"What are you doing here?"I ask.
"I'm here to talk sense into you."His voice is tight with anger, but he's keeping it low enough so most people won't overhear."This whole charade has gone on long enough."
"Charade?"
“This ridiculous fantasy of playing mother to five kids that aren’t yours.It’s time to come home.”
The casual cruelty of it, the way he reduces my grief and my family obligations to stupidity, makes my stomach turn.
"I am home."
"No, you're not.You're having some kind of breakdown, and I'm here to help you through it."He steps closer, his voice taking on that patronizing tone I've learned to hate."I understand you're upset about your brother, but throwing away your entire future isn't going to bring him back."
"I'm not throwing away anything.I'm finally choosing what matters to me."
Ethan's laugh is cold and mocking."What matters to you?Poverty?Chaos?Raising someone else's damaged children while living with criminals?"
"They're not criminals?—"
"They're bikers, Evangeline.Do you have any idea what that means?The kind of illegal activities these people are involved in?"His voice rises slightly, drawing glances from nearby mourners."You're going to destroy your reputation, your career, your entire life, and for what?Some misguided sense of duty?"
"It's not misguided."
"What do you know about raising traumatized kids, Evangeline?What happens when the reality of what you've taken on hits you?"
The questions are designed to make me doubt myself, to plant seeds of fear about my ability to handle what I'm committing to.
Two days ago, they might have worked.
But not anymore.
"I'll figure it out."
“You’ll figure it out?”he snaps.“That’s your plan?”
"If necessary."
"This is insane.You're being completely irrational."He glances around, aware that people are starting to notice our raised voices, then grabs my arm and pulls me toward a quieter corner.“Five kids?Trauma?Social services?You really think this ends in a fairy tale?”
I say nothing.He sees that as weakness.
“He’ll leave, Evangeline.Men like that always do.”
I try to pull free, but his grip tightens."Let go of me."
"Not until you listen to reason.You think this is what you want now, but what happens in six months when the honeymoon phase wears off?When you're dealing with nightmares and behavioral problems and social services breathing down your neck?When that biker gets bored with playing daddy and moves on to easier prey?"
"That's not going to happen."
"He’ll take what he wants and leave you drowning; with five broken kids and no way out.”
His words are poison, designed to make me question everything I've decided.But instead of causing doubt, they just make me angry.
"You don't know anything about him," I say, my voice steady despite the rage building in my chest.
"I know enough.I know he's using you.Using those children to manipulate you into some twisted fantasy of domestic bliss."Ethan's grip on my arm becomes painful."But when the novelty wears off, when reality sets in, he'll be gone.And you'll be left with nothing."
"I'd rather have nothing with him than everything with you."
