Page 81 of The Publicity Stunt

Her brother, Brandon, steps forward. "Same old Brianna. Always the ungrateful, spoiled brat."

"Yeah, you think you're better than the rest of us because you live in a fancy apartment in New York while we're a family of five barely making ends meet in a three-bedroom house?" her other brother, Mark, says.

"The house has six bedrooms and five bathrooms. And you still live at home? Brandon, you're over thirty. And Matt? Aren't you, like, twenty-eight?" Tessa interjects.

"Twenty-nine last week," Bri says. Her head nods to Todd. "And he's twenty-three."

Tessa laughs. "Yeah, you have it hard. Your sister stopped paying for everything like she did when she was younger and too young to have a say in her finances. Then again, I know how much your parents took from her, so the fact they lost fifteen million shortly after they no longer collected her paychecks, it's not exactly your sister you should be mad at. She more than paid them back. With a thousand percent interest."

"You're a bitch," Todd says and steps forward.

"What are you gonna do, Todd? Hit me? I kicked your ass when you were twelve, and I can do it again," Tessa says, stepping forward.

"Don't worry, Tessa. You're not the one I'd like to smack."

Kace tosses down the board he holds and steps forward, forcing Todd backwards. "What'd you just say? Did you just threaten Bri Waters?"

"No, I said I'd like to smack my sister."

The media swarms around them all, and Bri wants to curl up into a hole. Kace doesn't back down, though, and her security team also starts closing in on her family.

"Your sister is Bri Waters. I don't give a shit if she's your sister or not, you never hit a woman. And you never even threaten it. Not unless you want your ass handed to you."

"You think you're tough? Wait until I kick your ass for threatening my brother," Brandon says, backing Todd up.

"Brandon, are you serious right now?" Tessa asks with a laugh. "Do you see him? He's the size of a three-story house while you're a freaking porta-potty."

Bri hurries to stand between Kace and her brother as the rest of the Bootleggers and Twisters back up her ex. "Stop it! Everyone, stop it. Kace, he wants you to hit him to sue you. My family will do whatever they can to try and get money in any way other than actually working for it. Don't let him sucker you into it."

"He threatened you."

"And it's not your battle to fight. Not anymore," she says and turns to her family. "And I'm done fighting. If you want nothing to do with me because I stopped paying your way through life, I'm done hoping you come to your senses and decide to love me. Not anymore. I know what real love is, and I know what a real family is. This? This isn't it."

Her father laughs. "From him? Your fake boyfriend?"

"It wasn't fake for me. But I'm not talking about intimate love. I'm talking about familial love. Mr. Hanks was always there for me the way you should have been. He's the father you stopped being a long time ago, and it kills me to know he's gone. You walked away when I no longer served a purpose for you, but he stayed. And he never wanted anything from me. He just wanted to be there to see me succeed. You wanted me to succeed to profit from me, and this isn't worth my effort anymore."

Turning, she motions for everyone to leave her family alone, and Kace pulls her to the side. "Are you okay?"

Her eyes take in his even more muscular body, and Bri knows Nia wasn't lying about Kace putting on some muscle. He looks good. Really good. Plastering on her fake smile, she squares her shoulders. "I'll be fine. Thank you, guys, for coming to help. It means more than you'll ever know."

"I called the moment I saw Mr. Hanks' name on the screen of fatalities. How are you holding up?"

Tears fill her eyes, and her lip quivers. "You know, you'd think I'd be used to losing people in my life by now, but I never thought he'd be one of them. This one hurts. It really, really hurts. His funeral's next week, and they've asked me to sing at it. I have to somehow figure out how to do that without falling apart. But that's what I do, right? Luckily, I've gotten practice recently on performing like my heart isn't completely shattered."

Her words affect him, but he doesn’t snap back at her like she wishes he would. Having him angry would be so much easier to deal with than being so damn nice.

"You don't have to put on a front. I think everyone knows and expects you to be upset."

She sniffles and steps out of his reach, forcing him to drop his hand from her arm. As much as she loved the feel of his hand on her, she doesn’t have the strength to stay steadfast in the decision she knows was the right one. "Thank you again, Kace. I'll be fine. Don't worry about me."

Hurrying away, Bri climbs into the SUV and feels like she just ran a marathon. Her heart races, her lungs scream for air, and she wonders if she might pass out. She needs to get away from here and get herself together before she can even think about facing Kace again.

"That was awesome!" Tessa says as she climbs into the vehicle. "Did it feel good to finally tell your family off for once?"

She lets out a breath. "It was really cathartic, yeah. It needed to be done, but I never realized just how selfish and lazy they really are until today. I just hope the press doesn't tear me apart."

"I don't think that's a problem," she says and scrolls through her phone. "Babe, they're praising you. Oh, this is even better because your mom, dad, Brandon, and Todd are getting roasted. They'll never get a dime to talk shit again."

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