Returning Red

#39: Kaboom.

it is time everything goes kaboom

Isabella

I'm frozen like a statue when Jacob's eyes stare through me after he looks up from his phone screen. I hadn't spoken to him after the talk in his room and I realized coming face-to-face with him right now was the wrong timing. 

I turn around but to my surprise, it's not just Mia and Liam who have followed us inside. I see the door behind Jason bolted from the inside. None of their faces look happy. It all carries a bucketload of question marks which I have no plans of clarifying today. 

"Bella," Jacob mutters and I give him my attention before Mia pounces on me. "Why has the precinct sent me a video as an email? It's CC'd to you as well, is something going on?" 

Shit, Richard Williams must have sent Jacob the retrieved CCTV footage tape. I feel Jason's presence at the far end of the ballroom and Jacob's on the other end. The wrong kind of middle to be in, metaphorically and literally. 

"Hey," Mia snaps and my eyes shut. I feel her steps advancing and I try to hunt for the nearest door. I see one on the wings of the ballroom. I'm about to run to it but she yanks my arm and Liam instantly takes the hint to go lock the side door. "No, it's a fucking resort you can't runaway here, Bella." She turns me around, clutching my arm rather tightly than she had to. She eyes Jacob with her teeth grinding against each other. "You got questions? Get in line." 

I could call Ryan and ask him to get me a jet that could pick me up from here before this mess gets out of hand. 

"Mia, I'll explain everything but not here," I whisper under my breath as I turn to her. I try to gesture to the people around us in the room to get her to stop talking. 

"Yeah, been there. Done that. The same person, if you've forgotten." She points to herself and my palm hits my forehead. "I've heard and believed that statement coming out of your mouth three times in the last four years but I've not got one explanation yet. I don't trust you to come back and explain things to me anymore. If I let you go now, you'll pack your bags and take the next flight out without a word, I don't even doubt it." 

Shit, she knows my moves too well by now. 

My other hand joins the already clutching hand on my forehead. I stomp my feet without glancing at Austin behind her. "I won't okay? I won't, I promise. Just not here, please." 

"Why not here?" She turns around and glances at every person in the room. "This room is filled with people who genuinely care for you. It's secondary that you don't give a shit about any of us but I still deserve a fucking explanation. You owe that to me." 

"Untrue," I shake my head as I scowl at her. "I care about all of you." 

She laughs, mockingly. She crosses her arms as she eyes all of them and then a long stare at my sister behind me on the stage. "Have you told them what happened then?" 

Mia woke up and chose violence today. She was either going to murder me in cold blood or she was going to test enough of my patience and I'd have no choice except to murder her in cold blood. 

My palms mitt and my jaw stiffen at the same time. "Don't," I shake my head very subtly.

"Aw, don't you care enough about your friends to tell them you fucking OD'd, you psycho?" My eyes shut at the same time I hear May curse. May cursed louder and Mia turned to her with folded arms. "Yes, I found her in the hospital. She had overdosed on fucking self-prescribed pills." 

"Those pills are self-prescribed?" I hear Jacob say from behind me and my knuckles crack. 

My eyes snap open as I stare right through Mia Sanders. She's spoiling my plan by cutting my roots one by one and I am not going to let that happen. "Stop talking," I warn her.