AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You think he doesn’t know that?”
“With the way he’s looking at them like they’re animals, I don’t know what he knows about children. Did you see the way he tried to avoid contact with Bailey like she was infectious or something? How he stared at Kye throughout dinner? What’s wrong with him?”
“There’s nothing wrong with him.” She started toward her sister before Colette stepped between them. The sight of a cooing Polara snapped Jasmine out of her red haze. She couldn’t attack her sister in front of her children, no matter how tempting. She sidestepped Colette to maintain eye contact with Ariana, who looked confident, but her baby-doll eyes were wide and wary. “He has no experience with kids, so he doesn’t know how to handle them. He’s more afraid of them than anything else!”
Ariana gave her a scornful look. “How many excuses are you going to make for him? His behavior is bizarre and nowhere near normal. Why can’t you admit that?”
“Ariana!”
She didn’t glance at Colette to see if she looked as appalled as she sounded. Her eyes were locked on Ariana, who was flushed an unbecoming shade of pink and bristling with righteous anger. Ariana the peacemaker was nowhere in sight. Apparently, she had been waiting a long time to get this off her chest and was hell-bent on having her say.
Ariana held up a hand as she said, “I’m not trying to hurt you, but we all know, when it comes to him, you’re blind and reckless. You jumped into an affair even though you had other obligations and responsibilities. When Dad confronted you, instead of righting your wrong, you compounded your mistake by marrying Roth to spite Dad. You didn’t consider how your actions reflected badly on us and brought our integrity into question. You held onto that marriage for three years before you finally admitted you’d made a mistake and asked Dad for help. But within weeks of Dad passing, you’re jumping back into the fire! He makes himself majority shareholder of Hennessy & Co., so all of us are at his mercy and you marry him again, only to discover that Dad was blackmailing him.” Ariana flourished her hands. “How many red flags do you need for you to wake up and see this man isn’t right for you and never was?”
“That’s enough.”
Colette’s icy reprimand snapped Ariana out of her rant, but she wasn’t cowed.
“You agree with me, Colette. You’ve been worried sick, wondering what he’s been doing to her.”
Ariana cast a narrow-eyed look over Jasmine’s mostly covered body. The fading bruises on her throat throbbed.
“He’s helping us now, but we all know how quickly that can change. What happens if we go against his advice? Is he going to turn the board against us?” Ariana dragged her fingers through her hair, suddenly looking bone-weary. “I spend so much time looking for pitfalls, so we don’t make another mistake. I’m so tired of not knowing who to trust or how to prepare for the next blow.” Ariana gave herself a shake and set her shoulders back like a general before fixing her unsettling blue gaze on Jasmine. “You really trust him?”
“I do.”
It didn’t matter that her words were infused with confidence. Ariana shook her head in obvious disappointment.
“Do you know what Dad blackmailed Roth about?”
It galled her to admit the truth, but she wasn’t going to lie. “No.”
“Then how can you trust him when you don’t know what he’s done?”
Ariana was stirring up all the doubts she’d just laid to rest. She hid her balled up fist behind her back. “And I suppose you and Rami don’t keep secrets from each other?”
Ariana visibly tensed. “Don’t bring my husband into this.”
“You want to question mine, then we’ll bring yours into the equation as well. Answer the question. Do you think Rami is hiding anything from you?”
“Of course not!”
The words “you’re wrong” hovered on the tip of her tongue. She wanted to fight fire with fire, but once the words were out, she wouldn’t be able to take them back. Rami’s allegations were explosive and nothing to toss around lightly. Making such an accusation in front of his kids was unforgivable. Still, she couldn’t resist adding, “And I guess you don’t have any skeletons in your closet either?”
Ariana gave her a pitying look. “You’re trying to make this about us when it’s about Roth. Even you have to admit he isn’t normal. He’s violent and vindictive and?—”
“Who’s to say what is or isn’t normal? Do you think Dad was normal? That Colette’s manipulative grandfather, your narcissistic mothers, or your arranged marriages are what anyone would consider normal?”
She hauled in a breath to calm herself when she saw Kye and Bailey were no longer watching the TV but turned in their seats, listening. The effort it took to rein in her temper made her eyes sting with tears, which pissed her off even more.
“Roth has his faults, but he’s trying to change and make things right. He came here tonight knowing he might not be welcome, but he did so anyway so you could get to know him outside of the office. And yes, he doesn’t share everything with me. Neither did Dad. If what he’d done was so horrible, why didn’t Dad tell me so I would stay the hell away from him? Why keep it a secret?”
Colette and Ariana exchanged looks. Apparently, that had never occurred to them, but she wasn’t finished making her point.
“Regardless of how you feel about Roth, do you really think I’d allow him to be around the kids if I thought he was capable of harming them?”
The silence that followed cut her to the quick. All the warm, fuzzy feelings of homecoming and togetherness vanished and was replaced by an all too familiar pain. Just when she’d begun to believe they were making progress and forging a true sibling bond, they’d fallen back to square one. She felt as if they were back at their dad’s funeral, with her sisters on one side of the aisle and her on the other. The familiar ostracism felt like a knife in the back. She’d always suspected her sisters didn’t have a high opinion of her, but believing she would willingly put her niece and nephew at risk made her sick to her stomach.
“I’m sorry, Minnie,” Ariana said.
