk to you about. I need to say a few things and we can decide if we want to move forward.”

She looked guilty. I clenched my jaw thinking the worst and hoped I was overreacting. Something dropped in the kitchen and then a loud thud.

“Cari?o?” I called out.

“Luke?” Genevieve yelled when we received no answer.

I got up immediately and headed into the kitchen. As I walked in, Luke was nowhere to be found until I rounded the corner and he was sitting on the floor with a faraway look in his eye.

“Luke?” I rushed to him. “Cari?o?”

I knelt next to him, touching his shoulder, but he didn't acknowledge me.

“What happened?” Genevieve rounded the other side of the island, studying Luke.

“I…I don’t know,” I said, looking back at Luke.

“Cari?o, what happened?” I leaned into his line of sight.

Genevieve’s brow were down, kneeling next to him.

“Pet, look at me,” she demanded.

Luke didn't even flinch.

“Luke, look at your Mistress,” she snapped, and he finally looked at her. “What happened, Pet?”

I touched his shoulder and he finally looked at me.

“They’re dead,” he whispered.

My chest tightened from his words.

“W-who?” I touched his face as his first tear fell.

His lip trembled as Genevieve stepped closer, touching his other shoulder.

“My mom and dad,” he said, looking down at my phone. “The barn collapsed.”

Fuck.

I pulled him to me, not knowing what to say. They never had a great relationship, but that didn’t mean he didn’t love them. Luke would have never wanted anything to happen to them. They were too young.

Genevieve hugged him from the side. We caught each other's eyes. Even though the last couple of days had been awful, I was glad she was here for this. We were on the floor for too long, but I didn’t dare move, holding onto Luke as tightly as I could.

“Can we fly out as soon as possible?” he murmured. “I… I don’t want Iris alone for too long.”

“Yeah, I can?—”

“Actually, can we drive? If we leave now we can get there just after midnight,” he said, looking at the clock on the stove.

“Are you sure you want to drive?” I didn’t know if driving was the right thing to do.

“We will get there faster,” he said, looking over at Genevieve. “I would like my truck to do what I need to do for the funeral.”

My heart sank, realizing we were going to have to plan a funeral. It wasn't just that, I thought about their family-owned land and knew their estate was also going to be an issue. I took a deep breath.

“Ok, we can do that,” I said, seeing the screen light up with Iris’s name.

He answered it quickly, getting up.

“Are you ok?” he asked immediately. “I know, I’m on my way, Izzy. I’m packing and we will be there just after midnight.”

Genevieve got up, helping me up.

“Do you need help?” She eyed Luke as he was trying to calm down Iris who, if I had to guess, was a mess.

“Help me pack?” I grabbed her hand. “We are going to pack.”

Luke nodded, listening to Iris.

We walked into the bedroom and we immediately started packing. She knew where everything was, taking out clothes and laying them on the bed waiting for me to say yes before packing them in the small cubes I had for organization. The silence was no longer awkward, but her words before we went to Luke worried me.

“What do you need to say to us?” I stood on the other side of the bed.

“I think maybe we should do this after you get back,” she said, not looking at me.

Genevieve always held eye contact and it's why she felt so dominant. She never backed down, she went head first into a lot of things and her confidence was always shining. Except now, and I knew it was something bad.

“No, tell me now,” I snapped.

She finally looked up at me. “Camila, I don’t think now is a great time.”

“I think that is for me to decide,” I said, getting progressively more worried.

“Camy,” she sighed.

“Don’t Camy me, what did you do Genevieve?” I clipped.

“I had plans to see a client tonight,” she said softly.

My body froze at her words, my eyes stung and I clenched my jaw so hard it started to cramp.

“Nothing happened,” she said quickly. “It felt so wrong and I couldn’t stay, even though he insisted.”

“Insisted?” I snarled.

“He stressed that he had paid and he should get at least the deposit work of fun,” she said gnawing at her lip.

“Did he force?—”

“No, he grabbed my arm trying to keep me there, but I made sure it didn’t go further than that and threatened him if he ever came back to the Atelier,” she said. “Nothing happened.”

“But you went to go meet him. You were ok with doing something with him,” I said, my voice cracking. “Was this payback?”

“Payback?” She looked confused.

“Was this you showing us we were just clients, not even worthy of a fucking contract,” I said quickly, my heart hurting more. “Or did you want an easy way out? Because this hurts to think we were so easily replaceable.”

I cleared my throat as the emotions began to rise.

“I did it because I thought I had something to prove to myself.” She sat on the bed. “I did it because I was and am stupid for thinking all I needed was to meet with a client to prove I didn’t have feelings for you.”

My heart was racing as I digested the information. I know she didn’t do anything with him, but she still went to go meet him. She had every intention of doing whatever she went there to do.

“I know it was a shitty thing to do and if I had heard you guys went to someone else, I'd be furious,” she said, looking down. “So, I get it if this?—”

Luke walked into the room heading for the bathroom not even paying attention to us. He was about to close the door when he looked up at us.

“You are more than welcome to come with us, Genevieve,” he said. “I’d like for you to come if you can.”

He nodded and closed the door with a faraway look in his eyes. I closed my eyes wondering what this information would do to him. Luke was so loving and accepting, but I didn’t know about this. We knew we were falling for her, shit I think we might even love her. We knew the possibility of us getting hurt was high with Genevieve, but with what she just told me, would we ever be enough for her?

Genevieve played with the sleeve of her sweatshirt as I studied her. The power she had over us was high, and she didn’t even know it.

“You will not go,” I whispered as sternly as I could. “You will stay here and think about what you want. I want you to think about it until you are blue in the face because if we come back and you even have a minor hesitation, this is not happening.”

She looked me in the eyes.

“I can tell you that now I?—”

“No, you think about it, if we do this, then we do this together as a group,” I said not knowing what to call us. “That means you are mine and Luke’s, I am yours and Luke’s, and Luke is yours and mine. This means we are all in because if you do this shit again, Genevieve, I swear you won’t hear a word from us ever again. So, you better think long and hard about what you want.”

She looked shocked, but also looked a little proud.

“I understand, Camila,” she said confidently.

“I hope so because if you do this to us again further down the road, I don’t know if we would survive it, and if you aren’t all in, I have to protect Luke and I.” I sighed. “He doesn’t need to feel more guilty.”

I closed my eyes wondering if continuing whatever this was a bad idea.