‘By text? What kind of scumbag does that?’ Astrid demanded with an indignation Sienna felt in her soul.
In fact, courtesy of all the stories they’d shared and fizz they’d fuzzed, and maybe just a little bit because of the way Aiden was staring out at all and sundry and daring them not to fall in love with his perfect face, anger exploded through her. ‘Who is he?’ she heard herself demand. ‘Tell me. I’ll bring you his head.’ Yes! Yes, she damn well would!
Everyone laughed, including Sienna, but inside she was livid.
‘He’s not a bad person really.’
Sienna almost rolled her eyes. Why did so many women make excuses for these dropkicks? She’d seen it time and time again while volunteering at legal aid. Hell, she’d done it often enough herself, first for Aiden and then for Cory.
‘He’s just a little clueless,’ Bella continued softly. ‘Had everything handed to him on a silver platter. He’s a bit of a Peter Pan and I made the classic mistake of thinking that it would be different with me. That I could change him.’
Sienna puffed out a defensive sigh and tried to soften her tone, even though she was pretty sure her expression was set to DEFCON 1. ‘Doesn’t excuse him leaving you standing at the altar.’
‘No, it doesn’t. That was truly a low act.’
‘Yes, it was.’
‘Well.’ Astrid leaned closer to Sienna. ‘You can string mine up.’ Maybe she sensed that Sienna was now simply baying for, if not blood, a little payback.
‘Were you jilted as well?’
‘No. Unbeknownst to me, he’d already trotted up that aisle and merrily said “I do” to someone else.’
‘So… he turned you into the other woman?’
‘Too right he did. Made me feel like a piece of shit.’
It was like a faucet had been turned on and she didn’t know how to control it. Anger was a wide spray nozzle, coursing through Sienna’s veins. Her day had gone from bad to worse, but it was the culmination of a pretty shitty decade, and these women were suddenly the receptacle for every feeling she’d absorbed and muted over the years. ‘Are you freaking kidding me? He was already married?’
Bella’s cheeks had two pink spots. ‘What is wrong with these men? Doesn’t marriage mean anything any more?’
‘I don’t think men get the concept of commitment,’ Sienna muttered. ‘Even the ones who seem to are just faking it.’
Suddenly, three pairs of eyes were turned on her and she began to feel a little hot under the collar. It was all well and good to be outraged on someone else’s behalf. That was why she was pretty sure she was going to be a damned good lawyer. But advocating for yourself was way harder. ‘Sorry.’ Her laugh was tight. ‘That’s a little dramatic, isn’t it?’
But Bella wasn’t going to be put off. Like Paige, she was an excellent truth hound. ‘What happened?’
Melanie’s dad Cory was the one who’d really wronged her. He was the one who’d used her for free childcare, just because she loved his daughter like her own. But Cory had never really hurt her. Even though she could objectively see how badly he’d treated her, it hadn’t mattered that much, because she hadn’t loved him. Not like she’d loved Aiden.
Her eyes drifted to the poster and something tightened in the region of her heart. Was she really going to open this can of worms? Or was it that it had never been sealed shut before? And when had she ever talked to anyone about it? Never, that was when. She’d kept it all close to her chest, refusing to let anyone see how much he’d hurt her. ‘My ex’ – she frowned as she looked back to the squad – ‘kind of just discarded me.’ Her throat stung. ‘It wasn’t like some big, dramatic break-up.’ Like that made a difference. ‘I didn’t even get the chance to throw plates.’ Maybe she’d have felt better if she’d had a chance to fire up at him, to really lose her temper? It was all so long ago, though. ‘I mean, we were just kids, but we were each other’s firsts, you know?’ And now for the really big admission, the one she was loath to share because it showed how stupid and naïve she’d been. ‘And I thought we were going to have a life together.’ A whole life. A whole, long, happy life. Only, that was his plan for himself, not her. It had never been about her. She dug her nails into her palm beneath the table. ‘But he hightailed it out of town without a backwards glance.’And refused to speak to me, ever again.‘Like nothing we had mattered.’
And it hadn’t.
He’d been dating someone else pretty soon, and his career had lit up like an arena.
Bella’s soft, manicured hand reached across to squeeze Sienna’s. ‘I’m so sorry. That’s terrible.’
‘Sucks ass,’ Astrid agreed in a tone that actually made Sienna laugh despite everything. God, she needed to stop thinking about Aiden.
Her eyes swept across the table, studying her new friends. What was it about these women that had inspired her to open up? Why this group? Why now?
But Paige had been conspicuously quiet during the ‘my ex is worse than your ex’ conversation, which only made Sienna wonder…
‘Can I bringyouanyone’s head?’
She wasn’t actually about to go out and hunt these guys down but it was fun to imagine, for a moment, that such power (fuelled by prosecco) was within her grasp.
Paige hesitated, her lips parting a little, and Sienna wondered if she was going to change the subject or say something like, ‘I’d rather not talk about it.’
