"Called me what?"
Devon shakes his head. "It doesn't matter. What matters is that she's escalating. Officer Gray is pushing the order through today, but?—"
"What did she call me, Devon?"
Why do I even want to know?I’m a sucker for punishment.
He closes his eyes. When he opens them again, they're wet.
"Fat and tired. The same shit she always spouts—but you’re fucking beautiful, Jade.”
The words land where they always do—right in the center of me,the place I've been trying to protect my entire life. It’s like Devon’s compliments don’t matter when her words are around.
Right.I need to breathe.
"Jade—"
"She was there—at my work? Watching me pour drinks and wipe down tables and—" I’m yelling at him now. "She waswatchingme, Devon, and I didn't even know. Do you know how fucking violating that is?!”
I think about last night. Samuel at the bar, then the comments flooding my phone. How tired I felt. How sick of everything I was. When Devon came and picked me up because I was a wreck on the floor.
And Mila was there somewhere, taking notes.
Fat and tired.
She's not wrong, is she? I am tired. I'm so fucking tired I can barely stand. And my body?—
I look down at myself, already detesting what I see.
"Hey." Devon's hands find my shoulders. "Don't do that."
"Do what?"
"Go wherever you're going right now. In your head."
But I'm already there. I'm eighteen again, standing in the locker room while Mila's laugh echoes off the tiles. I'm standing in front of our bathroom mirror at three AM, listing every flaw like a grocery receipt. I'm watching pregnant women in supermarkets and pressing my hand against my empty stomach, yearning for a family.
"Jade. Look at me."
I can't. If I look at him, I'll fall apart completely.
"She's pregnant," I whisper.
Devon's grip on my shoulders tightens. "Baby?—"
"Don't." The word comes out harsher than I mean it to.
But fucking hell—everything is falling apart around us.
How much I wanted a baby, and now Mila—Mila who made my life hell, who wanted my husband, who kissed him on our anniversary—she gets the one thing I've been desperate for, and says it’s Devon’s!
The sob that tears out of me is ugly, but then it matches my looks, doesn’t it?
I sink to the kitchen floor, and Devon follows me down. He wraps his arms around me and pulls me against his chest, and I let myself break.
"I wanted it so badly," I choke out. "A baby.Ourbaby. I've wanted it for so long, and I couldn't tell you because you kept saying we needed to wait, we needed to be stable, and I was scared you didn't want it at all?—"
"Jade—"
