Page 40 of Her Beastly Billionaire Rock Star
Charlotte rubbed her eyes and sat up. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just need…um…the bathroom.”
“Do you need help?”
Her eyebrows rose to her hairline. “While I appreciate the helpfulness, uh, no.”
He snorted. “All right. Do you need anything?”
“Not at the moment…other than…” She slipped off the bed, darted into the bathroom, and shut the door.
“For the record, those with head injuries shouldn’t do anything fast,” he called after her. A few seconds later, all he could hear was water running.
Laughing to himself, he sat on the edge of the bed. When he wasn’t googling medical sites, he’d been thinking about their conversation in the hospital. She had so much confidence in him.
That doctor had implied her medication wouldn’t be safe with Malakai around, and she’d stood up for him. Zero hesitation. Since then, he’d seriously taken to heart the things she’d said.
He’d almost told Charlotte about the accident right there in the hospital room, but he didn’t want to make that choice without thinking long and hard on it. He didn’t want to regret telling her because he’d blurted it out in the heat of the moment.
Sunny had been amazing, lively, and bright, but her choices weren’t his fault. A statement easy to think but difficult to find peace in or put into practice. Why had he been able to beat his demons when she hadn’t? It wasn’t a question he’d posed to himself before. Was it fair that he had and she hadn’t?
Why had he been so willing to promise he’d keep her drug and alcohol abuse from leaking? Guilt? Was that the real answer? He took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Deep Thoughts with Malakai Handy?”
He lifted his gaze, and Charlotte was leaning against the bathroom doorframe, staring at him. He chuckled at the Jack Handy reference. “Yeah, I guess.”
She crossed the room and sat next to him. “Want to talk about it?”
Another deep breath. “I—” Did he? “Actually, yeah, I do. I’ve been thinking about things from before and after the accident and what you said at the hospital. I’ve carried so much guilt for so long. I’m finding myself wondering why.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. I was driving that night, but—” He stopped short. Now or never. “I…I was clean. I took a cab so I could drive her car so people wouldn’t wonder why her car was still at the club the next day.”
A gasp from Charlotte pulled his gaze up, and they locked eyes. “I knew it.”
“I thought I’d never tell this, but I’m not at fault for her choices.”
Shaking her head, Charlotte replied, “No, you aren’t.”
He scooted back on the bed and faced her. “She called me, begging me to pick her up. I’d been ignoring her calls because my sponsor told me she needed to hit bottom. That every time I bailed her out, it enabled her.”
“Your sponsor knew Sunny was in trouble?”
“No,” Malakai replied. “I kept her name out of it. Just that I had a friend in trouble.”
“Okay. Keep going.”
He shook his head and rubbed his knuckles down his jaw. “When I got there, she was out of control. She wanted to drive, and I refused. She called me the nastiest names I’ve ever heard, but I knew it was the disease. I wasn’t angry with her; I just wanted to get her help.”
Charlotte set her hand on his arm. “I’m sure you did. She was your friend.”
“She was. I loved her.” This time he inhaled deeply, held it a second, and then slowly released it. “She got physically violent with me. At that point, I knew she’d done something besides the normal. I didn’t know what, but it was completely uncharacteristic for her.”
“Wow. You don’t know what it was?”
“No, and I never found out. I wasn’t family, and if her mom knew, she wasn’t telling me, especially after I took the blame.” He’d asked through his lawyer, but her mother had denied his requests.
He continued. “She was hitting me and spitting on me. Finally, she calmed down enough that it felt safe to drive her home. I opened the door of the car, and it reeked of booze. She’d been intoxicated before she got to the club.”
