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Chapter 41
DAPHNE
The call comes in while I’m halfway through chopping vegetables and I nearly chop a finger off instead. Cursing up a storm, I rinse my hands in the sink and answer it on the tablet.
I half expect it to be Pasha checking in, but I’m happily surprised to see that it is, in fact, my beloved sister. “Mel! Oh my gosh, hi!”
“So you are alive!” Melanie exclaims. “For a moment here, I thought you were dead. Since you’ve missed our last. Eight. Calls.”
I wince at the camera as I set the tablet up on its stand. “Sorry. Been distracted”
“No shit! Mom hasn’t shut up about it since she found out. And here I am thinking, ‘Hey, Daph’s obviously gonna call me and give me all the details.‘ But
nooooo…”
My sister has every right to give me shit. We’ve maintained a consistent FaceTime schedule every week for the past eight years, and I can’t remember if we’ve ever skipped a single one. So for me to completely forget for as long as 1 have? No bueno.
“I swear, I really was going to call!”
Melanie pouts as she pretends to think about it before she laughs and waves it off. “It’s okay. You’ll just owe me. And judging by that stunning kitchen backdrop, you can afford it now!”
I blush and toss the spinach into the pot of boiling water. “It’s just temporary.”
“Temporary as in you did or did not move in with your baby daddy?”
“More like… he’s a neighbor? Next door. Ish.” On the other side of the wall from the bedroom.
Close enough to hear me moan if I get too carried away with a pre–bed activity, let’s say.
I don’t know why I’m hesitant to share the details with Mel. I know she won’t betray me to our parents, and she’s taken everything that happened to her in stride.
Still, I’m just… uneasy. I feel better keeping my personal life compartmentalized.
In true Melanie fashion, her mind flies straight to the worst case scenario. She frowns at me and leans in closer to her camera. “Is there something wrong with him? Are you safe? Blink twice if you’re in danger.”
Before I can answer, the screen blurs and jostles until it refocuses, and my brother–in–law’s face fills the frame.
“Daph? You okay?” Jameson tries to look around the kitchen behind me. “Is he there? Let me talk to him.”
“No, he’s out at a dinner thing.” I drop the bundle of ramen into the pot and set the lid over the steam. It gives me enough time to make sure I look as at ease as possible, starting with a happy smile. “I’m fine, really. Girl Scout’s honor. How are you doing?”
“I’d feel better if you came here to live with us. We both would. Mel’s been worried sick about you.”
“Sorry. I’ve just been so preoccupied with everything. Pregnancy brain, right?” I laugh.
Jameson looks unconvinced, but Melanie wrestles the phone away from him. “Seriously, Daph, just say the word and we’ll come get you. Okay?”
“I appreciate you. Both of you.”
I really do. Melanie and I were best friends from the day she was born. My ride–or–die through every sticky situation our family walked ass–backwards into. And when Jameson fell head over heels for her, he also became the brother I never knew I wanted or needed.
They really are a match made in heaven, if such a place or thing even exists. Nothing Melanie could ever do or has ever done would drive Jameson away from her side. When her side gig as a camgirl came out, he was only upset that she didn’t tell him first. That was it. The whole world of H high society imploded around her and our own parents shunned her from the shame…
But Jameson? He didn’t care. He just held her tight, kissed her tears away, and vowed to be her new family.
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Boyfriend Let His Side Chick Ruin My Painting, Now He Regrets
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Chapter 41
Take notes, men of the world.
Ever since then, he’s been her rock and my shield every chance he gets, I know our parents say it’s Mel’s “despicable behavior” that “pushed” them to “disown” her and “call her a ‘dirty whore,” but I’ve always been suspicious that they’re a little afraid of Jameson. He wouldn’t hesitate to put them in their place, audience of their peers be damned.
I used to daydream about having a marriage like theirs, Happy, full of love, bracing together against every storm that dares to test them. My husband would be the protective brother Mel always wanted and needed.
Now, I have… what? An unexpected, unplanned pregnancy from a one–night stand with a guy I hardly know now, sure as shit didn’t know then, and who is officially a confirmed crime lord?
Ya missed the mark a little there, Daph.
“How are you doing, though?” Melanie relaxes on her couch with a sigh. “Tor reals. How are you holding up?”
I glance at the timer on the stovetop. I’ve got a few minutes to dive into the ugly stuff, so I sigh and lean against the kitchen island. “Honestly? I’d probably be doing a lot better if Mom and Dad weren’t so fucking dramatic about everything.”
“I keep telling you, Daph: Ditch them. Cut the strings. Go no–contact if you can manage it. You don’t need the stress and neither does your baby.”
“You mean, your niece?”
Mel’s joyous squeal threatens to shatter my tablet speaker. Somewhere in her distance, Jameson demands to know what just happened. She squeals, “It’s a girl!” and he whoops a victory cry.
The distraction is short–lived. Mel gives me her signature, patent–pending Nice Try Look” and settles back into her comfy couch spot. “Like I was saying, you need to cut ties. Tell them to kindly fuck off in a different direction, and then maintain that distance.”
“I… I can’t, though.” It comes out as more of a whine than an actual answer. “This is Mom and Dad we’re talking about.”
“Oh, I know. The same people who didn’t even blink when they disowned me. Which, whatever, I don’t fucking care. But that’s my problem, isn’t it? I never fucking cared what they think of me.”
“And I care too much.” I blow out a sigh of frustration. “Why do I care so damn much? Why am I such a people pleaser?”
“Are you a people pleaser? Or do you just try to avoid conflict and confrontation?”
“Both.” The timer on the pot goes off, so I turn my back to move it from the heat and add the sauce packet and egg. It also helps me avoid her scrutinizing stare.
“You should try apathy. It’s wonderful. Liberating. And probably better for my widdle, precious, sweet angel of a baby niece.”
I return the lid to the pot to let the egg cook and wipe the steam off my hands on my sides. “It’s easier said than done. Both Mom and Dad have
been blowing up my phone trying to get me to spy on Pasha and get back with Conrad-”
“What? Ew! Gross.” Mel scrunches her whole face in disgust. “Please tell me you’re not.”
“Not in a million years. For either one.”
That makes Mel go silent. I’m worried, for a moment, because I know she’s smart enough to put the pieces together. Pasha isn’t just some “baby daddy” I happened to run into.
He’s the reason she was disowned.
“You know what I just realized?” I turn again to pour the ramen into a bowl, careful not to splash any broth on me. As an afterthought, I add a handful of mozzarella cheese and wait for it to melt as I settle onto a barstool at the island. “You asked me how I’m feeling. But we haven’t talked about how you’re feeling.”
“Daph…”
“Seriously, Mel. I know you know who he is. To you, I mean.” I look down at my fork and finger the tongs self–consciously. “I didn’t know who he was at the time, but… that doesn’t change anything. He still ruined you.” ^
“Daphne. Look at me.”
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Boyfriend Let His Side Chick Ruin My Painting Now He Regrets.
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Chapter 41
I do as she says. I’m surprised to see her… smiling at me?
