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Chapter 16
Eve
Fond only laughed at my suggestion that he let Sky go. “Guess you were telling the truth, Sky. This is Kingpin’s woman.”
Once Fond left us alone, I asked her. “Did you tell him it was my wedding day, too?” The fragile peace between us, shattered once more, gave way to a renewed bout of fighting. “How did you even know?”
“I still talk to my mom,” she answered.
Well, that was something. I didn’t get to speak to my brother, who was in hiding.
In the low light, our battle continued. Luckily, it was only verbal, each word laced with years of pent-up anger and pain. Sky’s eyes blazed with an intensity that matched her words. “You stole everything from me, Eve. Not just Kingpin, but my mother, the life I should’ve had.”
It was true Maddie Mae was a constant in my life, watching our kids even since she was with Kingpin’s brother. My sister-in-law as of last week. Sky’s accusations cut deep, but they were also full of truth, revealing her raw, unhealed wounds beneath. Rather than a simple rivalry, Sky felt a sense of loss so profound that it defined her very being.
I let her vent, realizing that this was more than just a fight. It was a catharsis for her. “Go ahead and tell me how you really feel,” I started to rile her up. If anything, this kept my mind off of worrying for my kids and my life.
Sky’s gaze locked onto mine, a storm brewing in hers that warned of the cyclone to come. She took a deep breath, sucking all the air out of the dimly lit room that seemed to still in anticipation of her words.
“You know, Eve, I’ve spent so much time trying to understand what he saw in you,” Sky began. “You waltzed into our lives, stealing not just Kingpin but the affection of everyone around you, including my own mother. My cousin and best friend. You took everything I should’ve had, everything that was meant for me.”
I bit my tongue, and she continued.
“You think you’re so special, don’t you? That you deserve the love, the loyalty, the life you’ve taken from me?” Her voice rose with her anger. “But you’re not. You’re just another bimbo, a thief, a usurper who’s played the innocent so well that everyone around you is blind to your deceit.”
Her words were like daggers, each one aimed with precision at my heart. But I stood my ground, letting her release the venom that had clearly been poisoning her from the inside out.
“Kingpin has always loved his whores, so I should’ve guessed he’d be onto the next blonde airhead who spread her legs for him. But it wasn’t just that. It was you and your crocodile tears…. Isn’t that what your country bumpkin ass calls fake tears?”
I remained silent, knowing that any defense would only fuel the fire of her accusations. Sky seemed to take my silence as agreement, pressing on with her cruel rant.
“And the worst part? You pretend to care, to be this nurturing soul, but all you’ve ever done is destroy. You destroyed my relationship with Kingpin. You’ve wedged yourself into my family, taking my place. And for what? For love? You don’t know the first thing about love. Love isn’t about taking someone who doesn’t belong to you. And not about destroying a man as honorable as Hallow.”
The intensity of her words, the depth of her bitterness, it was all laid bare right then and there. Sky’s pain, her sense of betrayal and loss, was all vomited out, aimed directly at me.
Yet, as I sat there, absorbing the brunt of her verbal assault, I found within myself a well of strength I didn’t know I had. Yes, her words were horrible, cutting deeper than I would have liked to admit. But I took them, let them wash over me without letting them drag me down.
Because, in the end, I understood. I understood the pain and the loss that fueled her anger. I’d lost Hallow’s baby, too. And while her hatred was directed at me, it was born from a place of profound hurt, a place I couldn’t help but empathize with, even as she wished me the worst.
Sky let out a cry. “Even when I lost my baby with Hallow, he claimed you did as well. He’s opened up about regrets and says that even though he loves me, he did you wrong. So, I can’t have anything, Eve. Nothing that you don’t up and take from me. Even my relationship with Hallow is full of reminders of you.”
I took it. I took every hateful word, every accusation, because I knew that sometimes, the only way through pain was to let it out, to give it voice. And if bearing the brunt of Sky’s pain could, in some small way, offer her a moment’s relief, then it was a burden I was willing to bear.
“Tell me about you leaving Hallow,” I urged gently, shifting the focus away from our shared bitterness to something, or someone, that was undeniably a pivotal part of her story.
Sky’s fire dimmed slightly as she spoke of Hallow, her voice softening. “We had a fight over you,” she admitted, the fight draining out of her as she continued. “I was rash, said things I shouldn’t have… But I love him, Eve. Despite everything, I love him. But I’m fucking tired of sharing a man with the likes of you. Hallow should hate you. The fact he doesn’t makes me question his love for me.”
Her admission hung between us. It was a moment of vulnerability for Sky, a crack in the armor she’d built around herself.
“How do you do it, Eve? How do you live knowing Kingpin still loves me?”
“Huh?” she’d gotten a rise out of me.
“Why else do you think your husband helps Hallow and me?”
“Of course, Kingpin loved you,” I said, correcting her. She was only trying to hurt me, and she’d almost succeeded. It was time for some real talk, like her cousin Leo likes to say. “Kingpin may still love you, Sky. I carry Hallow in my heart. I’m just not in love with him anymore.”
Then I held back, choosing not to hurt her, not to tell her about Hallow’s appearance last night. About his drunken accusations and his misplaced affection. It wasn’t the right time, and perhaps it wasn’t my place to ever reveal it.
