Chapter 257
Hannah
The car ride home was tense, the silence broken only by the soft hum of the engine as Noah drove down the sunlit streets. I couldn’t shake the irritation that had been building since Leonard’s parting words. “Don’t forget to pick up Zoe tonight!” Bastard. So he had gotten under my skin after all; and to make matters worse, he wasn’t bluffing.
“Hannah,” Noah said, sounding exasperated, “come on. You’ve been staring out the window with your eyes practically bugging out for ten minutes straight.”
I shrugged and threw Noah a withering glare sharp enough to cut diamonds. “I just still don’t understand why you have to pick up Zoe tonight,” I said, my voice tense. “Can’t she find her own way to the gala?”
Noah sighed, his knuckles whitening as he gripped the steering wheel tighter. “I already explained it to you, Hannah. Her car broke down, and her usual driver is out sick.”
“So?” I pressed. “She can’t call a cab?”
He shook his head as he guided the car up the winding road leading to our mansion. “Like I said earlier, it would be unbecoming for someone of her status to order a cab to an event like this,” Noah replied in a clipped tone. “Plus, she’s scared after what happened with your kidnapping. She won’t call cabs or Ubers.”
My blood boiled. “Scared? She’s scared? You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“She’s allowed to be scared.”
“No, she’s not,” I growled. “I’m the one who was kidnapped, Noah. I’m the one who almost died. And I’ve been dealing with it without causing a scene or inconveniencing anyone.”
Even as I spoke, a chill ran down my spine. Just last night, I had awoken in a cold sweat because I thought I had seen Jake’s rotting corpse, dripping with water, standing in the corner of my bedroom. It was just a nightmare, of course. But I hadn’t breathed a word of it to anyone.
Noah’s jaw clenched, a muscle ticking visibly beneath his skin. “It’s not a competition, Hannah. Zoe’s feelings are valid too. Everyone is freaked out by what happened to you.”
“Yeah, well, you don’t see Amber or Viona or Emma whining about it,” I muttered, turning away. “And Amber is the one whose ex just died.”
Noah didn’t respond, not that I expected him to. When I chanced a glance at him, his face was stony and his gaze fixed on the road. And honestly, that infuriated me even more.
“You know, this whole thing reeks of Leonard,” I blurted out. “I bet he set this whole thing up just to upset me. You know he likes to get under my skin.”
“Okay, now you’re just being paranoid,” Noah said, wholly exasperated. “You do realize that Leonard has better things to do than meddle in our personal lives, right?”
I scoffed. “Leonard is the one who set up your little rendezvous with Zoe tonight, isn’t he, though?”
Once again, Noah didn’t respond. As we pulled up to the house, the gravel crunching under the tires, I made a decision. “I’m taking a separate car to the gala tonight.”
Noah turned to me and smacked his hands on the steering wheel. “Come on, Hannah, don’t be ridiculous. We’re supposed to arrive together. It’s expected of us.”
“Not if Zoe is our third wheel,” I retorted. “And besides, since when do you care about us showing up to events together, anyway?”
Before Noah could respond, I got out of the car and slammed the door. The sound echoed in the quiet driveway as I stormed into the house, ignoring the sensation of Noah’s gaze on me.