Page 84 of My Brother's Best Friends
Bryan isn’t exactly thrilled about what happened with Melanie, though his main issue is that we kept it from him. He understands the NDA, and he promised to loop Callie in, too.
“Uh-oh,” I mumble, noticing the look on her face. “Guys…”
Someone else got to Callie first—of course. Melanie lined up her ducks while we were still tripping over ours. From the moment she arrived, she had a strategy—and her sister was always going to be part of it.
“Where’s Makayla?” Bryan asks. “I couldn’t find her anywhere.”
“Neither could we,” Oscar replies, rubbing the back of his neck while his eyes search both Bryan and Callie’s faces. “She checked out.”
Callie scoffs, crossing her arms and leveling us with a sour glare.
“It doesn’t surprise me—not after what you did,” she says, her voice thick with anger.
“Melanie got to you—” Oscar begins, but Callie cuts him off with a raised hand.
“Don’t you dare!”
Bryan drops his gaze. “Yeah. She did.”
“No.My sister told me what happened,” Callie says.
“I tried explaining your side—” Bryan starts, but Callie barrels on, and I have no idea where this runaway train is going to crash. Right now, we’re powerless to stop it.
“No.You three,” she says, jabbing a finger at us. “You landed in trouble with Melanie. I don’t care about the settlement, the NDA—whatever. The fact that things got that far tells me everything I need to know.”
“Callie, hold on. It’s not like that,” I say, inching away from the reception desk toward a quieter stretch of hallway—we don’t need an audience for this. “Melanie lied through her teeth.”
“Oh, good, call my sister a liar again, see how that works out for you,” Callie snaps.
Kellan groans. “Dammit, Callie, she lied. We never assaulted her. Everything was consensual—until she decided to blackmail us.”
“And Makayla? Why’d she leave?”
At the mention of his sister’s name, Bryan’s eyes go wide. He knows about the tryst with Melanie, but he sure as hell doesn’t know about our relationship with Makayla. My stomach tightensas he looks at me. “What about Makayla?” he asks, his voice barely a whisper.
“Whatever Melanie told you, Callie, it’s not true. I swear, you can always ask Kay—” Kellan tries his best to appease her, but to no avail.
Bryan’s temper spikes as he puts the wrong two and two together. “What. About. My. Sister?” he grinds out.
“Why did she leave?” Callie presses, though I’m sure Melanie already filled that blank.
“Callie, what is this?” Bryan asks, then turns those confused eyes on us, and it damn near breaks my heart. “Dammit, guys, talk to me.”
“After we spoke,” she tells him, her voice softening, “I went over to talk to Melanie. The account she gave me is different, and I’m sorry, but she’s my sister. She’s got a respectable profession, no need for the money she got from the settlement. It was about getting justice. She showed me a receipt… Melanie donated the settlement money to a charity that helps abused women.”
Oscar scoffs and pinches the bridge of his nose in frustration. “My God, she did her homework and then some…”
“And Melanie told me she saw Alex, Kellan, and Oscar… with Makayla,” Callie adds.
Bryan’s jaw hits the floor.
“Hold on, Callie—don’t—” I try, but it’s too late.
“You did to Kay what you did to Melanie,” she says, shaking her head. “You lured everyone in with your smarts, your looks, yourkindness, your money—whatever—but underneath, you just use women. Share them, then dump them. It’s horrific.”
“It wasn’t like that,” I say. “Everything we did with any woman we met was consensual. Always consensual.” I look at Bryan. “You have to believe me.”
His answer is a left hook.
