All my hopes—the ones I’ve been carefully nurturing over the past few days—wither and die, leaving only their acrid taste in my mouth. The future I’d dreamed of crumbles down to rubble before my eyes.
They were only words. Stupid words. Useless words.
Words mean nothing. Absolutely nothing.
I can never win. Not against Karan’s mother. She’d already won this battle and claimed her territory decades ago.
“Rachel?”
Karan’s name on my lips sounds so far away, he might as well be on another planet.
Maybe I’m the idiot. I expected too much. People don’t change—not really. Not deep down.
I’ve set my expectations too high.
And now my heart shatters into a thousand pieces.
But I can break down later. First, I’ve got to protect my boys.
“Karan.” I leave no room for negotiation in my voice. “Go. Fucking. Stop her.Now.”
“Bu—”
“She’s wrong.” My entire body trembles from the white-hot rage burning through every fiber of my being. “I’m a pharmacist, Karan. I think I would know.”
I can’t believe he still doesn’t trust me.
“Go, or I will.”
Eyes round with uncertainty, Karan nods and gets up. I don’t wait to watch the argument unfold between the two of them.
I need some air.
As Karan heads towards the kitchen, I walk to the door, grab my boots and coat, and run outdoors.
I pace towards the path that leads to the frozen bay, taking deep breaths to keep myself upright. It may be cold, but I’m fuming and can hardly feel the wind against the skin of my face.
It’s too quiet out here. The world holds its breath around me. Even the frozen bay lies perfectly still, its surface like glass, while inside my chest everything fractures and bleeds.
How can the world be this peaceful when my entire world is falling apart?
I reach the frozen shore and stare out at the horizon, only allowed to stand here for five seconds before I hear him call out my name.
I don’t turn.
“Rachel!” he repeats, his panicked voice and the sound of his boots crunching against the snow at breakneck speed the only things disturbing this peaceful tableau. “Rachel, what are you doing out here?”
He really needs to ask?
With all the fury gathered within me, I turn just in time for him to nearly collide into me.
“Why don’t you ever believeme?”
Karan looks taken aback. Whatever he was expecting, this wasn’t it. “What?”
I don’t know what makes me more angry; the fact that he did what he did, or the fact that I have to fucking spell it out for him.
“I told you, Karan. I told you the lasagna wouldn’t be safe. Did you think I told you this for fun? Just to make a scene or cause a fight with your mom, or what?”
