“Shehappened,” Aurelia finally whispered, fresh tears welling on her eyelids. “I’m so sorry, Harrison.”
“Oh, don’t be dramatic, darling.” Regina’s chin lifted, her features aloof despite the poisonous glimmer in her eyes when she glanced at me. “I simply told her the truth.”
“Yeah, what truth is that?” I spat at her, not even trying to hide the burning rage sweeping through me right now. This woman was awful.
She held my gaze, pretending that she hadn’t flinched as soon as I’d spoken, but she had. I’d seen it. “That if she insists on going through with this ridiculous marriage, she will no longer be my daughter. The choice is simple. It’s you or her family.”
The words landed as hard as an unexpected gut punch by a professional fighter, but anger cut through the shock. “Why? Why would you do that to her? Why would make her choose?”
Regina’s icy gaze snapped to me again, her voice sharp with decades of bitterness. “Because your mother ruined my life. She spread the most vile, untrue rumors about me in high school. She said that I stole her boyfriend. She painted me as some kind of low-class homewrecker. A cheap whore.”
Her eyes took on a faraway quality, like she was getting lost in the memories. “Things were never the same for me after that. Do you have any idea what she did to my reputation?”
I blinked, trying to reconcile the venom in her voice with the woman standing in front of me. “You’re doing this because you’re still holding a grudge from something that happened inhighschool?”
Aurelia stood, trembling like a leaf as she brought her gaze to mine. “We know that it happened, Harrison. CC told us so herself.”
“Yeah, but?—”
Regina’s head snapped toward me, her eyes blazing. “Of course you’d take her side! I’ve been treated like the villain for the last thirty years because of your mother and I will not allow my daughter to join her family.”
The room went dead silent, Aurelia caught between us, her shoulders shaking like she was holding herself together only by sheer force of will. As I stared back at her mother, I realized that she didn’t just dislike me. She hated everything my family was or ever would be.
For as long as she was in the room, I wasn’t going to get any answers. Aurelia and I weren’t going to be able to talk—calmly and reasonably—to discuss our next move, so I raised my hands with my palms turned out, forcing calm into my voice even though my pulse was ready to break through my skin.
“Enough. This has gone far enough.” I looked at Regina, refusing to let her intimidate me. “You don’t have to like me. You don’t have to like my family, but I willnotlet you bulldoze her like this. Back off.”
For a moment, I thought she’d double down, but then Regina’s smile faltered, her gaze flicking to Aurelia. She let out a long-suffering sigh, clearly skilled at playing the victim.
“I only want what’s best for you,” she said stiffly, her voice straining. “I’m sorry, darling. I cannot condone this marriage and I won’t stand idly by and watch it happen. I won’t let CC steal you from me.”
Aurelia nodded, but she didn’t answer. Her eyes were too shiny, her jaw set too tight, and I could see immediately that Regina’s words had landed exactly where she’d aimed. Right in the center of Aurelia’s heart.
I still wasn’t about to just roll over and play dead, though. Her mother was manipulating the shit out of her and I wouldn’t stand for it.
When I finally got her out of that house and into my car, Aurelia turned toward me. “I feel like I’m putting you in an impossible position. Your mother isn’t exactly my biggest fan either, and now mine is threatening to cut me off. What if this—what if they—are what drives us apart someday?”
I gripped the wheel, torn between slamming my foot on the gas and pulling her into my arms. I looked at her, sitting there with fear and uncertainty clouding those sharp, brilliant eyes.
“If that’s what you’re afraid of, then why are you letting it drive us apart now?”
Her lips parted and she was still trembling, but she didn’t say anything at first. I reached across the console to take her hand, hoping that she would allow my touch to comfort her. She let me wrap my fingers around hers, but she hadn’t answered me.
Her mouth opened and closed a few times, like the words were right there but she couldn’t make herself say them. It was then that I realized this wasn’t going to be as easy as just talking some sense into her.
Clearly, whatever Regina had said before I’d even woken up had done a number on Aurelia. Feeling like my chest was cracked open from the inside out, I nodded slowly.
“We’re supposed to get married in two days, Aurelia.” My voice came out harsh, scraped raw by the emotions ripping through me. I swallowed hard. “I’ll be there, waiting for you. Just like we planned. If you change your mind.”
She flinched and I almost couldn’t stand it, but I pressed on because she needed to hear this. “I know what it feels like to be the baby. To be overlooked, to be brushed aside like you’re just… an extra. I’ve been there.”
My throat tightened, but I held her gaze, refusing to let her look away. “But I see you, Aurelia. I’ve always seen you. That’s all that should matter, isn’t it?”
CHAPTER 42
AURELIA
I spent the entire day in my apartment, blinds drawn and curtains closed, drowning in the kind of silence that was deafeningly loud. I lay on the couch, the TV off. No book had been able to hold my attention. My phone was face down on the coffee table, unread messages buzzing faintly every now and then like constant reminders of the damage I’d done.
