I bared my teeth at her, my passive facade slipping. I had every intention of getting through this without snarling at my parents in front of their guests—these pigs of human beings—but irritability owned me. “And I will not toast to a future I didn’t choose,” I told her, my tone crisp, clear.
“Why are we even here, Gerard?” Mr. Roche drawled, giving me that distasteful look.
“My question exactly,” I stated, staring my father down. He didn’t look pleased, white-knuckling his fork.
My mother pinched me again, and Jared kicked my shin. He earned the brunt of my glare, but his furious gaze promised retribution for my poor behavior. Little did they know that every touch put me closer and closer to vomiting all over the table.
Everyone in the room stared at me. It was still so, so hot, the water not helping at all. This disaster of a night would be my life. No matter what they did to me, what they said to me, I would no longer fall in line for them. Beating me into submission would no longer work. I would endure whatever I had to in order to keep the little people inside me safe. I’d made it through sleepless nights, through vomiting until I passed out on the bathroom floor, through welts covering my stomach—I could make it through whatever they had planned for me.
“You know why we’re here,” my father stated, folding his hands on the table in front of him, not even acknowledging me anymore. “We were thinking a fall wedding, after the children are born. Announce that she came back months ago and she and Jared have been together since. We can announce the twins as theirs. Everyone loves babies. The scandal of it happening before their marriage isn’t perfect, but press is press. People will dote on them, and the wedding will build hype. It’ll benefit both our families’ endeavors.”
Even though there was no way I would be eating, I gripped my fork, pondering who I would stab with it. Jared held my gaze, his eyes warning me, telling me there would be hell to pay if I had another outburst. He had no clue who I was anymore. I was no longer the submissive pushover he had known. He hadn’t an inkling of the hell I could rain down on both these families simply with access to a computer.
This was a fight I could win, and they had no idea. They didn’t know what my major was, what I’d learned over those three years. I could pretend complacency, request they purchase me a computer, and go to fucking town on them.
That was my new plan. It was bright and shiny and brilliant.
“I thought you were getting rid of the problem,” Mrs. Roche said.
My gaze whipped in her direction. She would be the first to go down. Little did they know how adept I’d become at photoshop. Things were about to get very, very nasty for her.
“She’s too far along,” my mother informed them, her tone full of distaste. “Besides, we feel she may be more compliant if we allow her to keep them.”
Compliant, my ass. But I kept my mouth shut like a good girl. I could lay in wait. They would never see what was coming to them all.
Mr. Roche hummed, and I clenched my jaw to keep from growling at him. “There will be some amendments to our agreement,” he told my father. Jared smirked, winking at me again. I gave him a bored stare.
“We can discuss those in the parlor after dinner,” my father told him, to which he agreed.
How these people thought they could control someone, control a situation that was so completely out of their control, was beyond me. Though it showed me a glimpse of myself. Always thinking I could control everything, could keep everything working just right. How wrong was I? These blessings growing inside me were the perfect example of that. As was the situation at hand. If I’d shared my past, my secrets with Kai long ago, I may not have ever wound up back here. He wouldn’t have left. Whenever I was able to get a hold of a charger, or a computer, or anything, I would tell him how sorry I was and beg his forgiveness. Somehow, I would escape this place again, with our twins, and I would go be with him.
Dinner was brought out while the adults chatted and Jared messed around with his phone. The scent of the roasted chicken mixed with the sautéed brussels sprouts had my stomach rolling so violently, I almost had to run to the bathroom. But the doorbell rang through the house, distracting me.
“Who could that be?” my mother wondered, looking to my father.
There was a quiet murmur as Henrietta answered the door.
“I’ll take care of it,” Father told her, excusing himself from the table and exiting the dining room into the foyer.
Then we heard the doors bang open and shouting commence.
“Let me the fuck in to see Chloe.” Kai’s voice boomed through the house.
My bones melted, a whimper escaping me as I surged to my feet, ignoring the spinning room while the rest of the table got up.
They hurried out in front of me, too concerned with the commotion to even think of me, the person who was requested. But I got around the wall to see Kai filling the doorway, my father standing in front of him with his arms held wide. He looked so small, so nothing, in front of Kai.
“You will not be seeing Chloe,” my father snapped as my mother hurried for them and Henrietta cowered in the foyer. “You have interrupted our dinner. We’ll call the cops if you don’t leave the premises at once.”
The Roches stood back, watching the scene play out. Kai was attempting to look around my father and mother standing in front of him. His gaze caught mine over my mother’s shoulder. Relief consumed me as another whimper escaped
