Chapter 33: Gold Digger 101
"So." Vanessa lifted her wine glass, swirling the deep red liquid lazily before setting it back on the table. "How exactly did you and Justin meet?"
Every pair of eyes shifted toward me at once.
I smiled politely. "It was actually because of my documentary. My original partner dropped the project, and my professor refused to let me change topics." I glanced briefly at Justin. "Justin agreed to let me film the hockey team. It gave me the access I needed."
Vanessa hummed. "And then?"
"He turned out to be a lot kinder than everyone made him sound." I looked at Justin when I said it. He looked down at his plate, but I caught the corner of his mouth lifting anyway. "He really surprised me."
Vanessa let out a soft laugh. "Did he?"
"Yes."
"That’s interesting." She rested her chin on her hand, taking her time. "Because Justin has dated quite a few girls." She paused, letting the silence do its work. "I mean, he is the hockey captain." Her eyes drifted lazily toward Justin. "Girls practically throw themselves at him." Then back to me, sweet as anything. "Are you sure he’s really that different?"
Justin quietly set down his fork. "Vanessa."
"What?" She blinked innocently. "I’m just making conversation."
She looked back at me and smiled again, the kind of smile that had been carefully assembled over years of practice. "You know, he’s my stepbrother. So I probably know him better than anyone sitting at this table."
The room fell quiet. I stared at her for a long moment, long enough to feel the table watching me, long enough for the silence to become its own kind of answer.
Then I slowly placed my fork on my plate. The soft clink echoed through the dining room. I turned fully toward her.
"If Justin is your stepbrother," I said, keeping my voice completely even, "then why were you all over him in the parking lot last week?"
Her smile faltered.
"I saw you." I didn’t raise my voice. I didn’t need to. "You were pressed against him. You kept touching his shoulders. You leaned into his ear. You looked like you were moments away from kissing him." I tilted my head. "So if that’s your stepbrother standing there, why exactly were you acting like some random puck bunny trying to get his attention?"
The silence that followed was suffocating.
Vanessa’s face drained of color so completely I almost felt sorry for her. Almost. Across the table, Justin had gone completely still. His grandmother blinked. His grandfather slowly lowered his fork. Even Mr. Hayes looked up from his plate, which I suspected didn’t happen very often.
Vanessa opened her mouth. Nothing came out. She looked toward her mother. Still nothing.
I waited, holding her gaze with a patience I didn’t know I had in me until right now.
Finally, I nodded once. "I thought so."
Justin’s father’s wife cleared her throat sharply. "Justin." Her voice carried a warning that was probably used to landing. "Talk to your girlfriend."
Justin turned his head slowly. His expression was colder than I’d ever seen it, colder even than when he’d faced down Ethan on the ice. "No."
Just one word. The woman blinked like she hadn’t quite heard correctly.
Justin picked up his fork again. "She asked a fair question."
Vanessa looked like she’d swallowed something that didn’t agree with her. No one at the table spoke. For the next several moments, the only sounds in the room were the quiet clink of cutlery against china and the distant hum of the music still drifting through the hidden speakers.
Beneath the table, Justin’s hand found mine. His fingers curled gently around them, warm and steady. Then he gave my hand the smallest squeeze.
"Thank you," he whispered, so quietly only I could hear it.
I looked at him. He wasn’t smiling, but there was something in his eyes I hadn’t seen before. Not relief exactly. Something deeper than that. Like a person who had been waiting a long time for someone to simply say out loud the thing everyone else had been carefully stepping around.
I squeezed his hand back. "You don’t have to thank me."
"I do." His voice was barely audible. "No one’s ever said that."
Something in my chest tightened in a way I couldn’t quite name.
Across the table, Vanessa stabbed unnecessarily hard at a piece of chicken. Her mother reached over and touched her arm, and whatever passed between them was quiet enough that nobody else caught it.
Justin’s grandmother was the first to break the silence properly. She smiled at me with the particular warmth of someone who had decided she liked you and wasn’t going to be talked out of it. "You’re a lovely young woman."
"Thank you," I said, genuinely meaning it.
"I can see exactly why my grandson likes you." She glanced at Justin with the affectionate exasperation only grandmothers can pull off. "We’ve been hearing about you for weeks."
I turned to Justin. "You’ve been talking about me?"
He coughed into his drink. His grandfather chuckled. "Oh, constantly," his grandmother said, looking completely innocent about it. "We hardly ever get to see him anymore. We only came tonight because we wanted to spend some time with our handsome grandson." She reached across the table and patted my hand warmly. "And finally meet the beautiful girl who managed to distract him from hockey."
Laughter rippled around the table, genuine this time. Even Justin laughed quietly, a real one, the kind that reached his eyes. For the first time since we’d walked through that front door, the room actually felt warm. His grandparents weren’t permanent fixtures in this house. They’d come specifically to see him, and that realization made something click quietly into place. Justin had people in this family who genuinely loved him, even if everything else about the evening suggested otherwise.
Then Mr. Hayes folded his napkin neatly beside his plate. He picked up his glass, took a measured sip, and set it down without hurry.
His eyes settled on me.
The warmth evaporated.
"So." His voice was calm, unhurried, and completely without warmth. "Harper. Tell me about yourself."
Every muscle in my body went still. Across from me, Vanessa smiled, slow and deliberate, like she’d just been handed exactly what she’d been waiting for all evening.
Somehow, that simple question felt like walking straight into a trap.
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