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“I get that but you can’t trust them.”
“You think I don’t know that?” I snap before entering the main dining room. “I’m not naïve.”
“But this is?—”
“I know we’re never going to be a sunny, happy family. There’s more at stake than just me, though.”
“Okay, but?—”
“It’s my choice!” I hiss, pulling open the door to our room.
Burt and Rhonda rise when we enter, but they don’t look like the apologetic, hopeful parents I left. They look…
Oh god. Oh no. No, no, no.
“Dad’s trying to sell the company and wants to leverage your connection with Larinda,” Paige spits behind me.
I go cold.
My gaze locks on our parents, my heart cracking in my chest.
“Val…” Rhonda says. “Please just?—”
“Is that true?” I force out, my voice barely audible. Their gazes lower as the room shrinks further.
“Answer me!” I say a little louder. “Is it true this whole thing is about using me to get to Larinda?”
Burt shakes his head, his demeanor clearly in business mode. “It’s not what it sounds like. If you just listen to our proposal…”
I don’t hear the rest. Sound stops completely as I stagger out of the room.
“Val, wait!” Paige calls behind me.
I don’t. I fucking can’t as I weave through the restaurant toward the exit.
This is…
I can’t…
I drag my sleeve across my eyes as I push outside into the cool evening air.
“Val!”
I flinch when a hand grabs my arm and spins me around. Paige’s expression is tortured as she grips my sleeve. “I’m so sorry. I figured it out and confronted them after you left. That’s why I tried to stop you… god, Val. I’m so sorry.”
I shake my head, tears choking my lungs.
I still can’t believe it. It can’t be. It just can’t. They said… They were… oh god.
Even they wouldn’t be so cruel. But I just saw it. I…
What is wrong with me?! How fucked up do you have to be that your own parents don’t want you?
“Hey… look at me,” she says softly. When she searches my eyes, tears well in her own. “I hate them,” she hisses, pulling me in for a hug. “I hate them so much.”
I’m still numb as reality crushes me into a pulp right there on a city sidewalk. There are worse things than losing hope. There’s trusting in it. There’s believing in something better only to have it violently ripped away.
They were going to use me? After everything they’ve put me through, they were going to squeeze one last manipulation out of the little trust I had left?
