Page 4 of Against All Odds (Ember Falls #3)

three

Violet

“ A re you all settled in Chamber Falls?” Analeigh asks on the video call as I move around, putting the remainder of my clothes in the drawers. I’ve been here three days, and I’ve just finally gotten around to unpacking another suitcase.

“ Ember Falls,” I clarify with a laugh. “And I’m settling. The house has been closed off for so long that I’ve had a hard time getting things turned back on.”

“Like what?”

“Well, today I tried to figure out where to turn the pump on to get hot water. That was super fun.”

It really wasn’t fun, because I really don’t know how to do any of this stuff, but I’m learning in my newfound independence. Life is an adventure and all that.

Only it didn’t work, so I’m not sure what to do.

“You know you can come back here and stay with me.”

I appreciate her offer, I really do, but I can’t.

Hollywood is suffocating, and as much as people may think it’s this big city, it’s incredibly small.

In the five days I was back there to collect my things, I was hounded.

The press, people who claimed to be friends, old coworkers of Dylan’s who don’t like him and wanted to let me know more truths they saw.

I could feel myself dying inside as I stayed there.

Analeigh and Nick would’ve let me stay there forever, but I need to find my footing. I already took care of the biggest thing, getting a job and filing for divorce.

The rest, I figure, will work itself out in the next year.

“This is for the best,” I say, putting a shirt in the drawer.

“If you say so.”

Ana made it abundantly clear that she thought I should stay, but we’re not the same. She likes to fight, hence the fact she backed into my husband’s car after running over the lawn. There’s a part of her that is unwavering in revenge. I’m much different.

I could fight, but what for? I don’t want to be married to him. I have no doubt that it either wasn’t the first time he’s cheated or it won’t be the last. We don’t have children, and my lawyer said it should all be pretty simple as long as I’m not out for blood.

“I do say so. Things here are much easier, and I got a job in a good school.”

“They have teaching jobs in California, you know?”

I sigh and close the drawer. “Yes, and I have a free house here in Virginia. It’s a quiet town with no fucking paparazzi. No stupid cheating husbands and their mistresses who are intent on making my life unbearable.”

Her eyes soften. “I get it, I just wish it was closer.”

“I do too. I’ll miss you, but you can come visit.”

Trying to picture my bougie best friend in Ember Falls is kind of hilarious. She would’ve run out of here screaming if she saw this place.

Analeigh is the daughter of a famous musician and is married to the top plastic surgeon in Hollywood. She’s only ever known luxury, and even living her whole life with a silver spoon in her mouth, she’s the most generous and kind person I’ve ever met.

However, she likes her nice things.

“I can’t believe you went back to Virginia, though.”

“Well, where else was I going to go? My parents are in Peru or somewhere that they can’t talk to me.

Ember Falls made the most sense. Besides, if my granny were alive, she’d be where I would’ve run to anyway.

I wasn’t staying in Hollywood. I don’t need to watch Dylan and Whitney hook up and be the new celebrity ‘it’ couple. ”

Of course the press is spinning it to his favor.

He has a very, very good publicist, who clearly is earning her job.

According to the magazines today, I was the problem and Whitney is everything he needed.

It didn’t matter that we’ve been together since our senior year of college.

That he had a great job as an accountant and then quit one day, letting me know he was pursuing acting school.

Thanks to that, my job helped put him through the program, his copious amounts of expensive headshots, and auditions that he had to travel to get to.

But apparently I’m cold and indifferent.

My jealousy of his success was the failure of our marriage, and he should’ve left me years ago.

News to me.

Also, what kind of idiots are they when just two weeks ago they were posting photos of us on vacation? It didn’t look over then, even though, if they could’ve seen us in private, they would’ve seen the signs I was pretending weren’t there.

My stomach churns as I think about how stupid I was. How I excused everything away because I didn’t want to have a failed marriage. Little did I know I didn’t have a marriage to begin with.

“He’s so gross,” Ana says as she makes a gagging noise.

“Yes, he really is.”

“And he’s driving around in the car with the dent still. I called around all the local shops and offered them a bonus if they refused to get him in for a week.”

“Truly, your mind is a scary place,” I say with a laugh.

She grins. “It really is. The only good thing about this is that you were both poor when you got married, and there’s no prenup, so you get half.”

I snort. “Yes, such a good thing.”

