Page 201 of The Way the Heart Breaks: Jade’s Story

“I know that too.” She grabs a stuffed animal, a baby bear, and holds it to her chest. “So, you decided to break into my bedroom?”

“I prefer to think of it as an emergency entrance.”

She just stares at me. “That's not helping, is it?”

“No.”

“Okay.” I rub my hands over my face. “I wasn't trying to be a creeper, pretty girl. I just needed to know you were okay.”

Her expression softens, just a little. “You could have waited until morning.”

I shake my head. “We say goodnight every night. It doesn’t feel right not talking to you.”

She sighs and leans down, resting her face on the top of the bear's head. “I hate him.”

“Lucas,” I say quietly, and she makes a slight humming sound. “But you love me.”

“Yeah, sure, but love doesn’t work like that, not the love I want anyway.”

“Doesn’t work like what, Jade?”

“You and him, you’ve lived a much different life than we have.”

“How so?” I ask, trying not to sound as fucking annoyed as I am.

“You saw Tessa the other night; that was in response to seeing her mother on a date with another man. Cheating, it’s not okay.”

“I need you to listen to me when I tell you. I would never⁠—”

“Where do you go when you say you’re working with your father?”

“To work, with my father,” I answer calmly, but I sure as hell don’t feel calm.

“Why don't you want me to meet your parents? Your sisters? Am I a secret because I don’t get my hair dyed red at some fancy Stoneville salon or⁠—”

“If you dyed your hair red, I would be fucking devastated. My sisters,” I shake my head. “They’re bitches. And before you think, Stoneville, and uppity type bitch, like my ex, they are not. They’re manipulative, and nasty, and I don’t want anyone I love around them.”

“Has Lucas met them?”

“Jade, my best friend since I can remember having friends, has met them, but in the past five years, he hasn’t seen them once, and I avoid them at all costs.”

“Why?” she asks.

“Pretty girl, because they are horrible people.”

“Do they live at home?”

I shake my head. “They have a place in Binghamton. Lucy is in her last year of school, Amy goes there too.”

“And you hate both⁠—”

“I despise Lucy. Amy?” I shake my head. “I love her, but she acts just like her.”

“And your parents?”

“My Dad is the most laid-back, kind-hearted man in the world, but he won’t look at her and tell her, stow the bitch, when she needs her man to do that.”

Her face scrunches up. “With love, Jade, if I acted like my mom and you don’t put me in check if I started acting like her, I would be disappointed.” I look down and shake my head. “I wish I had what you and your Dad have with one of them. I wish the same for Lucas and⁠—”