“But you shattered my daughter’s heart.”
Her own heart sank, quickly and sickeningly, at the words. They were not angry, not loud, butimpassionedand hurt, almost as if she’d somehow broken Katherine’s heart along with Sutton’s.
Charlotte swallowed hard at the reminder. It didn’t matter how much time had passed; she could still see Sutton’s heartbreak clear as day.
“And that… that makes it very, very difficult to like you on this personal level. It’s difficult not to be wary of you because I have seen her be hurt, time and time again. I know you do not have children, but watching your child, no matter how old they may be, be devastated like that…” Katherine rolled her lips, a pained expression sliding over her own features. “It’s difficult to watch.”
It was impossible for Charlotte, then, to hold on to her own feelings of this being none of Katherine’s business. Especially as her words twisted so deeply into Charlotte, achingly so, as she admitted, “I don’t want to hurt Sutton. It’s the last thing I want to do.”
The rawness in her voice, that was the utter truth. It surprised even herself to hear how pleading she was.
Katherine’s eyes widened, too, before she firmed her mouth into a line. “You never didwantto hurt her, though, did you?”
The reality ofthatstruck Charlotte with unerringly painful accuracy, twisting inside of her along with everything else. She swallowed hard against the newfound feeling. “No. I didn’t.”
“I know. Because I wasthere,” Katherine stressed, her eyes boring into Charlotte’s. “Even the one night I met you in person, I could see it. I knew how you looked at her; I know you didn’t hurt her because you didn’t care.”
“That was a long time ago,” she pointed out. She aimed a measured look at Katherine before taking a deep breath to attempt to level out the unexpected hurt from this reality check that was now lacing through her. “And Sutton moved on.” The living, breathing, Lucy-aged proof was part of that.
Katherine didn’t elaborate on Sutton’s state of being, though. What she said was far worse.
“It doesn’t seem, however, that you did,” she stated quietly, knowingly, in a way that made Charlotte’s heart race and a heat creep up the back of her neck.
Being soseenlike that, by a woman who hardly knew her, was extremely disquieting. Charlotte didn’t have the words to respond.
Katherine nodded slowly. “It may not be my place, but I would be remiss if I didn’t take this opportunity while I have it. Sutton may be as soft as a person can be, in a great deal of ways, in the best of ways”—the words were said with utter affection—“but my daughter will do what she wants to do and with whom she wants, as she also has a determination that I admire. She knows what she wants, and no matter what I could say or think—or anyone could say or think—she is going to partake in her own actions, and she should.” She nailed Charlotte with a final look. “I would very much just like you to truly think about yours.”
Charlotte’s heart pounded in her chest as Katherine seemed to take her first true, deep breath all day—having successfully stolen Charlotte’s ability to—and stepped around her, through the doorway and out of the kitchen.
It was only when she was gone that Charlotte allowed herself to reach out and brace her hand against the counter. She leaned on it heavily, gathering herself.
Katherine Spencer, on one hand, didn’t think she was a terrible person. Which was great. She did, however, know likely every detail about how Charlotte had made Sutton feel back in the day, and, worst of all, she could read Charlotte’s feelings for Sutton like a fucking book.
A low whistle sounded from behind her, and she squeezed her eyes closed, breathing deeply for a second to pull herself together before she turned to see Regan.
Charlotte couldn’t help herself from lifting her hand to pinch the bridge of her nose. “I suppose let’s do this all at once, then?” At the very least, there were no more disingenuous niceties that could possibly be in play.
Regan approached her with a smile, though, one that seemed very genuine as she stood shoulder to shoulder with Charlotte in their corner of the kitchen. That alone was a little disconcerting, if she was being honest.
Because Regan was just as strong a protector of Sutton as Katherine was, if her memory served, and one who was far more… openly volatile.
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard such a dressing-down from her like that,” Regan commented.
Ah. That explained the smile, she supposed.
“That makes me feel very special,” Charlotte drawled, biting at the inside of her cheek, as she, hopefully unnoticeably, rubbed her hand over her stomach to settle the twisted-up feelings there.
“Brutal,” Regan stressed.
“It won’t be my favorite holiday pastime.”
“Yeah, but… I mean, in-laws can suck, right? That’s why there’s a whole, like, trope about it.” Regan shrugged.
Charlotte opened her mouth to agree before what Regan said really registered to her. “In-laws?”
Regan’s smile was slow and a little devilish, if she was being honest. “I’m not Sutton’smother; I know everything that’s happening between you two.”
Charlotte raised her eyebrows, staring Regan down. “Then you know that we are only friends.”
