“You bet!” Bree smacks a kiss onto my cheek. “You know I love you, Messenger.”
“I’m still killing Chloe.”
“You’ll change your mind yet!” she calls out as I head into the kitchen where Mom and Tad are huddled and whispering amongst themselves.
Mom has dyed her hair a bright shade of red for the holidays. She’s made it a point to wear both green and red exclusively from Thanksgiving on. You get my mother on a kick and she’s diehard until the very end. She held her annual craft fair at the community center this year after Demetri got the city council to waive the permit fees.
I didn’t go. For one, Chloe’s mother was there regaling the masses with those ridiculous chicken hats again this year. I threatened my mother within an inch of her life if she brought a single one home. I don’t want any evidence that the Bishops live on this island in my face.
And out of respect for my current situation with Gage, my mother and Demetri decided—let me say that again because I cannot believe the lunacy—my motherandDemetri decided it would be best to host my mother’s annual Christmas Eve bash somewhere neutral. When Demetri volunteered his haunted hovel, I growled at him like Cerberus on acid. But then, Marshall stepped up and offered his carnal kingdom, and so that’s where we’ll be in just a few hours. I’m glad about it, too. I plan on staying for the requisite dinner, then hightailing it out of there with the boys. I figure that will be long enough for Emma and Barron to fawn over their grandchildren. Gage hasn’t seen the kids since that fateful night. I’m hoping he’ll never show his face again.
Gabriel Armistead launches another grenade from his rear and Nathan and Barron scream with laughter.
As much as I wish I could do it, I will never stop seeing Gage Oliver’s face. I see him in duplicate each and every day. I kiss his face when I kiss the boys and it breaks my heart all over again.
“Skyla!” Mom giggles my way and rouses me from my stupor. “Tad and I have a very exciting announcement to share.”
A breath hitches in my throat as I look to the two of them. “What is it?” I spit the words out, knife-sharp and angry. God knows my mother and step-dolt never have anything good or productive brewing. Poor Tad is just a sock puppet that the Fems and Counts like to toy with. My God, they haven’t even figured out a useful way to utilize him for their wicked regime.
“Ah-ah!” Tad barks like a seal. “All in good time. This announcement is so big we’re saving it for tonight.” He looks to my mother. “We’ll purge Professor Dudley of his finest champs and then we’ll drop the bomb.”
“Finest champs,” Mom bubbles as if she herself could be poured into a crystal flute. “This is big news, Skyla. Believe me when I say it will change everything. Nothing will ever be the same again!”
“I’ve already crossed that bridge, Mother.” I head to the fridge and stare at the meager offerings.
Mom comes in close and plucks at my hair. “Oh, honey. I have to tell you something.”
I close the fridge and offer her my full attention, not that my attention span is anything to be impressed by these days.
“A little birdie told me that Gage will be there this evening.”
A jolt runs through me, quick as a lightning strike, and my adrenaline hits unsafe levels for this early in the morning.
“Then she’ll be with him,” I whisper to myself as a brief vision of Gage and Chloe linked at the arm wafts through my mind, their mouths filled with laughter and mine with vomit.
“I can’t go.”
“Oh, Skyla.” She gives my fingers a tug. “You can and you will. Gage is just going through a phase. He’s trying to make you jealous. Men are foolish that way.”
All I see are flames, the same inferno that burned in Shaddai that night he took Chloe and consummated their union.
“This is no phase, Mother. This is an eternal betrayal. Chloe is the noose he’s decided to hang himself with.”
She scoffs at the thought. “You’ve always been a bit of a drama queen. He’ll come around. You’ll see. In the meantime, I want you to enjoy having that bed all to yourself. You don’t ever have to worry about finding the seat up on the toilet and you get command of the remote control. Half the married women in the country would die to have a vacation from their spouse.” She gives a slotted glare to Tad.
“You do realize you’re projecting.” I don’t mind pointing out the obvious. “I never cared about those things with Gage.”
She coos at me while cupping the side of my face. “That’s because you’re in love. And believe me when I say he’s in love with you. Don’t doubt it for a minute. Skyla, you of all people know how deep his love runs for you. None of this makes sense any other way.”
“He’s with Chloe because he loves me.” I can’t even fashion it as a question.
She gives a frantic nod. “That’s right. Just remember that.” She gives my cheek a pinch and takes off.
Gage and Chloe will be there tonight—in the same room as me on Christmas, as if they were offering their union as a gift to Paragon. I almost want to laugh, but tears seem a far closer companion.
Bree and Em crop up, wide-eyed.
“We heard the news!” Bree juts her head out like a chicken as they both await a response from me.
