Chapter One
Jenna MacFinnan rolledup the jeans and stuffed them into the bin bag with more force than was strictly necessary. The Spider-Man T-shirt went next. Then the socks. Then the boots. Then every other tiny scrap or reminder she could get her hands on. It didn’t take long to fill.
When she was done, she tied it off, dragged it to the door, then picked it up and flung it with all her strength. The black bag sailed through the air and landed with the others by the gate with a satisfying thump.
With a huff, she whirled and scanned the room, looking for what else she could throw. Her eyes alighted on the pile of vinyl records stacked on the sideboard. She stomped over and picked up the nearest one.The Who. Seventies music had been one ofhisthings. Along with dirt-bike racing and rock climbing.
Oh, and cheating on her, of course.
Grinding her teeth, Jenna cocked her arm to hurl the record out with the rest, then hesitated. It would be a shame to ruin such collector’s items. They might actually be worth something and, let’s face it, she needed all the money she could get right now.
An image flashed through her mind.Getting home from work early. Pushing the door open. Pausing at the strange sounds coming from inside. Creak, creak, creak. A woman’s cry. A man’s grunt. And then… and then…
With a bellow of rage, she picked up the stack of records, carriedthem to the door, and flung them out into the pile of garbage that had once been her life. Far from the satisfaction she hoped it would bring, the action only made her feel hollow.
So much gone. So much ruined.
She kicked the door closed, crossed the living room, and slumped onto the sofa. Drawing her knees in, she wrapped her arms around them and stared at nothing. Why did this hurt so much? Why did it feel as though somebody had taken a rusty knife and carved her insides out?
She felt tears coming again and dashed them away angrily. She wouldnotcry over him. He didn’t deserve her tears. Yet, try as she might, they fell anyway, running down her cheeks no matter what she did to try and stop them.
“Here,” said a voice suddenly. “You’ve got snot coming out of your nose.”
Jenna looked up to see two women standing over her. She’d been so engrossed in her misery she hadn’t even heard them come in. They both had the same dark hair and green eyes she did—all the MacFinnan women had the same coloring—but one was older with her hair tied back into a severe braid while the other was only a few years older than Jenna herself with pink highlights running through her hair. It was the younger one who’d spoken, and she was holding out a handkerchief.
Jenna snatched it and blew her nose. “Don’t you two know how to knock?”
The woman shrugged. “The door was open.”
Jenna scowled. “What do you want?”
The older of the two sighed. “What do you think we want, Jenna? We’ve come to check you’re okay. And by the looks of it, you most definitely aren’t.”
“I’m fine.” Jenna said, waving them away. “Just fine. Go away and leave me alone.”
They ignored her and sat down on the couch on either side. Her aunts, Rose and Elise, were not very good at abiding by her wishes, and she should have known they’d be over the moment they found out what had happened.
And, despite her protestations, she was glad they were here.
Rose, her eldest aunt, put her arms around her and drew her close. “It’s all right, Jenna,” she said soothingly. “It’s going to be all right.”
Jenna put her arms around Rose and cried. Elise, her younger aunt, patted her awkwardly on the back. “Is there anything we can do?”
Yeah, you can turn back time, so I never meet that bastard called Alex Carter,she thought.How about that?
She cried until her eyes were puffy and her face blotchy and all the while Rose and Elise waited patiently, neither saying a word, both just comforting her by their presence. But eventually, Jenna’s tears ran dry. She drew a deep breath and pushed herself out of Rose’s embrace. Her aunts watched her warily, as though wondering if she was going to have another outburst. Jenna wasn’t entirely sure herself.
Rose patted her knee. “He wasn’t good enough for you anyway. We always said that, didn’t we, Elise? You deserve someone who’s going to love you for who you are. Someone who respects you. Someone who doesn’t spend all his money on his dirt-bikes or stupid records.”
“Sure,” Jenna murmured. “Where am I going to meet someone like that?”
Rose pursed her lips. Instead of answering Jenna’s question, she growled, “Alex Carter had better watch out. If I run into him, he won’t know what’s hit him! Tell you what, shall I put a hex on him? Make him come out in boils? Shrivel his manhood to the size of a peanut?”
Jenna snorted. “If only! But we all know you can’t do that. Our powers can only be used for good, remember?” How often had she heard that growing up? She’d had so many lectures on the fact it was a wonder she didn’t repeat it in her sleep.
“Who needs a hex?” said Elise with a shrug. “Just kick him in the balls and be done with it. Get him in just the right spot and his manhoodwillshrivel to the size of a peanut.”
Despite herself, Jenna laughed. Her aunts always seemed to know what to say to make her feel better. Rose, the sensible one, and Elise, the wild-child, they balanced each other out and gave some much-needed stability to Jenna’s life. Since her mother died, they’d been her rock, and she didn’t know what she would have done without them.
