AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Of course,” my friend assured him, and I saw that she already had my daughter in her arms, cuddling her. “We’re going to have a sleepover, aren’t we, Bug?”
“We’re going to sleep in the barn with Millie and Henrietta tonight!” Love Bug announced.
“Um, yeah, we’re totally not doing that, kid. But I’ll set up the projector, and we can watch a movie in the barn with the animals. Okay?” Shaw was already walking toward the door with Mila behind her.
“I’ll text Lyric and have him bring the kids to your house. The boys love those little goats.”
“Ian and Isaac can help us feed them!”
Shaking my head at Love Bug’s glee, I buried my face in Luca’s neck, too tired to face the rest of our family.
“Mom,” Luca gritted out. “You’re going to apologize to Violet.”
“No, I’m not.”
“Yes.”
“I said no, Luca.”
His muscles turned to stone beneath me. “You will apologize, and then you will go back to my house and get your shit. As of this moment, you are no longer welcome in my home.”
“Wh-what?” Layla stuttered, and I clung to Luca tighter.
All day, she’d done nothing but hurt me over and over again, but at the first quaver of pain I heard in her voice, sympathy sliced through me.
“You heard me, Mom. Not only did you ruin this day for Violet, you did nothing but hurt her with your hate-filled words about Remington.”
“Luca—”
“No!” he barked, cutting her off. “You don’t get to give me those wounded-doe eyes and pout that lip. You’re not going to turn this around and make me the bad guy for cutting my family off from your toxicity. Dad. Lyric. Lucy. Their families. Every one of them is still welcome, but you? I’m done.” His fingers flexed on my hip. “We’re done. Go. Pack your shit and take your ass back to California. There’s no one in Tennessee for you now.”
“How can you do this to me?” Layla demanded, her angry voice filled with tears. “I-I’m your mother. I—”
“Giving birth to me doesn’t give you a pass for treating the people who are my entire world like shit!” he seethed. “Being my mother isn’t a free ticket to spew hurtful, hateful barbs at my future wife. You couldn’t even apologize. Well, you had your chance, and you stuck your nose in the air at it. Now you can go home and live with the consequences.”
“Nothing I said was untrue!” she argued.
“Every word out of your mouth was your opinion,” Aunt Emmie interrupted. “Opinions aren’t truths, Layla. And from where I’m standing, your opinions are every bit as toxic as Luca accused you of being. You’re becoming someone I don’t even recognize anymore. I’m proud of him for putting his family first.”
I felt Luca swallow hard, fighting his sudden emotions. Having Aunt Emmie say she was proud of him wasn’t something he got often. It was high praise that we all hoped to achieve, so when she bestowed it on any of us, of course we got emotional. She was the matriarch of our entire family. Without her, we would be nothing.
“Whatever. Fine. I’m sorry, okay?”
The lack of sincerity broke my heart a little more.
“Goodbye, Mom,” Luca said softly. “I hope you have a good life, but unfortunately, it won’t include me, Violet, or Love Bug.”
“This is where Remi learned that emotional manipulation from,” she accused. “Right here. I didn’t raise you to be like this.”
“Her name is Love Bug!” he snapped. “In this family, the people who love her the most, they call her Love Bug.”
“She told me to call her Remi,” Layla defended with a dramatic huff.
“Because she sensed what I refused to see. You don’t love her like the other grandkids. You make her feel different.” His laugh was full of nothing but sadness. “She may not be mine by blood, but I would willingly lay down my life for that precious girl. She’s mine in every way that matters. I thought, of all people, you would understand that. Dad did it with Lucy. He adores her almost as much as I do Love Bug. My daughter only makes people who don’t matter call her Remi.”
I stroked my fingers up and down Luca’s neck, offering him comfort, but he wasn’t done yet.
“Obviously, you no longer matter. Five-year-olds are too innocent to understand why, but I can see it, Mom. I don’t know what happened to you, or when it caused this change in you. What I do know is that there is something seriously wrong with you. When did your heart grow so cold?” He released a long sigh that was full of so much pain, I felt it to my bones. “How did I miss the moment you became this…empty shell of a woman? You were once so full of love, you made everyone feel the warmth of it. Now, all I see and feel is an icy, bitter person who can’t open her heart to the sweetest little girl I’ve ever met.”
