Juliana slid her sunglasses slightly down her nose. “Is this seat taken?”
“Yes,” Scarlett wheezed, still trying to recover. “Leave…go… Oh, God… Someone get me water.”
“Put your arms up to open your lungs,” Sonnet whisper-yelled before looking back at Juliana. She wasn’t in the mood to talk to this woman, and her omega was demanding she throw her coffee at her, but there was something in Juliana’s eyes. Sonnet didn’t know what, but she waved to the chair. “Sure.”
There was an awkward pause, the only sound being Scarlett painfully trying to recover from her choking incident. When she did, she scooted her chair closer to Sonnet protectively and tapped her nails onto the table relentlessly.
Juliana smiled, looking around the secluded outside space and removing her glasses. “I’ve never been here before. Are they any good?”
“Can you just get to the point of why you’re here?” Scarlett snapped.
My thoughts exactly.
Shh.
“I wasn’t planning on being here. I have an appointment and simply crossed your path by accident.” Juliana shrugged her shoulders like it was no big deal, but she kept fidgeting with the watch on her wrist. Her eyes were oddly gentle and sad when she looked at Sonnet. “How have you been, Sonnet? Since the party?”
“You mean since you outcasted Sonnet as the city’s next paid whore, demonized her mother, and told her in the worst way possible she was dead?”
“Scarlett,” Sonnet hissed, reaching for her hand under the table.
Julianna sighed, her eyes looking around as if trying to find words on the walls and floors. “I’ve been thinking about the party ever since it happened. It’s been like a nightmare for me. I’ve never been well-liked, and for good reason, I suppose. I’vealways done my own thing my own way, but I’ve never been terrible before. I was terrible to you, Sonnet.”
“No, shit.” Scarlett rolled her eyes before slouching in her seat. “Sorry, sorry.”
“Can I ask you why you said all those things to me in the first place?”
“I was jealous,” Juliana admitted, taking a long exhale. “I don’t know why. I’ve known even before those boys met you that we weren’t compatible. But like them, I tried to make it work, and all we ended up doing was hurting each other, and my hurt turned to humiliation and then loneliness. It’s hard to let go of what is eating at you until, after a while, you just let it.” Juliana leaned towards Sonnet, her expression like stone. “I’ve got some work I have to do, but I don’t want to be a terrible person. I am really sorry I chose to let my bitterness hurt you and your pack. I want you to know I’ve been working hard to help shut down some of those articles, and I promise I’ll never write one of my own again. It’s not much, but it’s what I’m offering right now in exchange for, hopefully, your forgiveness.”
Sonnet sat with her words for what felt like forever. For a split second, she wanted to hold on to her anger like a two-bladed grudge and wedge it deep inside Juliana’s back. But it took a few seconds longer to understand that Sonnet didn’t hate her. In fact, she could almost understand her. She appreciated her apology, and she appreciated her actions to change even more. After all, it was one thing to issue an apology out of guilt; it was another to own the consequences of your actions and learn from them to better yourself.
“I forgive you, Juliana. And I really hope that after you find yourself, you find an alpha to love you the way you deserve.”
Juliana’s face tightened as she tried to hold back tears. She cleared her throat and put her sunglasses back on. “Well, I'dbetter hurry off to my appointment. Thank you for your time, Sonnet.”
Juliana strutted away like the model she was, leaving Sonnet and Scarlett staring after her in disbelief.
Scarlett let out a long, heavy sigh. “You’re a much better person than I am, Sugar.”
She wasn’t too sure about that, but Sonnet had felt recently, especially after learning of her mother’s death, that life was too short to hold on to so much anger and sadness. Her heart wasn’t that big, after all, and if she let those emotions consume her, there wouldn’t be any room left for her mates and the people and things she loved.
Her phone rang, and a smile fluttered across her face as she read the message.
“Let me guess, your mates are howling at you to come home?”
“No,” Sonnet laughed. “But they do want to pick me up. Apparently, they have a surprise they want to show me.”
“Oh! Message me when you find out what it is.”
“Of course!” Sonnet pulled Scarlett into a tight hug and didn’t have to wait much longer for her four mates to come walking over, smug smiles on their faces, and excitement buzzing in the air.
Chapter 57
Blindfolded and given no hints, Sonnet could do nothing but sit in the car listening to the radio while Zayden drove. Even Jude was surprisingly quiet, trying to hold in whatever surprise they had planned for her. Sonnet could tell they were driving far out of the city, and even farther out of that when the car went from a smooth ride to rocky on a gravel path that didn’t last very long until they were parking.
“Can I take my blindfold off now?”
“Hang on,” Jude huffed.
