I remembered Miles. So terrified to even breathe. Too terrified to even give his name. “You fired him? How could-”
“Leila,” Jacob said gently. His eyes told me to pick my battles, and this was one I'd lose.
The anger was already eating me alive and we hadn't even been here for five minutes. She fired someone to punish me. What kind of person plays games with people's lives that way?
It was all my fault. I just wanted her to see him as a person and it cost his job.
I couldn't breathe. I couldn't see anything but red. I couldn't move.
“I can't do this,” I said hoarsely, so furious that I could go no further. “I can't sit at a table with her. She makes me sick, Jacob.”
He stepped in front of me, cupping both sides of my face. “I'll be right beside you. Once we say our piece, we'll leave. I promise.”
Alicia stood in the distance, waiting in the doorway of the dining room impatiently. “What are you waiting for, dear? A trumpet? The red carpet treatment?”
“There will be sharp things,” I told Jacob tersely. “I can’t be held responsible for my actions.”
He grinned, his face lighting up with amusement. “Duly noted.”
Smiling despite the heartache, I trailed behind Jacob, traveling deeper into the lion's den. I wanted to oohh and ahh over the table. Plates were piled high with fruits and vegetables and meat and pastries, but I kept seeing the blank stare of her staff. It seemed like an awful lot of trouble to go through for a dinner for three.
Jacob pulled out my chair, then slid me closer to the plates piled high with culinary delights before he joined me. From the scowl on his face, he left his appetite at home.
Alicia assumed the role of gracious host. Once the servant filled her glass she raised it in a toast.
“To my guests.” Her teeth sparkled as brightly as the diamonds in her ears. “To family.”
She couldn't be serious.
I peered over at Jacob and I could tell he was similarly appalled. He didn't raise his glass, but he did give his mother his undivided attention.
“Family,” he said, rounding every syllable of the word. “What an interesting word coming from you. You, who clearly can not comprehend what such a word means.”
I found his hand beneath the table and held tight. He took a breath and squeezed it back, then released. He could do this. He had to do this.
“I met my brother,” Jacob continued, his voice filling the room. “The family that you gave away, then lied about it. To my face.” His eyes smoldered. “Repeatedly.”
The smile was snatched from Alicia's lips. Those striking genes that she passed on to Jacob and Cole hardened to ice. “I thought we agreed that we wouldn't discuss this anymore. I admitted the truth, and you told me you'd drop it. That you didn't want a relationship with the boy, you just wanted to hear the truth.”
I pulled my hand from Jacob. Confusion was catching tonight. “You never told me you didn't want a relationship with Cole-”
“Things changed,” Jacob snapped. His voice softened when he glanced over at me. “You helped me see that I was missing out on something special. The chance to know my little brother.”
“Oh God,” Alicia snorted. She rang her condescending little bell and the servant leapt to action. Alicia nodded at her wine glass. “I'm going to need the whole bottle I'm afraid. My son has gone soft.”
That bitch.
“Are you really that oblivious?” I exclaimed, throwing my napkin on the table. I don't know why I foolishly believed I could hold my peace with Alicia Whitmore in the room, but I wouldn't let her hurt my Jacob. Not again. Never again. “Somehow, your son still loves you. He still cares, even after all the horrible things you've done. And you sit here in your gilded cage and laugh at him. You don't deserve his love. How can someone so lucky, so blessed, be so goddamn evil?!”
“Evil?” Alicia put down her glass and put both hands on the table like she was bracing herself for something big. “I am not perfect, but I am trying-”
“Being honest should not be an Olympic feat,” Jacob spat, rebuffing her sorry attempt at an explanation. “What I asked of you didn't require a limb or your life or anything you were incapable of giving. You chose to lie. You chose to punish me, just like you've punished me all my life.”
“Punish you?!”
I watched in awe as Alicia Whitmore shattered before my eyes. It was night and day. Jekyll and Hyde.
The always poised, always collected woman was in bits and pieces, her shrieks clawing at my ear drums. “I was trying to spare you, Jacob! This truth was my burden to bear!” Her eyes were crazed, glassy with emotion. When the servant came back with the bottle of wine she retreated slowly, like she was all too familiar with this brand of monster and if she got too close, Alicia would tear her to shreds.
“What did he tell you?” she hollered.
Jacob was tense, but I saw the concern in his eyes. The worry. “Calm down-”
“What did Cole tell you?” she battened down the hatches, going full on crazy. “What lies did he fill your head with? Did he tell you what a good family he grew up with? How much he missed you?”
Jacob exchanged glances with me, then cleared his throat, giving nothing away. “I had his story checked out-”
“Not well enough,” Alicia said coldly. “I thought you got your brains from me, but you're just like your father. A hopeless romantic. A fool.”
I jerked to my feet, two seconds away from smacking her across the face. But one look at Alicia and I knew there was nothing I could do to her that she wasn’t already doing to herself. Me nor Jacob knew what to do. She was clearly having some sort of a mental breakdown.
She dropped her head in her hands, her sobs the most hollow and heartbreaking sound I had ever heard. It was the cry of someone that knew they'd lost everything. Someone who'd reached the end of their rope and had nothing left but death.
Whatever good will she'd garnered with her son was sadly evaporating. Calling him a lovesick fool did her no favors. “If you have something to say, I suggest you say it.”
Alicia drew a shuddering breath, her body still shaking. She looked up with red, tear soaked eyes. “I stood by your father through every affair. I had one moment of weakness. One indiscretion...” She squeezed her eyes shut like she couldn't bear the shame. “I wanted to keep Cole, but your father made it clear that he would not share his home or his wife with another man's child. We went through a reputable agency and found him a lovely home. But something happened and he ended up in foster care.” Her voice rattled as fresh tears streamed down her face. “The things he must have endured-”