“Adalyn?” Cameron’s voice came again, a panicked edge in it this time. I heard his steps, then his hands were around my face. “You need to breathe, love.”
Was I not breathing?
Air got stuck in my throat, making me gasp and giving me an answer.
Cameron’s eyebrows knotted, concern twisting his expression. He was right. Cameron had been right all this time. This had to be a panic attack. And it was something I shouldn’t brush off. I should see someone about it. I probably had triggers I should know about. I—
“I need to leave,” I croaked. “It’s my father. Matthew’s email. I need to catch a flight back to Miami.”
His hands fell around my face. He tilted my face back. Met my gaze. “Breathe.”
He was right, I needed to do that.
“That’s it,” he said, as I limited myself to inhaling and exhaling big pulls of air. “Good job, darling.”
The noise in my head started to quiet down. The thumping in my chest gradually came down. But then, new emotions seeped in. Guilt. Sorrow. Shock. Cameron must have been so scared when found me like this. So concerned, so blindsided by… me. I shook my head.
“My father is selling the club.” The words left me in a gurgle. The pressure in my chest rose. I focused on Cameron’s face. On letting the green of his eyes ground me. “To David, according to what Matthew has been told by one of the journalists in his network. And it has to be because of me. It has to be because Dad has no other choice after I messed everything up. David’s probably blackmailing him in some way, using me as collateral again. He must be exploiting the situation I put the Flames in with the video. Otherwise, Dad would never do that. He…” Something crossed Cameron’s expression. “My father would never sell.”
“None of this is your fault,” he said with confidence. Determination. That urge to make it better, to take the concern away from me. “You hear me? Nothing. You’re not responsible.”
Those words brought relief, but he… Why wasn’t he more shocked? What had that emotion flashing through his face been?
“Adalyn,” he said. Slowly, carefully. “Yesterday—”
It hit me then. “You knew.”
There was silence. A silence I didn’t want to understand.
I leaned back. I looked at his face. At that handsome face I loved so much. Yes, I did love many things about Cameron. But I—I made myself speak through the thick lump lodged in my throat. Even if it was just to repeat the same two words. “You knew.”
Cameron’s expression wavered but I knew he wasn’t going to deny it. He wasn’t going to try and play it down, either. Cameron wasn’t that kind of man. “I didn’t know for sure.”
I felt like my legs might double under my weight.
My mouth opened and closed wordlessly, until I managed to summon my voice. “How long have you known?”
“A day,” he said. “But I didn’t really know. Not for sure.” He retrieved his hands, reluctantly, as if he knew I needed the space but was unsure about letting go. “Liam, my former agent. He’s the one who heard the rumors. He only mentioned it because the Flames asked about me.”
The Flames. They’d asked about Cameron? What else had I missed? Clearly, too much. “I didn’t know,” I murmured. “But I should have known. All of this.”
“I don’t think your father wanted you to know,” Cameron answered so simply, so easily, that a part of me wished to be mad. But I wasn’t. I was confused. And hurt. His arm reached out, but he stopped himself. His hand made a fist by his side. “It wasn’t really an offer, and had it come to that, you would have been the first person to hear before I considered it. But that’s not what’s upsetting you.” He paused, and I—God, why was I feeling so… lost right now? Why did I feel like everyone was keeping me in the dark about my own life? “I was going to tell you about the rumors, love. But I’m not going to lie to you, I was going to wait until later today.”
And that’s what I couldn’t understand.
I should be packing my bags right now. I should be on a flight, going back to Miami to fix this. To stop this. To tell my father not to let David manipulate him, that I knew about the bribing. That he shouldn’t sell. But instead I was here, trying to figure out why I felt so… heartbroken. Betrayed.
Needing to think, to order my emotions and the whirling thoughts in my head, I pushed away. I put distance between us and stopped at the counter at the opposite side of the kitchen.