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“Hey.” Kooper stands quickly and moves to Ruby’s back. Not shielding her, but supporting her if she should need it. “You don’t get to talk to her like that.”

I wave him off. He’s not even on my radar anymore. I’m done with him. “Oh, shut the fuck up, Dixon.” I can hear the collective breath from the crowd from me using his real name. Something I doubt I should know, but I do. I know quite a bit about a lot of them. Like I said, I was invisible to them. There’s power in that. “I can talk to her however the hell I want to. Especially after the shit she just pulled.”

Ruby shakes her head and talks to me like a child, just pushing my anger higher. “Actually, you don’t, and what shit are you talking about? I’m not the one lying and hiding things.”

“Really? You really want to go there?” I look her over with a single eyebrow raised, and when she says nothing, I throw my hands up and turn to walk away. It’s not worth it. The memories I have of our time together will have to be enough. Arguing and airing her shit to the club will do nothing for me in the end. It won’t get her back as a roommate. It won’t make anything better than what we have right now.

Or I would have, if I hadn’t heard a small giggle. A giggle that makes babies cry from the ugliness it brings to the world. Something I thought I had left behind when I left my old life.

“You know what? Fuck that.” I turn back around and point at Ruby, only because I need to deal with her before I deal with the other one. “You say I’m hiding shit? Sure, I am. But so are you. You did from the beginning. But that’s what we did. We kept our shit to ourselves, and no one had a problem with it. Or you didn’t, as long as it was in your favor, right? Right?”

I shake my head and run my fingers through my long hair. “After everything. Every goddamn thing I did for you, for this club.” I gesture at everyone, and none have the courtesy to even look away. They just keep staring.

I see Izzy standing with her man and point at them. “I got a broken nose from someone taking your kid, and when I asked why, you all shut me down and told me to forget about it. Right?”

“Or how about when your dad died, Ruby? Who stood by you at the funeral? Who took care of you when you cried yourself to sleep for hours on end? But wait, he didn’t actually die.” I turn and see her dad standing with someone I don’t know. “There he is. Back from the grave. A miracle. And when I asked about it, when it was just you and me in that hole of a room in Colombia trying to survive together, you told me to forget about it. Right?” My words are soft, but not the meaning.

“And speaking of, when you were kidnapped, who was taken too? Who was with you each day of that hell?” I step closer as I speak. “Tell me. Was I even a priority to get out? Or were they just there for you?”

She flinches—not a lot, but enough that I see—and I nod, taking a step back now that I have an answer.

But Ruby’s done being put down. I see it in the spark in her eyes as she looks at me. She’s finding her own fire. “Does it matter? You got out. Because of my people. Mine. Yours just left you there.”

“What?” My steam dies down at her words, as they don’t make any sense.

“Yeah, because it was your people who found you. But they didn’t want you. Why is that? Why would your people track you down and then not care what happens once you’re found?”

“I… I don’t know.” I shake my head, confused. “I don’t have people.”

She snorts. “But you do. So get off your damn high horse already.” She turns her back on me, and it’s the final nail in our friendship. Sealing our fate of never being close again.

“Consider me off and gone. But….” I hold my hands out as if I’m surrendering. And I might be, to them, but not to Reina. Never to her. “Let me guess. She”—I nod to Reina—“told you some sob story to get you to invite her here, to a family thing that I was never allowed into. I could sure as shit shed blood for the club, just not be allowed access to it. Spread your legs and you get in, though, right? That work for you, Ruby? You feel like you’re one of the gals now?”

I know I went too far, but I still welcome the sting on my face from her fist. A solid hit. I knew she was never the type to slap a woman. No, Ruby, despite everything, is hardcore. If she’s going to take her anger out on someone, she’s going to use her whole fist.

Tears gather in my eyes from the impact. I start talking before I look at her. The place is still quiet; not even the birds make a sound. I don’t have to speak up for those in the back to hear me. My words just seem to carry on the wind, no matter how softly I say them.

“I never asked for anything from you. Ever. I never lied directly to you or hurt you. My mother was my only genuine family. Everyone else was assigned to me because a piece of paper claimed me as part of their family when I wasn’t. I have no one, and I still don’t.” I blink back the tears, and the anger and hurt come out instead. “I did nothing to you,” I say with a shake of my head and then point. “And you still chose her. Her over me.”

“Can you blame them?” Reina finally speaks as she stands. I’m slow to look at her, unlike everyone else. “Look at you, sis. You need help. Real help.”

I blink. Once. Twice.

“KPH-SG-7742-A19X.”

“What’s that?” someone asks. I think it’s King, and I look at him when I answer.

“That’s the account number that my stepsister has been siphoning your money into since she got here. KPH-SG-7742-A19X.”

I look back at Reina, her face pale. But I get no joy from it. I feel broken now. Truly broken. I feel nothing from this, and my voice is devoid of emotion as I explain it to those around me.

“She’s a con artist. Her skill in life is taking things. Money, jewels, men. She took my fiancée.” I nod as I recall her telling Ruby and Kooper that at the hospital, making up some story about how they were in love and that they just had to be together. “Even told him she was pregnant with his kid.” I tilt my head as I look her over. “Funny, you don’t look like you’ve popped one out.”

“I can’t believe you’re bringing that up.” Reina sniffles and whimpers, hugging her stomach as she shakes her head at the ground. “I lost the baby,” she whispers, and the guy she was making out with comes up behind her and puts a hand on her shoulder. She looks up at him, tears in her eyes. “I lost it, and we just couldn’t be together anymore after that. We broke it off, and I came looking for you, Barbra, my sister. I knew it was God’s way of punishing me for what I did to you. I’m so sorry.” She reaches out a hand to me, and I just look at it.

Then roll my eyes.

“Oh please—you’ve been on the pill since you were ten. Dr. Han was a dear friend, in case you forgot. You might have gotten pregnant, though I doubt it was Benji’s, but no way are you the type to keep something precious when it could take a tax on you. As for Benji, somehow he must have missed the divorce, because he’s still waiting for his wife to come back from her shopping trip.”