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“Not the point,” Rowan said finally. “Next time, just think before you act.” He gathered up his remaining crutch and positioned it. He pushed off the counter and started to leave the room.
Juliana was not letting him have the last word. “The point is,” she snapped, “you do not get to weigh in on my life. My family comes first. Always. And if I feel I need to do something to help, I’m going to do it.”
He paused his escape and turned a half-circle, so he could see her. “I’m not sure what’s more pathetic. That you think they need your help or that you think shining an unflattering spotlight on your social life helps.”
“They do need me!” Her voice sounded shrill, even to her, and she felt the telltale heat of embarrassment in her cheeks.
“You want them to need you,” he stated simply. “But you do know, somewhere, they don’t. Jamie can redirect a rabid reporter with a smile, and Ele, for all her struggles, suddenly has the world in her hand. And the queen, much like the duke, doesn’t really care what anyone says because in the end, she knows she wields all the power. Every time you do something like you did last night, you sell yourself short.” He glanced at his phone. “That girl, she’s a mess. And it might distract for a moment, but it only garners you more detractors who look at your life and think how frivolous it is.” He tilted his regal head. His doe eyes were sympathetic and strangely understanding. “You are not that girl. It took me a bit to figure it out. But that’s not you. I’m not sure what makes you think you need to parade yourself around like that or what you think you’re gaining.”
She needed to say something, to defend herself, to prove to him he was wrong. But her brain sputtered like a car with a carburetor gone bad.
He turned to leave. And finally, Jules found a voice.
“At least I try.”
This comment didn’t even merit an about-face. Instead, Rowan swiveled his head a fraction and waited.
“You have a family, and you have friends, and you don’t even care. You try to do everything in your power to stay away from them. Maybe I don’t handle things the way you think I should, but I do everything I can to protect my family and to love them.”
“And you think, what? It makes them see you for who you are? Or does it just reinforce for them that you are different?”
Juliana knew he had no idea how devastating his comment was to her. Her whole life, she’d been locked out of the wonder-twin club, and later, when she found out the truth of her birth, it was like something snapped into place—all the outsider feelings coalesced into a moment of ah! But that wasn’t for Rowan to pick at or to know about. He obviously had his own shit he needed to work on.
“Does it matter?” she asked finally. “Does it matter how they take it? It’s about me and what I want to do for them, how I want to protect them. No one gets a say in that. You can do what you want, shelter yourself and hide from the people who want to be there for you.” She shrugged. “In the end, I fight for the people in my life, and you fight to keep people from yours. Whose battle makes more sense?”
She picked up Rowan’s phone and handed it to him on her way out of the kitchen.
She’d finally gotten the last word, but she didn’t feel any sense of vindication.
