Chapter 27
TWENTY-SEVEN
SADIE
The day got worse.
My mother jumped up from her chair as soon as I walked into the dining room at The Pier. Sun slanted in through the big windows, blinding me. But I still heard her.
“My baby is married!” she screamed, then did her signature arms-flailing jog-dance toward me. She wrapped me in a tight hug as I stared over her shoulder at my father, who smiled at me like he’d never been prouder.
“Introduce us!” my mother cried, pulling back. She turned to Gideon—and froze.
It only lasted a second, but it made me feel like dying. Her gaze caught on his scars, and her expression went stiff. The shock and disgust were clear.
Then, a second later, it was all wiped away with a too-bright smile. “Welcome to the family!” She hugged a tense Gideon, whose jaw bulged as he clenched his teeth. My dad gave me a one-armed hug, his eyes scanning my husband. He took in the breadth of his shoulders, his dark hair, his skin.
His scars.
My father stared at Gideon’s forearm, frowning. I wanted to snap at him the way I’d snapped at Ivan Popov, but my tongue was heavy and my mind was dulled. Everything felt strange.
Why were my parents here?
When my mother let go of Gideon, my father stepped in to shake his hand. Mom took the opportunity to lean into me and say, “What happened to his arm? Are you sure about this, Sadie?”
“Mom,” I hissed, cheeks burning with shame. Who was she to judge Gideon? And simply because of his scars?
She gave me an exaggerated shrug. “I’m just saying, Sadie. After all this time, this is who you end up with?”
I could feel Gideon stiffen even more beside me. I put my hand on his back, and he flinched away from me. The cracks in my heart grew wider.
“Honey,” my dad interjected. “Shall we?” He tilted his head toward the grand piano looming in the corner of the room.
“Absolutely not,” I snapped, but my parents were already at the instrument.
My father opened the key cover with a flourish, and my mother grabbed a microphone from a stand.
She flicked the switch on it, then tested it by tapping.
The sound echoed in the dining room, and everyone who hadn’t already been staring definitely was now.
“We can go,” I said to Gideon, tugging his arm.
His face was carved from stone. He shook his head. “I want to ask them if they know who might be threatening you.”
“What?” I asked, frowning. “How would they know anything?”
The opening notes my dad played on the piano made my stomach drop. I hissed at my mom and made a neck-chopping sign. She smiled at me and waved, then put the microphone up to her lips and sang, “Oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh-oh!”
My dad accompanied her, his usual besotted wedding singer expression on full display as he beamed at my mother from his seat on the piano bench.
The notes of Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies” echoed in the dining room.
My mother danced the classic “Single Ladies” dance as she sang, and I imagined my flesh melting into a gruesome puddle on The Pier’s patterned carpet, a fitting end to a pathetic life.
Gideon stared at my parents, then at me. If the past week of distance hadn’t convinced him, and this morning’s tension hadn’t done it, my parents surely had pushed him over the edge. He would never want to be with me. It had been foolish to think he ever would.
A pit opened up in my stomach. This really was the end. There was no coming back from this. Gideon had realized that I was more trouble than I was worth. He’d decided to let these six weeks come to an end so he could keep his business while we went our separate ways.
And now his decision was obviously the right one, because who the hell would want to marry into this family?
I burned as my parents performed, turning as Mrs. Gretzinger came to stand next to me. She watched the show, then looked at me. “Do you know these people? They were asking about you.”
“It’s generous of you to pretend like you don’t already know they’re my parents,” I replied.
Her lips twitched, and that made me feel a little better. “Would you like me to ask them to leave?”
“They’ll tire themselves out soon,” I said, shifting my gaze to watch them again. I hoped they would, anyway. Glancing at Gideon, I tried to read his expression and failed. He wouldn’t acknowledge me, and he looked completely blank.
Finally, I marched out of the dining room and plonked myself down on a sofa in the lobby to wait. My eyes stung. My chest felt hollow and cold. My parents’ arrival was a stark reminder of what my life had been like before I’d come to Marswood Harbor.
And now I would have to go back.
Gideon didn’t follow until the sound of my parents’ song died down and scattered applause took its place. A moment later, he walked out with them. “And you have no idea of anyone who might want to cause her harm?” he asked.
“Sadie? God, no! No one would even care enough to want to hurt her!” My mother let out a laugh as she shook her head.