Analeigh sits up, pulling the camera close. “I’m sorry, Violet. I didn’t mean it that way.”

I put the pile of jeans down on top of the dresser and flop on the world’s most uncomfortable bed with the phone in my hand. “I know that. Trust me, as vicious as you are, you don’t have a mean bone in your body for the people you love.”

“Has he called at all?”

“He left three messages the day I found out, as you know.” I made Ana listen to them and tell me the CliffsNotes.

Once I knew what he said, I listened to it at 4:00 a.m. that night and cried myself to sleep.

“Since then, he called once more, to tell me he got the papers and hopes I can be civil and mature.”

She snorts. “Oh, that’s rich.”

“Right? I swear, he’s not the same man I married. Like, where is the future accountant I married who couldn’t be bothered to make sure his shoes matched his outfit? I never thought he’d be the one to break my heart.”

Ana pulls her lips into a thin line. “Money and fame do crazy things to people. I’ve seen it so many times I’ve lost count. Look, take this time and just focus on yourself. You can’t fix Dylan. I’m not sure anything can. Do what makes you happy.”

“I don’t even know what that is.”

She smiles warmly. “That’s what this next year is for.”

“You’re right. Already, since being here, I feel lighter. I have always loved this town.”

“And the boy in it,” she says with a grin.

Yes, I loved the boy who lives next door.

I didn’t know if he’d still be here and I didn’t want to bring it up to Miles when I was here for my interview, so I just asked him not to tell anyone about my possible return.

Everett was destined for a great life. He’s smart and funny, and his baseball career was promising.

We used to sit at the field, lying on the mound under the stars, and create a fictitious life of what team he’d play for and where we’d live.

I honestly assumed he would leave Ember Falls.

Seems it was only me who did that.

Ember Falls holds some of my favorite memories. When my parents would bring me here each summer, my grandma and I would bake cookies. I’d learn a craft and spend time with Everett, Hazel, and Miles.

It was fun.

It wasn’t another archaeological site where I was doing my schoolwork as my parents dug holes in some ruins. Not that I hated my childhood, because it was really cool to get to go where we did, but I had no friends.

I didn’t get to go to school or even be around other kids. It was only when I was here that I felt like I fit in.

A part of me just wants that again, because I never fit in with Dylan’s crowd.

I smile at Ana. “I hurt him.”

“You were kids. Surely he isn’t still harboring anger about it.”

I shrug. “Maybe, but I left and completely threw Everett away because I was so afraid of him realizing that I wasn’t good enough and being with me was too much work. That he’d be in the spotlight and I would be in the shadows because he was meant to shine.”

Just like my parents did.

“The irony is not lost on me.”

“Me either. I didn’t even call to end things, I just stopped calling.”

Ana releases a long breath through her nose. “Again, you were like seventeen, and he didn’t exactly come chasing after you either.”

“Maybe not, but it wasn’t him who made the promises. It was me. I said I’d come to where he was, and then I got into USC and I didn’t think twice.”

I didn’t even talk to him about it. I committed to my school and wrote him a letter, because I was that much of a chickenshit.

“Have you seen him?”

I nod.

She perks up. “Well, is he still hot or did he age like shit?”

My mind recalls the way he looked in the coffee shop. His dark-brown hair that was pushed back, deep-brown eyes, and the dimple on his left cheek that I used to love to kiss. His body is lean now, but still muscular from what I could tell, and he’s tall, so much taller than I remembered.

“Yeah, he’s still hot.”

“Are you going to bang him?”

My eyes widen. “What?”

“Don’t look at me like that,” she scoffs. “Your husband has been sleeping with his mistress. You should hook up with someone. When’s the last time you had good sex?”

I ignore the question. “I’m not sleeping with Everett.”

“Why not? Is he married?”

“I don’t know.”

“If he’s not . . .”

I love Analeigh, but dear God she needs an intervention. “I’m not sleeping with him or anyone. I’m here to ... find myself, or at least find some peace away from Dylan.”

“Violet, I love you, you know this. I’m team Vi for life, but Dylan .

.. is a piece of shit. He somehow got a big break, considering he’s a mediocre actor, but he has a nice face, so he gets roles where people can look at him.

You wanted to leave him three years ago, but you stayed because he convinced you that you’d be lost without him.

Then the dickface cheated, and, like, for three years you’ve been in misery. Go find some joy.”