Page 176 of The Way the Heart Breaks: Jade’s Story

“Can you grab me some clothes?”

“Of course. What would you like?” Jade asks.

“Period panties, and one of Lucas’s sweatshirts. I have a collection started.”

Lucas closes his eyes, and I know he feels some sort of pride because she wants him close.

A few minutes later, the bathroom door opens, and Jade backs out, closing the door quietly behind her.

When she turns a look of horror on her face could only be that face I told her about, the one I’d focus on when I wanted her to seem human, but nope, even that is pretty.

She looks at me, then Alex, then Lucas, and I can see the exact second she realizes we heard everything.

Her eyes narrow. “You heard nothing.”

Alex raises an eyebrow.

“Nothing,” she repeats, pointing between the three of us. “In fact, you should go.”

She runs upstairs and grabs something, then comes down and hisses, “Get out,” before cracking open the door and setting the clothes inside. She was fast, like super fast.

Alex glares at her. “You can’t kick me out of my house.”

Jade glares right back. “Then you better put on an Oscar-winning-fucking performance, Alex Worthington Ross.”

I bite back a laugh.

Alex opens his mouth, but Jade cuts him off with a look that could stop traffic.

From the bathroom, Tessa yells, “Jade!”

Jade turns toward the bathroom. “What?”

“Don’t forget the period panties!”

Alex’s eyes go wide. I look at Lucas. Lucas looks at me.

Jade closes her eyes for half a second, then runs back up the stairs and comes down hiding a hand under her shirt. I wonder if that’s the period panties…

She tosses them in and turns back to Alex, “Just go.”

Alex shakes his head, “My middle name is not Worthington; it's John.”

“Whatever,” she points at all of us, “Not a fucking world or I will castrate you.”

“Jade?” Tessa calls from the bathroom.

“Yeah?”

“I feel much better. No more tears. And thank you for forgetting my bra. The friction is⁠—”

Jade’s voice cuts her off. “Tessa, the boys!”

“The boys what?”

We hear Tessa laugh as she opens the door and when she sees us she looks horrified.

I feel like shit for even being alive right now… and I look at the floor. Lucas looks at the ceiling.