“If you only knew the number of boyfriends who had dumped her. None of them were jilted lovers who wished her ill. They mostly just wanted to get away from her.” She clapped her hands and turned to me.
“Now,” she said, smiling. “We’ve booked a new place for our little family shindig this year, seeing as we needed more room.
Everyone is so excited to meet you, Gideon. Aren’t they, Barry?”
“They surely are,” my father replied, nodding.
And wasn’t it the funniest thing, that the family ski trip would be the thing that put me over the edge? Not losing the love of my life. Not the thought of leaving the town that had become my home. Not the certainty that I had never been—and would never be—enough.
It was the fucking pull-out couch that did it.
“No,” I said, standing up from my seat.
My mother blinked at me. “Excuse me?”
“I’m not going.”
“Honey—”
“I’m not, Mom. I don’t care if I get a real bed in a real bedroom this time. I’m sick of being treated like I’m inferior.”
“We never—”
“I’m not going!” My voice echoed in the lobby, shrill.
“Honey, you don’t have to be embarrassed just because your husband is, you know…”
“Oh my God! I’m not embarrassed by his scars! I’m embarrassed by you!”
My mother reared back, gasping like I’d slapped her. Her lips twisted, and she looked me up and down like I was worse than dog shit smeared on the bottom of her shoe. “I don’t know what I did to deserve you, Sadie.”
“Funny. I was just thinking the same thing.”
She spluttered, then turned to my father, who put his arm around her and gave me a disapproving look. “Really, Sadie, after we came all this way—”
My mother sniffled and looked at Gideon. “You can do better,” she told him. “In case you were thinking you had to settle because of your…” She gestured toward his neck and body.
It was so shocking that I laughed. And it wasn’t shocking at all. Because hadn’t that been exactly the type of thing she said about me all the time? That it was no surprise I wasn’t married. That I would never find someone if I kept acting the way I did. That the problem was me, me, me.
And I realized it wasn’t Henry who had taken a chisel to my self-esteem. It was my mother. She’d bullied me from the time I was a child and made me feel like I was worthless. Henry hadn’t caused those cracks; he’d simply exploited them.
My dad, sister, and brother had stood by and enabled her, because it was easier to watch my mother torment someone else than it was to be in her crosshairs.
I’d lived my entire life feeling like I wasn’t good enough, and it had started with her.
I would never speak to her again.
A weight dropped from my shoulders. “Goodbye, Mother,” I said, and I turned toward the exit and walked out.
A gust of wind hit me as soon as I stepped outside, the chill of autumn already in the air.
I welcomed it, turning into the wind as I inhaled.
It was crisp and salty, and it froze the tears in my eyes before they had a chance to fall.
I would never be my mother’s punching bag again. I would never go on another family vacation. And I would never sleep on a pull-out couch for as long as I fucking lived.
Gideon stalked behind me, saying nothing as we got into his car. I stared out the window, feeling light and heavy all at once. He turned on the car and cool air started coming in through the vents, but he didn’t start driving.
“I’m really sorry,” I said. “You shouldn’t have had to listen to that. My mother is a bully.”
“Nothing I haven’t heard before.” He pulled out of the lot and said nothing more.
“She’s wrong, Gideon.”
“She’s not.” He shrugged. “It is what it is. We both know you can do better than me.”
A disbelieving laugh fell out of me. “Better than you? Are you serious right now?”
“Come on, Sadie. We don’t look right with each other. Ivan said it himself. Beauty and the Beast.”
“Ivan is an asshole. And so is my mother, by the way.”
“Being an asshole doesn’t mean you’re a liar.”
“This is ridiculous.” I crossed my arms. “You’re the most attractive man I’ve ever met, and you’re talking like you’re some kind of ogre. And even if you were an ogre, you think that’s a dealbreaker! Do you think so little of me?”
Gideon just scoffed and put the car in gear. The chasm between us widened. I wanted to reach over and touch him, but I felt like I didn’t have the right. We drove in silence all the way to the Marswood Security building. When Gideon turned off the engine, he finally looked at me.
“When do you leave?” The warmth had gone out of him. He looked at me like I was an employee, or a customer, or a stranger.
I met his gaze. I wanted to cry. “Can we talk about this? I feel like you’re taking it the wrong way.”
“I’m just asking you when you’re leaving, Sadie.” He sounded tired as he stared at the concrete wall in front of us.
My throat tightened. “I have a call with the bride and the planner later to hammer out the details. But probably tomorrow. The next day at the latest.”