Climb on My Stepfather (Ashley and Alex)

Chapter 67

19: Lia.

I'm never leaving my bedroom again.

Maybe I'm not ready for adulthood or college or big decisions. Maybe I'm just a stupid, eighteen-year-old kid. What was I thinking, trying to scheme Tristan into a relationship? He doesn't want a child for a girlfriend. Sex is one thing, but going public when his persona is so important to his multi-billion-dollar company? I was naive to think that was ever a possibility.

Still wearing my bikini, I roll over and bury my face in a pillow. It's wet from my tears and I dive headlong into another crying jag now, the sound muffled.

I miss Tristan.

I love him so much.

Even now I could be carrying his baby. What a scandal that would be. I'm sure if I'm pregnant, it'll be kept hush hush and I'll be shuttled abroad somewhere until I can deliver the baby, passing it off as a distant relative or something.

Or maybe Tristan will want full custody. Who is going to fight him when I'm the teenager who tricked him into sleeping with me? Into..everything. He never cared deeply about me. It was all in my eager imagination.

And I deserve this. To be alone and humiliated.

I lied to him.

I manipulated him into a sexual relationship with me after he explicitly said no. But I just thought...I swore if we just had some time together as adults, the love inside me would be contagious. It's so big and mighty. How can it not be?

While Tristan was away on his business trip, I started to doubt my dreams. I started wondering if being with Tristan, as his real girlfriend, was far-fetched.

It made me so depressed, so nervous, I stopped answering his calls-and then when I saw him at the country club, I immediately called myself a moron for not spending every single second possible with him, in any capacity I can get. But the consequences of those lies were beginning to come to a head, making him doubt my intentions. Making him doubt me. I waited too long to tell the truth and there is nothing I can do to fix the damage I've done.

He must hate me.

Or he's laughing at me, thinking my love is nothing more than a crush.

And worse, I've made things awkward between Tristan and my father, to say nothing of how I'll ever look my father in the eye again after he caught me and Tristan having sex. Eric will probably hate me and who can blame him? I've let my infatuation, my obsession with this man turn me into a liar. A girl who will stop at nothing to get what she wants.

I bolt upright in bed when my phone starts to vibrate on the bed beside my hip. Reaching down, I pick it up, wincing when I see Eric's name on the screen. I'm definitely about to get an earful, but it's going to happen sometime, isn't it? Might as well be now.

With a blown-out breath, I answer the phone. "Eric...I'm sorry. I—"

"Can you come downstairs?"

"So you can yell

it turns into a quiet laugh. “Just come

white summer dress over my bikini, sliding my feet into sandals. I catch a glimpse of my tear-stained face in the mirror on my way out, but no amount of makeup is going to fix it. There is no one waiting in the foyer, so I open the door myself and come

"Hey," I say miserably.

shakes his head, a hard gleam in his eye. "What were

voice is unbalanced. "It started out as a crush on your dad, but then it just...snowballed. And then I couldn't breathe unless I saw him at

he the

I reach

my best friend because I adore you. I

just had to make sure you love me as much

"I do."

shakes his head. "It's going to take a long time for me to get used to saying

heart sinks down to my knees. "I don't think you'll have to get used to anything. He's never going

hand on my shoulder and squeezes. "Don't be so sure." He tugs me toward the steps where his car is

confusion. "Where are

answer, simply opening the passenger

the flame immediately, afraid how crushed I'll be if Tristan isn't on the other side of this car ride. Still, without any keys or even my phone, I move as if

the city, the

deserve. I'm trying to suppress any more dangerous hope from rising to the surface, but the closer we get to our destination, the tighter my throat gets. Especially when we drive right past the hotel where Tristan and I

are you

look, he doesn't answer. But then he parks in front of Wonderbluss. The art installation center I took Tristan

my ribcage, my

he in there?" I sob. "Does he forgive

that's a safe

out of the car and go running. I start to open the door of Wonderbluss, but someone opens it for me first. It's my...father?

And they're dressed up.

and

made a mess of things," I say,

my father sighs, his mouth ticking up at one corner. "Luckily, not all mistakes lead

swallow. "I'm sorry you saw...what

we just pretend that never happened, huh?" We both laugh a little uncomfortably, stopping when he jerks his head at the velvet curtain separating the entrance from

I give my parents hugs and dash toward the curtain, throwing myself through it into the hallway. I don't bother trying to smooth my hair or get the wrinkles out of my dress. I only care about getting through the orange

hands on me,

him to be standing on the other side of