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Megan gasped like I’d scandalized her. “Don’t talk to them like that.”
“No, I mean it. Fuck all of you.” I slowly backed away. “When you each realize how stupid you’re being, remember what I’m about to say. Leave me alone. I had Avery alone and I’ll do it again with these twins. I don’t need you.”
“No? So just the house, car, and endless gifts?” What felt like Sara’s true personality came out as she scowled at me.
I forced a smile and just turned around and left. I was openly sobbing by the time I reached the street. Whatever small part of me that still had hope died when they didn’t come after me. They let me go.
Mallory was greeting Bodyguard Paul in the driveway when she saw me. She sprinted over to me and cupped my face. “What happened? Are you okay? Fi?”
I could feel myself ugly crying, complete with snot and strange gurgling sounds. “T-they think I’m lying.”
Paul moved closer, his eyes scanning the yard and beyond. “Anyone I need to shoot?”
“If those assholes hurt my sister, yes. All three of them.” Mallory pushed my hair out of my face and gripped my shoulders. “Spell it out for me, babe. What happened?”
Through gasping breaths and one, or three, dry heaving spells, I told Mallory and Paul how the guys thought I was a liar. I didn’t even know what all they believed, but what I did know was bad enough. They turned on me. They chose to believe the terrible things their exes said about me. If they could think those things about me, nothing was the way I thought it was.
“I’ll kill them.” Mallory ran her eyes over Paul’s body but there was nothing sexual to her gaze. “Where’s your gun?”
Avery’s voice rang out from the open front door. “I’m hungry!”
I turned away quickly and wiped my eyes. Sucking up my heartbreak, I plastered a smile to my face and forced myself to face my son like I didn’t feel like crawling into a hole. “Coming! I’ll make you something, bud.”
Mallory caught my hand. “Let me do it.”
“No.” I shook my head and took a deep breath. “No. I can’t fall apart. I have to take care of things.”
I had to take care of everything. The house, the car, the gifts…they weren’t ours. As Ryder’s ex-wife had so easily thrown them in my face, I saw them for the traps that they were. I wouldn’t take anything from men who didn’t know me at all, despite pretending to for so long.
44
***Sebastian***
Ididn’t move from the couch as Sara and Megan left us, no longer content with watching us since all we were doing was sitting. My limbs felt too heavy to lift. I wasn’t sure I’d ever move again. It sounded dramatic but my entire body felt like it was being sucked towards the ground. It was like gravity had doubled. When Jake left, I couldn’t even acknowledge him. I started to wonder if I was stuck in a nightmare but the pain in my chest was too real.
Ryder was sitting directly across from me so when he moved, my eyes tracked the movement. He stood up and ran his hands over his face. “Did that just happen?”
I cleared my throat. “Was Sara right?”
With a hardening expression, he lowered his voice. “It’s a little late for us to ask that now, isn’t it?”
He left after that and I sat on my couch for a while longer, until the sound of the front door banging open jerked me out of my stupor. I jumped to my feet, thinking it was Fiona coming back to fight.
SJ stumbled into the room with a laugh and Sam appeared behind him, shoving him along. “Knock it off, idiot.”
Sam growled at him. “I should shove you off a cliff. You embarrassed me in front of Adam!”
SJ had frozen in place when he spotted me and Sam ran into his back with a grunt. He frowned. “Dad? What’s up?”
Sam moved around her brother and her eyes welled up with tears the moment she looked at me. “What’s wrong, Dad?”
I tried to speak and my voice cracked. Clearing it and trying again, I straightened up and wrapped all of my pain up tight so I could handle my kids. “Sorry. I was just lost in thought. Why are you crying, Sammie? Come here.”
Both of them moved into my outstretched arms and hugged me back. SJ was the first to pull away and I could tell he didn’t believe that I was okay. “What’s really going on, Dad? Is everything okay?”
I swallowed down the foreign urge to spill my guts. “Come on, guys. Help me cook dinner and we can talk after.”
SJ started to argue but Sam spoke over him. “Fine. As long as you promise that no one died.”
