Page 110 of Diary of a Biker Queen

She scowled at him but took them anyway.

Which left him with the biggest package of them all, a large rectangular box. He peered at the label on it. “Nyah. Yours.”

I squinted at him. “I’m not expecting anything.”

Unlike Kiki, I didn’t care for online shopping.

Chirp shrugged and waved it in my direction anyway. “It’s got your name on it. Unless there’s another Nyah Matish hanging around here.”

I forced my lips into something that resembled a smile and took it from him, since he was just doing his job, and it wasn’t his fault I was only here in body but not spirit.

The other women were all peering over Queenie’s shoulder to see something in the magazine she’d flipped open. I ran my nail beneath the tape on my package, finding the end and ripping it off so I could open the box.

I let out a little gasp as the contents were revealed, and all the other women looked over at me simultaneously.

Violet frowned. “What is that?”

I pulled out the white lace and satin monstrosity, but I had known from the first glimpse. “It’s my wedding dress.”

I didn’t think I’d ever said a sentence so flatly. But that was exactly the emotion that dress evoked in me.

Nothing.

All the women stared at me, nobody knowing what to say.

I waved a hand around dismissively. “Let’s go on with the Thanksgiving planning.”

They reluctantly did, but I couldn’t stop the way my fingers clenched into the fabric of the dress. The tiny beads dug into my skin painfully, but my grip only tightened more.

I shoved to my feet. Like I was on autopilot, I moved stiffly to the door and took the van keys from the hook on the wall.

Nobody tried to stop me from walking out and into the parking lot. Violet finally caught up with me as I was hauling my too-heavy body into the driver’s seat and fiddling with the controls so I could actually reach the pedals.

She flung open the passenger-side door. “I don’t know where you’re going, but I’m coming too.”

I didn’t try to convince her otherwise. I didn’t have it in me. I just nodded, waited for her to put her seat belt on, then got the van moving toward the gates. Herb was on sentry duty, and he took one glimpse at my expression before he opened the gates and let me pass through without a word.

We drove for hours in silence. Violet tapped out a couple of messages on her phone, no doubt letting her men know we were on the road to somewhere or maybe sharing her location with them. But she didn’t ask me where we were going or try to make idle chitchat to fill the silence. She let me be and just sat silently in support.

I’d never loved her more for understanding what I needed without me having to say it. Her presence was enough.

I don’t think she was surprised when I pulled the van into the driveway of my parents’ house. I yanked the box with the overflowing wedding dress from where I’d tossed it in the back and stormed to the front door, glaring at my father’s butler, silently daring him to challenge me.

He was smart enough not to. He nodded to me like it was completely normal for me to stomp into my parents’ residence with my arms full of fluffy white tulle.

“Mom!” I shouted from the foyer, pausing for a moment to wait for her response. When there wasn’t one, I barged up the stairs, Violet at my heels. “Mom!”

She came walking out of her bedroom in one of her ridiculous “house” dresses that verged on being a formal gown. Her face was fully made up, and her hair neatly brushed, as always. “Nyah?”

I thrust the dress at her. “Don’t act like you’re surprised to see me. What did you think would happen when you sent me a fucking wedding dress!”

She didn’t attempt to take it, forcing me to continue holding it or drop it on the floor.

Her eyes narrowed shrewdly. “Your wedding is in a matter of days, Nyah. Don’t you think you’ll be needing it?”

“I’m not getting married!”

Violet stood wide-eyed beside me, her gaze bouncing between my mother and me, her shock written all over her face. “Who would you be marrying?” Her voice was so small it was barely a whisper.