“Everything tastes amazing, Mrs. Miranda,” Julián said, pivoted with a grace I almost envied. He was refusing to get into the mud with Elliott, which somehow made Elliott look even more like a sulking villain.
I leaned closer to Elliott, whispering through gritted teeth. “Stop it. Right now.”
“Stop what?” he murmured back, leaning in so close his breath stirred the loose hairs by my ear.
“Being a prick. It’s my birthday.”
“I’m being a perfect guest, Ness. I’m even sitting where your father told me to.”
He finally shifted his gaze to me, and for a split second, the anger in his eyes flickered into something else—something dark and hungry and frustrated. It was the same look he’d had in the bedroom before I’d bolted. My heart did a slow, painful roll in my chest.
I looked back at my plate, but the food might as well have been sawdust. I felt like a prize in a contest I never signed up for, caught between a man who was perfect on paper and a manwho was a nightmare in reality—but whose hand was currently a fraction of an inch away from touching my shoulder.
My sister kicked me under the table and winked. She was enjoying this way too much.
“To Vanessa,” my dad suddenly announced, standing up with his glass raised. He was definitely on his third beer. “To myprincesa. May this year be better than the last, and may you finally realize how much you’re worth.”
Everyone cheered. Julián raised his glass to me with a wink. Elliott raised his too, but his expression remained grim, like he was the only one who knew exactly what the year ahead actually held for us.
I took a long drink of my wine. If I was going to survive the rest of this dinner, I was going to need a lot more of it.
twenty-two
VANESSA
A vibrator.
Penelope, in all her chaotic brilliance, had bought me a vibrator for my twenty-eighth birthday—and made me open it in front of my entire family. I looked at her pointedly while my parents looked like they wanted to dissolve into the nearest hedge.
“What? You obviously need it,” Penelope said, deadpan.
My cousins burst out laughing, and my sister had actual tears running down her face. It was exactly why she always made sure to invite Pen to family functions. Everyone else suddenly became fascinated by the texture of their napkins.
“I don’t doubt that I need it, Pen, but maybe you could’ve given it to me in private.”
“Yeah, that sounds a whole lot less fun,” she countered.
I didn't even try to argue. Penelope was bulletproof. Morgan and Pen had been friends for years and even she hadn’t been able to crack her armor.
Another gift was passed to me. It was in a store-bought box with little burgers printed all over it. I glanced up at my dad, and my heart sank. His eyes were already watery. When I opened the box, the world stopped spinning.
Inside was a single frame. It was a photo of me taking my very first step after the surgeries on my leg. My mom had taken it at the physical therapy center. My dad was right there in the frame, his hand hovering inches from mine in case I fell.
Tears pricked my eyes. My mom swiped at hers, trying to keep it together. My dad had always been the sensitive one, but seeing my sister Valeria crying, too, made me realize that my accident had affected them more than they ever let on.
“What is it?” Penelope shouted. “Nipple clamps?”
A few awkward chuckles broke out, but most of the table looked confused.
“It’s a picture,” I said, my finger tracing the glass. It had been ten years, but looking at that photo felt like yesterday.
“Just a picture?” Morgan asked, her eyes darting between me and my family, clocking the heavy emotion written across our faces.
“It’s the daymijatook her first step in physical therapy after the car accident,” my dad said, his voice hitching.
The bomb detonated.
Silence followed—the kind that rang in your ears. I felt Morgan, Penelope, and Elliott turn toward me like spotlights.
