She freezes.
“What?” Her voice is thin.
“Together. Walking out of a room. I heard them fucking against the door, May.”
Her lips part. No sound comes out.
The door to the room slams open. “What the fuck is going on?” Tom says loudly as he enters behind us. “May, baby, don’t listen to her?—”
I see red and lose my fucking mind. “Don’t you ‘baby’ her, you motherfucking piece of shit.”
“What are you even talking about?” he sneers. “You’re making shit up because you’re a miserable little attention whore.”
Gasps around the room. Izzy comes to stand by our side. Elodie tries to hang back near the door, face red. People are standing now. Someone whispers to a groomsman. Someone else knocks over a glass of champagne. A tiny flower girl starts crying. Nico moves towards Tom like he’s going to wring his neck. Good.
May steps between them, pushing Nico away, voice shaking but loud. “Tom, were you with her?”
“No! Jesus, baby, she’s making this up?—”
“Annie wouldn’t lie to me,” May cuts in.
Tom steps forward, the light catching on his tie clip like it’s a dagger. “I wasn’t, May.”
“Then where were you?” May demands to know.
“I was?—”
“I watched you walk out of a room with Elodie, and I heard you fucking her against the door,” I answer for him.
“She’s insane, May?—”
“Then what were you doing?”
“I was up on the roof, checking?—”
“I went up there to look for you. The wedding planner said she hadn’t seen him. You can ask her,” I retort.
Tom steps towards May. “Are you seriously going to let her hijack this day?” His voice is a weapon—measured and sharp. “This is classic Annie. Stirring up chaos, screaming in the middle of someone else’s moment because she can’t stand not being the center of attention.”
“Enough, asshole,” Nico spits, trying to get to Tom, but May stands her ground and doesn’t let anyone past her.
Tom sneers at him. “Shut the fuck up, dick.”
His eyes land back on me. His smile is cruel. “She lies and plays victim and leaves a mess for everyone else to clean up. That’s what she does. That’s who she is.”
“This is not about me. You are not doing this right now,” I manage to spit, low and guttural, but he barrels over it.
“She can’t help it,” he says with a bitter chuckle, looking at May now, like he’s trying to reason with her. “It’s pathological. She gets off on ruining things for other people. She needs to be the loudest. And you—” He gestures at May. “You always let her.You bend your spine backwards trying to make her feel like she belongs here, like she’s not a walking disaster.”
Nico is suddenly by my side and wraps me in his arms, his knuckles white. Safe, steady, secure. The room is heating up. A bridesmaid stifles a sob. Izzy is ready to throw the fuck down the second May says the word.
“She can’t stand that you have a real relationship,” Tom spits. “That someone like me—stable, smart, with a future—chose you. Because she’s never had anything like that.”
“Shut up,” I growl, but I’m shaking while Nico squeezes me tighter, like he can protect me from the slaughter. Safe, steady, secure. But my voice still breaks in the middle, and he smiles like that was what he wanted.
“You’re just going to take her word for it?” Tom shrugs. “She’s jealous. That’s all this is. Jealous and lonely and attention-starved.”
“I’m gonna fuckin’ kill you, Tom.” Nico says it like a promise.
