Page 91 of What If We Break?
There was something strange happening inside of me, but I really didn’t want to explore those feelings.
Millie was dead to me. I had Emory, my mom. And I didn’t need some woman in my life who figured staging her own death so she didn’t have to raise me was a good idea. I hated her.
But—
“Woah, what’s Mom doing there with Erik?” my brother asked as he suddenly came up beside me. Our dad wasn’t in sight, and I wondered why. Actually, it was good Dad wasn’t here. “Wait, that’s not Mom. Mom’s hair is longer and?—”
“It’s Millie,” I muttered.
“Shit.” Eden kept looking at her for another two seconds before his head snapped to mine. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” I said, smiling at Eden. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Uh, because your mom is literally being all… motherly with Erik. That guy is your age, she could be his mother for all we know. Which issofucked up, dude.”
“She’s not my mom.” My eyes were back on Millie, watching as she walked over to some guy in a suit. I knew that guy, he’d been at Erik and my skating practice a coupleof times. While Erik never confirmed it, I just always assumed it was his dad. “She’s just… a fucked up woman.”
“A woman who’s kissing Erik’s father.” He laughed. “It’s like watching Mom kiss another guy. That’s so gross.”
I slapped my brother, but unfortunately, not as hard as I could. “Don’t fucking say that.”
“Brooke, they look thesame. It’s just an observation.”
“A gross one at that.” I sighed. “You know Mom doesn’t like being compared to her.” Which made a lot of sense. I wouldn’t have wanted to be compared to someone like Millie, either.
Someone who was sick enough to cause pain to her own twin sister, who had admired her so much. Someone who literally stole her sister’s boyfriend and made her loathe herself. And that was only like a year before she faked her death.
To be fair, I should’ve been thankful for her in a way. If she hadn’t disappeared for five years after I was born, I wouldn’t have had the best family imaginable now. She did us a huge favor.
“Do you think I should say hello to her?” Eden asked. “Would she even recognize me?”
I looked at my brother, narrowing my eyes. Eden was a carbon copy of our father. “No, Eden, I don’t think she would. Why don’t you go try it out?”
He was about to take a step forward when I reached for his shirt and pulled him back. “Don’t you dare.”
“But you said?—”
“That was sarcasm, idiot.”
“I knew that,” he muttered, crossing his arms over his chest. “It was just a joke.”
Yeah, sure.
“Where’s Dad? Didn’t he send you here?” I asked.
Eden cocked his head at me, and his eyebrows drew together. “Dad? I haven’t seen him since we got here.”
“So he’s probably still looking for you.”
“Why?”
“Do you have your phone? I need to call Reece,” I said instead of answering his question. At the end of the day, it didn’t matter why Dad was looking for him. Besides, my reply was technically the answer.
“Obviously.” He pulled out his phone and handed it to me without any further complaints. “I just realized Reece isn’t here yet. Pretty unusual for him.”
I nodded to show my brother some sign of acknowledgment, but I was a bit too focused on finding Reece’s number. “Why don’t you have Reece’s number saved in your contacts?”
He chuckled. “I do.”
