Page 195 of Spicy Ever After
I’m personally offended. “Everyone?”
“Well—” She sobers. “Not you. But everyone else.”
Those fuckers.
“So, what? Your parents sent you away to—what? Have you reprogrammed or some shit?”
Flames blaze up my chest, anger burning through me.
“I-It’s not—Beck, Summit House isn’t like that. I’m in a good place.” She sounds defensive, yet certain, but I’m too pissed to take that at face value.
“What are they doing to you there? Do you need me to come get you?”
Because I fucking will.
Even if I have to drive for twenty-four hours straight. I’ll show up at their doorstep and beat down the walls if I have to.
“No. No. It’s not like that,” she insists. “I chose this.”
Margaret said as much. How come I can’t believe it?
Is it because I don’t want to?
Because that means she left me? Willingly? Without a word?
“Why?” I grind out the question.
Hattie sighs again. When she hesitates, my hackles rise.
“Why, Hattie?”
“I’ll be honest. At first, it was because my parents gave me an ultimatum?—”
“They fucking what?!”
“I had to choose. I…” The line goes quiet for too long. Then the words fly out in a rush. “I could complete the Summit House program and get the townhouse in my name—be independent… be free… or…”
Be free… or…
My stomach drops a good ten stories. Nothing good can follow those words.
“Or?”
When she inhales, it’s shaky.
Fuck, she’s terrified.
“Hattie? It’s okay. You can tell me.”
I hear her swallow. “Or have th-the townhouse held in trust and my—my affairs overseen by—” Her voice twists, choked off in the grip of outrage. And shame. “By a l-legal guardian.”
Her words land, and?—
I.
See.
Red.
