“Pencil me in.” I can’t help but shake my head at the lunacy.
Lex offers a short-lived smirk. “It feels like shit to have someone else steal your man from under you, doesn’t it?” She swings her hips my way as she takes a step closer. “The Enchanted Closet is having a sale on slut wear. I can hook you up with something that might help you land a man. Can’t guarantee you’ll keep him.”
Logan takes up my hand and attempts to pull me away. “That’s enough.”
Lex smirks over at him. “Oh, that’s right. Skyla has her number two. How does it feel to be the fallback guy? I bet you’ve already filled that gap between her legs. Everyone knows Messenger can’t go long without having something long and hard pounded into her. Isn’t that right,Mess?” She takes a bold step forward. “I know you slept with Dudley. Does he still get you going now that you’re no longer logging time in second period with him at the helm? Unable to flash him your panties whenever he was standing in front of you? We were there, Skyla. We saw it all. So how long did it take for you to fall back into bed with him? I’m betting it was night one. Gage beds Chloe and you bed Dudley. An orgasmic time was had by all. Deny it, Skyla. Go ahead. Logan is right here. God knows you love to defend your precious chastity.”
“I will sleep with whomever I wish, however much I wish, whenever I wish,” I say with my heavy gaze pinned to Lexy’s. My mind saystake the high road, and my flesh sayskick her in the balls she professes to have. “Logan is right. It’s enough. Yes, it hurt like hell to have my life flipped upside down. If you feel a fraction of the pain I do, Lexy, then I’m sorry.”Oh, honey—I glare at Lex with everything in me—I am saving my wrath for someone far worthier of it than you.
“Sorry?” a female voice trills from behind. “Is that what’s keeping you from your children, Skyla? Apologizing to each soul in this room might just keep you away from them forever.”
That voice, that wicked taunt—my body goes numb, and it feels as if I’ve suddenly become submerged underwater. It takes an enormous effort to pivot on my heels. The room rotates around me, the music fades to thick silence, and the people and morbid decorations my mother thought it a good idea to festoon this place with fade in a dizzying blur.
There they stand, my nightmare, my living hell, a reality during waking hours. Gage and Chloe.
Gage. So tall and stately, that dark hair, that pale skin, those knife-sharp eyes. His very presence stings me. Gage Oliver has always been a masterpiece to look at, Michelangelo’sDavidwalking around among us. Those cobalt eyes spike into mine, cold and unfeeling, not one inch of affection for me remains in his soul. A flashback of every moment we ever shared pulses through me, strong as an electrical current, and every errant whisper, every soul-quenching kiss blinks through my mind like a series of photographs slapping down far too fast for me to process them all, breathtaking, unstoppable. Each moment felt so very genuine, not manufactured by any means. It felt so real, so solid, our forever secured by the potency of our immeasurable love.
In his arms Barron lunges for me, and I take him and hand him to Logan before plucking Nathan from Chloe. The boys wiggle free to the floor, happy and giggling. Em takes them by the hand and says something about taking them to my mother before disappearing. But I can’t tear myself away.
My gaze is immovable, my eyes set over his—the same eyes that watched me with love now look through me with ice-cold anger as if it’s what they’ve only ever felt for me. As if I’m a malfeasance in his presence.
He’s watching me, holding up a wall of thoughts as if his life were staked on it. I could always read it on his face whenever he did that. Even now he’s keeping something from me. His tortured version of the truth. I want to believe it.
Deep down, I want to believe that he’s plunged us into the miry depths of misery because the alternative doesn’t fit the narrative my heart demands to give it.
Gage Oliver has good intentions. The Gage Oliver I knew only wanted the best for me, for my people. The Gage Oliver I knew hated Chloe Bishop. He spit her lukewarm bullshit out of his mouth. And yet, this one drinks it up, laps her up like vomit off the ground. This one chooses her as his bride. This one, whose mind is forever intact and blessed by the hand of God, the resurrected version has come back like a devil. Gone is the angel I once knew. Dead and buried.
I should fish his head out of that blue keeping solution Ezrina has it bobbing in over at Whitehorse. I should put it up in the butterfly room and build an altar to it. Defile myself with it the way Chloe did. That was Gage. This is someone I never want to know.
“Skyla?” A cheery voice gives my shoulder a quick shake and I startle back to life, only to find my mother—the earthbound version—Tad, Emma, and Barron staring back at me.
“Crap,” I mutter. As much as I hate to admit it, Emma’s gloating might have the power to take this hellish night to new heights. And judging by that tightlipped smile on her burnt orange lips, she’s ready to douse me with another round of gasoline just to see how bright I can burn.
“It’s time!” Tad bellows, knocking a knife over the crystal flute in his hands. That electronic bowtie of his blinks on and off, red and green, the stuff that seizures are made of.
I glance to Chloe and her wicked grin spreads a little wider. A representation of how her legs have been spreading for Gage ever since, I’m sure.
Every last part of me is numb. It’s far too hot in here to catch my next breath.
A hand lands on my back and a powerhouse of feel-good vibrations shower through me in deep, calming waves. I glance down to find Marshall’s thick hand cupping me lovingly from behind and I take everything he has to offer.
My mother shoots the new couple a curt look. “Gage—Chloe.”
Emma’s left eye comes short of winking. “Oh come, Lizbeth. Surely you can congratulate the happy couple. It’s not the end of the world. People go their separate ways all the time.”
“Emma,” both Barron and Logan boom at once, but Gage doesn’t flinch. His silence speaks volumes.
Tad scoffs. “I’m a little shocked you showed your sorry face.” His chest puffs up as he postures toward Gage. “What’s the matter, buddy? You ate us out of house and home and decided to find a woman whose father has a bigger refrigerator? Carpet-lined walls ain’t good enough for you? Huh?”
My heart soars and beats erratically at the very same time. I hadn’t expected Tad to defend me. Anyone but him.
Tad’s feet engage in an odd little shuffle. “According to my calculations, you’ve tallied close to twenty grand living under my roof for free—eating the meals I worked hard to land on the table.”
Gage takes in an angry lungful. “I’ll have a check to you first thing in the morning.”
“Acheck?” Tad balks and I’m more than uneasy.
My God, does he want cash? Gage can easily give it. Just reach into Daddy’s magic balls and just about any bullshit will come out, even legal tender. I give a quick glance around and spot Demetri and Dominique watching from a safe distance. Figures.
