Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 67432 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67432 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
“No, wait,” Jax said. She sat back, holding onto the balled up napkin in tight fists. He closed his eyes and rubbed at the bridge of his nose. “Yes… it is true,” Jackson said to the resounding surprise of everyone sitting at the dinner table. “Amelia and I did date. For about three years.”
My jaw dropped. “Three years? How did we not hear about this?” I asked.
“We were both content on keeping things quiet. My family situation was complicated, and hers was as well.”
Archie’s expression twisted into something that looked like disdain as he stared at Kendall. Wendy mirrored her husband, down to the same eyebrow wrinkle and twisted grimace. “Out of everyone you could be dating, you decide to date him? How dare you disrespect Mom’s memory like that.”
Kendall looked like she had been slapped across the face. She huffed out a breath, fidgeting with a hairband on her wrist as she looked for words. I braced myself. Fights between Archie and Kendall never ended well.
“How did you even know?” Kendall asked, looking as if she were ready to launch herself across the table at Archie.
“That doesn’t matter.” He turned his focus back to Jax. “What really matters is how you can go to sleep at night next to him, knowing he’s been with Mom.”
The table got deathly silent. As if someone had dropped a thick curtain on the scene, turning off the stage lights and plunging the theatre into quiet. I gritted my teeth, reaching for Eric’s hand under the table and giving him a squeeze. I could tell he was equally as shocked by my sister’s outburst as I was, but he didn’t know how much worse it could really get.
I did. I had seen my sister flip into one of her rage-filled modes before. It never turned out well.
“You all want to judge, you all want to point fingers. Except you’re all just equally full of shit,” she spat, leaning forward. “Archie, how many times did you steal from Mom to support your gambling addiction, huh? And Matt, the golden child of the family, when are you going to tell Dad that you’re the reason he and Mom split, huh?”
My father’s head whipped as if on a swivel, turning to his left and looking at a paper-pale Matthew. My brother was never good with confrontation, always locking himself in a room at the slightest sign of a fight. It looked like he was seconds away from hiding under the table until we were all gone.
“Is that true?” my dad asked, voice shaking.
“I—she asked me. She told me, actually, that she wasn’t happy. I’d noticed how you two had changed, how there weren’t any more date nights or random kisses and hugs. I just mentioned that maybe she needed some time alone. I just meant she needed to think things over. I was a junior in high school—what the hell was I supposed to say?”
“Three days later, Mom served you the divorce papers.” Kendall looked proud of herself. She had always loved to play with fire, and now she sat back down and watched as the dinner table caught ablaze with the match she had tossed.
“Why did you never tell me this?”
Matt shook his head and mouthed words that didn’t materialize. He looked like a fish gasping for breath. “I don’t think this is the right time,” I cut in, wanting to throw my brother a life raft. He didn’t deserve this. Kendall had flipped it all around, taking attention away from Jax and throwing Matt, her own brother, into the fire.
Shit. This dinner was turning out to be an absolute fucking nightmare, and the main course hadn’t even been brought out yet.
19
ERIC RUIZ
This was quickly deteriorating. Like watching a nuclear reactor melting down in real time. The clock that ticked down toward pure annihilation was right there on William’s face, growing redder by each passing second, matching the red plates the chef and his helpers placed down on the table, each plate with a mouthwatering steak sitting on grilled asparagus and a swirl of what appeared to be dark chocolate. Kendall was back in her seat but her temper was still clearly flaring.
“And here we have our filets mignons imported from New Zealand, cooked over a thyme and basil reduction with a spicy chocolate drizzle. Enjoy.”
The chef bowed his head and left, seemingly oblivious to the war zone he had just evacuated from.
“Why, Matt?”
“I was young. I told her what I felt. I didn’t think—it wasn’t my fault. I didn’t force her to leave you.”
Krystine looked to her boyfriend with sympathetic eyes. She reached out a hand and placed it on his. Matthew didn’t seem to notice.
“But you planted the seed. Against your own father.” He leaned back in the chair, eyes drilling a hole directly through Matt’s chest. He looked hurt, but the anger seemed to be simmering under something else. Disappointment?