Page 153 of The Right Kind of Wrong

Grace scoffed. “Yeah. Because you never had to.”

Blake leaned forward, seeing the truth written across her sister’s face. At least, the truth as she saw it. Which was confusing as all hell to Blake. “What are you talking about?”

Grace folded her arms across her chest again, tilting her chin defiantly. “Blake Duvall never needed to stay in the lines. If you didn’t like them, you just got to draw new ones.”

Sure, Blake’s cage had been gilded, but it was still a cage, all the same.

And yeah, the idea of leaving Noah at different points over the years had flitted through her mind, but she hadn’t stayed because she wanted to continue being a Duvall. She’d stayed because she’d wanted a family.

It was an unfair choice that a lot of women made every day, regardless of their sexuality.

She knew in retrospect that this choice had made her incredibly stupid. She’d worked through the guilt over even considering bringing children into that home. Little Duvalls that, no matter how much love and attention and guidance she gave them, would have probably ended up more like Noah than anything else, by virtue of the complete lack of boundaries he’d give them—or not give them, technically.

“Well, I think it’s pretty clear that Noah leaving me cast me out of the fold. Why, then, have you given me the silent treatment for the last eight months? Didn’t feel like I had been punished enough?” Blake asked, hearing an emotion in her voice that she hadn’t expected.

She knew how this town operated, but she’d always thought that she and Grace—their relationship—existed outside of it. That being sisters was more important to them than anything else.

“I just didn’t understand it. Any of it.” Blake knew that her sister was telling the truth, even if it didn’t make things any clearer.

“Understand what?” she pressed.

“All of it!” Grace yelled in an uncharacteristic burst of emotion. “You just got two jobs and moved into a new place and made new friends. And even though this town tried to tear you down at every opportunity, you just kept coming back for more. What were you trying to prove? It was like you didn’t even care.”

“Care?” Anger flared up inside of Blake, and she couldn’t tamp it down. If Grace wanted to know what the last eight months had actually been like, then she’d sure as hell tell her. “Grace, in an instant, my entire life was turned upside down. Noah told me that he was cheating on me, which I’d pretty much assumed, by the way. But then, he tells me that he’s divorcing me, that nothing from our thirteen years together—while I was taking care of his every personal and professional need, mind you—was actually mine. Oh, and as the cherry on top, he immediately moved his mistress in, fast-tracked a divorce with his family’s money, and then announced that they were already pregnant, like it was some fucking glorious gift from god. When all I’d ever wanted was to be a mother, which was the one thing that was never going to happen for me.”

Blake stood up. She had too much energy—too much anger and hurt and frustration—to stay still.

She’d only told her sister once, years ago, that she didn’t think that having a baby was going to be in the cards for her. But Blake hadn’t wanted to make things about herself, and she’d buried the hurt and loss of the idea deep down inside so that she could still show up for her nieces and nephews and the children of her friends.

Without being pitied or judged. Without people ever having to worry that they couldn’t celebrate their own life milestones because those same ones would never be afforded to her.

“Blake—”

“No,” Blake cut in. “I’m not done. I had to live with our parents for months just so that I wasn’t homeless, which honestly, in retrospect, seems like a more attractive option. The looks and the judgment and the silent treatment from those two. I got two jobs so that I could survive in this world while I completely started over. I went back to school to finish my degree, not that you know or care about that.”

The elephant in the room was that, through it all, Grace had treated her just like everyone else had treated her, like she was the one who’d done something wrong.

Which is why this diatribe would never be wasted on someone like Noah. Blake could give two shits what he thought about her.

She looked at Grace, her own eyes blazing with anger. “I never asked for any of this. Any of it. And then I meet someone who makes me happy. Who helped me realize things that I’d always been too scared to admit, even to myself. Someone who’s there for me and supports me and makes me feel a little less alone in this fucking world.”

Thinking of Monroe, she couldn’t help but feel the flutter in her rib cage, battling to extinguish the anger that had bubbled up so swiftly it had stolen Blake’s breath.

But she was mad. And hurt. And she wanted Grace to know it.

Blake pointed a menacing finger at her sister before she started pacing around the office again. “And then you have the gall to come in here, guns blazing, on your sanctimonious high horse and tell me about my own life? You have no clue what’s been going on because you haven’t bothered to return my texts or calls for months. And then you do things like invite Noah to family parties, just to suck up to the Duvalls, not caring how much it would hurt me.”

Just then, Denny skidded to a stop in front of her office door with a Tupperware container in his hands, and the finger pointed at her sister turned on him. “Out, Denny. The lunchroom is closed for the foreseeable future. Shut the door behind you, and pass the word along.”

He took a visible gulp and nodded so fast that she wondered if he’d sprain something in his neck. To his credit, he did close the door before Scooby-Doo scrambling out of it.

The momentary interruption knocked some of the wind from Blake’s sails, and she leaned back, chest heaving.

She hadn’t really accepted how much holding that in had been impacting her. How hurt—betrayed, even— she’d felt about Grace’s rejection.

Of all the things that could happen next, though, she hadn’t expected Grace to start crying.

Her sister almost never cried. She’d always been so strong and composed, and watching Grace crumple in front of her made Blake feel like her heart was breaking in half.