I wanted the floor to crack open and swallow me whole. To disappear from the face of the earth, I was so ashamed of what I’d put everyone through. And of my selfishness, for yet again doing as I pleased.
For conducting this pointless affair with Cruz.
Who cared why she didn’t like us as a couple?
She was allowed to ask me for this after everything she’d done for me. It wasn’t like Cruz and I ended up together in real life anyhow.
“One thing is for sure—I was always on your side, Nessy. Always did things for you. Always helped you out. I wouldn’t let anyone talk badly about you.” Trinity’s eyes filled with tears. I didn’t correct her and explain that even if her friends didn’t talk sheet about me to her face, they did so behind her back and sometimes to my face. “So what I want to know now, my dear sister, is why couldn’t you abide by my one rule, my simple request, my plea to you not to ruin my wedding?”
My mother gasped loudly and clutched her （numerous） pearls. She was wearing a lot of jewelry today and reminded me a bit of Mrs. Warren. “What do you mean, Trinity?”
“This whore you raised,” my sister pointed at me accusingly, raising her voice, “is sleeping with my maid of honor’s boyfriend.”
“He is not her boyfriend!” I cried out, hating that I sounded desperate. “Cruz and Gabriella aren’t together.”
“They’re on a break!” Trinity yelled from across the table. “Gabriella’s beside herself. She said she might not be in the proper mental state to make it to the wedding!”
Wow.
I could see this coming from a hundred miles away, blindfolded and without a map. Maybe I was selfish, but so was Gabby.
“You’re sleeping with Cruz Costello?” My mother choked on the revelation, and a piece of raw cauliflower.
“Some break it is. He won’t take any of her calls and crosses the street when he sees her!” I roared back at my sister, attempting not to come across as the biggest pushover on planet Earth.
“That’s because you’re poisoning him against her.” Trinity was crying now, tears running down her face. “The entire town knows! Gabriella is humiliated.”
“Are you sure I’m the one who is using poison as a method?” I chuckled incredulously, hiding all the pain behind laughter because I’d washed my armor off my face. “Because your so-called best friend just told you she might not be your maid of honor, and also dropped by the other day to call me a homewrecker and threaten to ruin my life.”
“How can she ruin your life when you’ve already done such a fantastic job of it all by yourself?” Trinity snorted out.
“My life is not ruined!” I banged my fist on the table. “I have a son that I love and a family I would die for, if you haven’t noticed. Maybe I could have a better job, but at least I’m not so desperate to quit mine that I’m marrying a man with the emotional maturity of a grapefruit who pretty much ignores my existence.”
“Nessy!” My mother cupped her mouth. “For shame! Wyatt is a lovely man.”
“Wyatt barely knows your names.”
“Take that back,” Trinity ordered, barking at me.
“Even if I did, it wouldn’t make it any less true!”
Trinity charged toward me, bitch-slapping me so hard, so zealously, my face flew in the other direction and my opposite cheek slammed against the kitchen cabinet.
For the first few seconds, I couldn’t feel anything. Then the burn began spreading everywhere, like wildfire.
My jaw.
My eyes.
My nose.
My soul.
I turned my head, staring my sister dead in the eye.
This was my time to stand up to my family like Cruz had been telling me to, over and over again.
To tell them that, in fact, I was allowed to date whomever I wanted.
That my life wasn’t over or less meaningful than theirs.
That I was not a complete screw-up, and that even though they’d been there for me through thick and thin, I deserved not only their help and guidance, but also respect. I’d been there for them, too.
But the words, all the words that I’d had to tell Trinity and my mother, got stuck in my throat when I thought about everything I could lose.
Bear’s grandparents, whom he loved so dearly.
And Auntie Trinity, who took him into the city every year before Christmas for some serious shopping and made him his favorite key lime pies for Thanksgiving, even though absolutely nobody else loved those horrible custards.