"At least I'm not going around like an alley cat, running after every skirt I see," I grit out between my teeth. "At least I never cheated on you."
Mitchell huffs at this and shakes his head.
"No wonder you found a guy to take care of the kids. It was never about them, was it? You just wanted to get laid."
I open my mouth to spew more poison his way, but my words get lost as Zoe climbs out slowly, her movements stiff and deliberate. Her face is pale, her blue eyes wide and shocked as she looks at me.
At my disheveled hair. My bare feet. My cardigan buttoned all wrong.
At Noah standing on the porch behind me.
Her expression shifts from shock to something worse. Betrayal. Her lower lip trembles and for a moment I think she's going to burst into tears.
I take a step toward her, my hand reaching out instinctively.
"Zoe, wait. I can explain—"
But Zoe doesn't wait.
Her mouth presses into a thin, furious line, and she storms past me without a word. She doesn't look at Noah either; she just shoves past him on the porch and disappears into the house. The door slams so hard it rattles the frame.
I flinch like I've been struck.
Then Matthew stumbles out of the car, clutching Mr. Gears to his chest. His face is red and blotchy from crying. He doesn't look at anyone. Not me, not Mitchell, not Noah.
He just runs after his sister, his wings dragging on the ground behind him.
"Matthew—" I start, but he's already gone.
The front door closes again, softer this time but no less final. I stand there in the driveway, frozen, my chest cracking wide open. I want to go after them. I want to hold them and explain and fix this.
But I can't move. Mitchell's laugh is bitter and sharp.
"Well, that went about as well as expected."
I round on him, my hands trembling. "What the hell happened, Mitchell? You were supposed to spend the week with them. What did you do?"
"What didIdo?" He laughs again, and it's the ugliest sound I've ever heard. "Zoe ruined the entire trip, that's what happened. She was openly disrespectful to Jasmine from day one. Refused to cooperate. Refused to even try."
My jaw tightens. "She's thirteen, and her father left her family for another woman. What did you expect?"
Mitchell ignores me and continues, his voice rising. "I planned a family photoshoot. A nice, simple thing. Professional photos with me and Jasmine and the kids. Something we could frame and put on the wall."
My stomach sinks. Of course he did.
"And Zoe flat-out refused. Stepped out of frame. Humiliated Jasmine in front of the photographer and the staff."
His face is flushed now, his wings vibrating with barely contained anger.
"Is that all?" I ask quietly. "You're rejecting your children because Zoe didn't want to take a picture."
Mitchell's mouth twists. "She said, 'I'm not taking pictures for your fake family.'"
The words hang in the air between us. I close my eyes briefly.
Oh, Zoe.
"And when I tried to make her cooperate, because she's my daughter and she doesn't get to treat Jasmine like garbage, she did this."
