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“A blue-horned devil.” I smile at him. Nick sits up straighter, staring back at me with his curiosity almost tangible. He tilts his head as he tries to figure out who I mean by that when my mother’s clicking tongue has us turning to her.
“Can we refrain from this kind of talk?” she asks tiredly.
“Sure, Mother. How about we go back to whatever you were talking about before I arrived,” I say.
The table goes silent, and there’s a tension that has my mouth drying. I clench my drink harder.
“Let’s all not talk at once now,” I add hoarsely, followed by a humorless chuckle and shrug.
Jared clears his throat. “I asked Amber to marry me.”
I snap my head to him, both of their eyes cast downward. The cowards won’t even look at me. “Are you serious?”
Amber whimpers, tucking herself into Jared’s shoulder and he stiffens, not moving to comfort his new fiancé. He looks up at me with a grim expression and I scowl at him.
“Was this before or after you begged me to take you back and said that you needed and supposedly loved me?” I hiss at him, then I look at the hand wrapped over his arm as she leans into him and laugh. “Oh my god. You didn’t even get a new ring?”
Amber lets out a sob and quickly gets up from her seat, running to where the restrooms are located.
“Now look what you've done, Jenica.” My mother huffs, shaking her head.
I jerk back, staring at her. “Me?”
Setting down the glass slowly, I’m so close to smashing it into one of their faces. “What have I done, Mother? I have done nothing. I am not the one who cheated, I am not the one begging to be taken back, and I sure as fuck am not the one who clearly can’t accept the consequences of their actions.”
I snap my wrist in the direction my sister ran off, glaring at my mother and Jared, and then continue. “That is her own guilt. I do not need to hold back anything I say, nor do I have to comfort her. She betrayed me.”
My mother looks at me, the cold malice in her eyes stabbing me like a sword. “This is a delicate situation. It does no one any good to act so harshly.”
“Perhaps we should discuss this at home,” my father interrupts, trying to pacify us both.
“That’s no longer my home,” I say, ignoring the flinch on his face as my mother’s eyes turn even more glacial and she tilts her chin up. Nick is shifting in his seat, and I move to lean over the table to ensure she doesn’t miss a word as I speak to my father. “That stopped being my home when your delusional bitch of a wife chose the cheating whore over me. I am the victim in this delicate situation.”
“Jenica,” my father warns. I know I’m testing his patience. For whatever reason that we can’t possibly understand, he loves my mother, and won’t stand for her being disrespected.
I toss the cloth napkin I had laid across my lap onto the table. My throat aches from the strength to withhold my tears as I glance at my parents. “I’m your daughter too. And what she did to me, what they’ve both done to me…”
I blink up at the blue sky, swallowing the lump that’s formed and then shake my head. “I’ll never understand how you couldn’t take my side.”
My mother sighs, her lips tight with annoyance. “We don’t take sides in family matters, Jenica.”
“She stopped being my family when she slept with my fiancé,” I spit out. I point a shaking finger at Jared. “And he became unworthy of joining this family the minute he fucked my sister while being engaged to me.”
“Jenica, Sweetheart—” my father starts to say. and I move around my chair, waving him off.
“Forget it. I shouldn’t have to beg people who supposedly care about me to see why this hurts.” I kiss my brother on his cheek and squeeze his shoulder. “Call me later.”
He grabs my wrist, his pitying gaze locking with mine. I give him a small smile that says it’s okay to stay. Our father invested heavily in his new app. He can’t exactly cut ties with the man who holds the financial strings to his future.
We are Never Getting Back Together
“Throw them away,” I say, not glancing at the third flower arrangement to arrive this week.
My assistant, Nancy, nods as she whisks them out of my office.
Leaning back into my chair with a sigh, I push a finger at the spot right above the middle of my eyebrows, rubbing it in slow circles. It’s been an adjustment to go back to sleeping alone in my house, and it’s not going well. Honestly, my last full night of sleep was in Keegan’s bed seven days ago.
When I jumped at the chance to move the same day I found out about Jared’s cheating, I didn’t have time to think about how much it would affect me. The bed doesn’t feel like mine, every noise and creak has my skin crawling, and no matter how much I turn up the heater, I’m still cold without a body tucked behind mine.
