Page 129 of My Undead Love Life

Mad ignored him. “What are you actually afraid of?”

I looked away. The snow moved over the city in faint, drifting lines. Somewhere below, metal clanged softly in the wind. I focused on that instead of the pressure building in my throat. “What if she changes her mind?”

“About what?” Mad asked, even though he knew damn well what I meant.

“About us.” The words felt pathetic once they were out.

Luck shifted back and forth on his feet, boots crunching. “She didn’t seem unsure.”

“She just found him again,” I snapped, finally turning toward them. “The guy she thought was dead. The guy she’s been in love with longer than she’s even known us. You really think that changes nothing?”

“It changes things,” Mad said evenly.

I let out a hollow laugh. “Yeah. Exactly.”

“But not like you’re thinking.”

“You don’t know that.”

Mad’s jaw tightened. “I know her.”

“So do I,” I shot back. “But it doesn’t stop the possibility that she doesn’t need us anymore.”

Mad took a step closer. “You think she’s going to leave?”

“…Yeah.”

Luck exhaled slowly. “Oxi.”

“I can’t help it,” I said, and there was too much rawness in my voice now. “I do feel like she’ll leave us for him. She had him before us. He was enough for her. Why would she need us?”

The wind moved over the roof, pushing snow against our boots.

Mad stared at me for a long moment. “Why do you think that?”

I looked at him sharply. “I just told you.”

“No,” he said. “You told me what you’re afraid of. Why do you think it?”

My throat tightened. Because my mother had only ever chosen the people who hurt me. Because Olivia had been turned against me. Because every time I thought I mattered to someone, something came along and proved I mattered less than I wanted to.

I had just started to believe Spencer might keep me, and then the universe handed her back the man she had been mourning. If there was a choice between me and someone else, I had never been chosen.

I looked back toward the dead city. “Because why would I matter anymore?”

Mad’s voice changed, not soft exactly, but heavier. “You think she looks at you like you don’t matter?”

I swallowed hard. “I…maybe not yet.”

“Not yet,” Luck repeated, like the words offended him. “You think she stood up to your mother like that for someone she’s just going to toss aside?”

My throat worked. I shrugged. “She’s kind. Maybe she would.”

Luck made a frustrated sound. “She called herself your girlfriend in front of your mother.”

“She was defending me.”

“She was claiming you,” Luck said bluntly.