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“We’re going shopping,” Mom informed me with a smile. “I think you need a new outfit for your party tonight, don’t you?”
“I’m not really up to shopping, Mom,” I told her. What I really wanted to do was crawl into my dad’s lap and soak up his love for a few hours while we watched crappy old movies.
“Your dad went golfing with your uncles,” Mom informed me as if she could read my mind. “The younger kids are all over at Shane and Harper’s, and Arella is getting ready to go with us. So, hurry your ass up. We’re leaving in five minutes.”
Sighing, I looked down at my outfit. Skinny jeans with a hole in the left knee and the hoodie I’d stolen from Braxton the first week I’d moved in with him. It was my favorite hoodie, and sometimes I slept in it when it got really cold back in Northern Virginia.
“I’m ready,” I told Mom.
“Really?” Her brown eyes skimmed over my attire, and her lips pressed into a firm line. “Don’t you want to change that hoodie?”
“This is Braxton’s hoodie. I’m not changing it.”
Her eyes softened, and a sly grin teased at her lips. “Of course it is. Okay, then. Get your beautiful butt in the van while I go make your sister hurry up.”
“We’re meeting Emmie and Mia at the mall,” Aunt Layla informed me as we entered the garage and got into Mom’s minivan. It was spacious and always clean, no matter how hard Damien tried to destroy the interior every day.
I climbed into the back with Aunt Lucy, and by the time I had my seat belt on, Mom appeared with Arella. My younger sister was dressed in a skirt I knew our dad would have freaked over and a red sweater with thigh-high black boots. Her hair was pulled into a ponytail, but she’d curled the ends. With the makeup she had on, she looked like she was ready for a date, not a simple day of shopping with her family.
Knowing Arella, though, I imagined she was probably expecting to see friends from school at the mall, and she didn’t like to look anything but perfect around them.
We met Mia and Aunt Emmie in the mall’s garage. Marcus and Rodger, their bodyguards, were with them but thankfully dressed in casual clothes rather than their normal suits.
As soon as she saw me, Aunt Emmie threw her arms around me. “Happy birthday, sweetheart,” she said as she kissed my cheek.
“Thanks, Aunt Em,” I murmured.
As she stepped back, she put her arm around Mia’s waist. “Where to first?”
“Coffee,” Mom spoke. “I need caffeine stat.”
Mia’s face turned green, and she muttered a small oath but put on a bright smile and nodded her head along with the others who agreed that we needed to arm ourselves with drinks before we started shopping.
As we walked into the mall, I dropped back to talk to Mia. “How are you feeling?” I asked quietly.
She only gave me a look that was full of misery. “Kill me now.”
“Is it that bad?”
As soon as we walked through the mall entrance, she groaned and put her hand to her nose. “Worse,” she muttered. “These food smells are killing me.”
“But the food court is on the third floor,” I reminded her.
“Yeah, but it seems like my sense of smell is amplified. Mom told me she had the worst morning sickness when she was pregnant.”
I glanced at the others as they walked ahead of us. “You told her?”
“Just her,” Mia said with a nod. “Not Daddy yet.”
I stopped and turned to face her. “Mia, don’t you think it’s time to finally forgive your dad? It’s been two years, and he’s tried time and again to earn back your trust.”
Her chin trembled for a moment before she shook her head. “I’ve tried. Believe me, I really have. It’s just hard to get over what he did, Nev.”
“I understand, but you forgave Barrick. Why can’t you do the same for Uncle Nik?”
“Because…” She clenched her jaw and swallowed hard. “Because he broke my heart more than Barrick ever could.”
That made a lot of sense to me. Having your heart broken by your father—the man who was your first hero, the first man to ever love you wholeheartedly—that was a million times worse than any other heartbreak. Mia lost a part of herself when Uncle Nik betrayed her, and I didn’t know if she was ever going to get it back.
