Betrayal - Chapter 36
Thursday
I turned down a hall that I thought lead to the living room. But it was the one that went to the library. How did I not know where the freaking living room was? I turned around and ran straight into James.
“Hey,” he said with a smile.
“Hi.” God, I couldn’t be alone with him in a random hallway. If Matt saw us together he’d be so beyond pissed.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you,” James said. “I just saw you going to the library and figured it would be a good place to talk.”
He clearly knew this apartment better than I did. “I don’t really have time to chat right now. I left Matt with Isabella. Do you have any idea where the living room is?”
He laughed. “Back that way to the left.” He pointed over his shoulder.
“Great.” I tried to step around him, but he stepped the same way, trying to let me pass, and we both laughed.
“Actually, while I have you, I did want to give you something.” He pulled out something from his pocket.
And for just a second I had a terrible feeling that he was about to propose again.
“What’s with the face?” He held up a thumb drive. “It looked like you were worried I was about to pull a prank on you instead of Isabella.”
Yeah, something like that. “Sorry. What is that?”
He handed the thumb drive to me. “Your completed project for your entrepreneurial studies class.”
“Wait, completed project? You were only supposed to do the coding.”
He shrugged. “I figured with Matt and Rob fighting it would be hard for you to finish. Now you don’t have to worry about it.”
Wow, that was really nice. “Thanks, James. But that wasn’t necessary.”
“It was no problem.” He gave me one of his real smiles. The ones it seemed like he reserved just for me.
“But it wasn’t necessary. You and Matt are about to be friends again,” I said. “Because the deal was…”
“That we’d talk to him.” James shrugged. “Doesn’t mean we’ll magically be friends again. He kissed my girlfriend.”
“And you kissed me.”
“True. And I don’t feel an ounce of remorse. It was a great kiss.”
I could feel my cheeks getting red. “Well, don’t say that when you talk to Matt. How about you try apologizing instead?”
“That wasn’t part of the deal, Brooklyn. You just said we had to talk.”
“You know what I meant.”
“Did I?”
“James!”
He laughed. “I’m just messing with you. I’ll talk to him. I’ll be nice and everything. I promise.”
“There you guys are,” Rob said and ran over to us. He seemed out of breath, which was weird because I knew he was in great shape. Soccer players had to be.
What had he been doing?
“Everything’s all set for the prank,” Rob said. “Last chance to back out, Sanders.”
I took a deep breath. Isabella was never going to stop messing with me unless I stood up to her.
And it was a hell of a lot easier having James and Rob’s help to do it.
This was my one shot to put her in her place.
In front of her whole family. And it seemed like my only chance of fixing the Untouchables too. “No. I want to go through with it.”
“Good,” said Rob. “Because I had to work my ass off to get everything ready. You two were no help. Especially you, Sanders. You never gave me the blueprints, so I had to go on a crazy hunt to find the person that renovated this place several years ago. And then I had to bribe them to get the layout.” He shook his head. “It took hours. You’re welcome.”
“What?” Our prank was simple. And it all happened in the dining room. He knew exactly where that was. “Rob…you didn’t need blueprints.” I felt like we’d had this conversation a hundred times over text already.
“Yeah I did.” He winked at me.
“No, you didn’t.”
Rob laughed. “So much pudding.”
I shook my head. “I thought we agreed on just a little bit of pudding.”
“Right. That’s what I meant. Pudding ratios are all about perspective.”
Okay. At least I knew what the prank involved, or else I’d be worried that he had something else up his sleeve. But I knew for a fact there was no pudding up his sleeves. He was wearing a white dress shirt. That would have been a disaster.
“So you’ve got everything covered?” I asked.
“Mhm,” Rob said. “I even moved around a few place cards so that I could sit right next to the troll.”
James laughed.
“Great.” I took another deep breath, forcing myself not to back down from this. “Let’s do this.”
Rob put his hand out. James put his hand on top of his brother’s.
“Do the thing,” Rob said and nodded toward their hands.
I laughed and put my hand on top of theirs.
“Operation Disappearing Troll on three,” Rob said.
All three of us yelled it and laughed.
I couldn’t wait to see Isabella’s face.
***
I was pretty sure Rob had moved around more than a few place cards. Because he also had me sitting between him and James. And Matt was sitting across from us. Like some kind of weird spectator of the awkwardness. What the hell?
Rob tapped the seat beside his. “Sanders sandwich.”
Not happening.
“Ignore him,” Matt said. He grabbed my place card and switched it with Isabella’s evil cousin, Poppy, so that I’d be sitting next to him and that the Hunters would be forming a very snooty sandwich instead.
“No, not Poppy,” James said. “She’s the worst.” He tried to switch her place card with someone else’s just as Poppy walked into the room. James quickly switched it with his own and slid into the seat next to his brother.
Poppy seemed happy about her spot. But Isabella didn’t look nearly as pleased when she walked into the room and saw the seating arrangement. Apparently she wasn’t excited to sit next to Rob.
“No way is this right. James, switch with Rob,” Isabella said.
“Nah,” James said. “I’m good.”
Isabella huffed.
And Matt actually laughed. Almost like he would have when all the Untouchables were still friends. It was the first time I’d seen him not hostile with them in ages.
Mason sat down next to me and laughed too. I was very much aware of the fact that I was still a Sanders sandwich…just between the Caldwells instead of the Hunters. I was exactly where I was supposed to be. I would have been perfectly comfortable if Rob hadn’t kept winking at me.
“Is something wrong with your eye?” I asked Rob.
“Nope.” Rob lifted up the bowl of chocolate pudding in front of him. “Pudding, Wizzy?”
“Bite me.”
“But it’s a Hunter family tradition. The Thanksgiving pudding of…prosperity and health. If you don’t eat any, you’ll have a year of bad luck.”
“Stop talking to me or you’ll have a year of bad luck,” she said.
Rob winked at me again.
Stop it.
“What’s going on?” Matt asked as he looked back and forth between me and Rob.
“Nothing,” Rob and I both said at the same time.
Great, now it didn’t sound like nothing.
I looked down the long dining room table, searching for a good distraction.
There were dozens of people here. Surely someone could say something to shift the focus off me and Rob.
I sighed with relief as my dad stood up at the head of the table.
He lightly tapped his knife against his glass, easily silencing the room.
“Thank you all for coming tonight,” he said. “Once a year we all get together to celebrate our family. And tonight we have a new addition. Princess, I am so lucky that you’ve found your way back into my life.”
Everyone turned to stare at me. And despite what my dad said, I didn’t feel like part of the family. I felt like an intruder. Especially with the way Isabella was staring at me. And Poppy. And even a few of the “uncles.”
I tried to focus on my dad instead of on all the haters.
“And I expect everyone to welcome you with open arms,” he said.
It sounded more like a threat than a toast. I gulped.
“A toast. To family. To new beginnings. To a wonderful year ahead.” He lifted up his glass. “Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.” He tapped his glass against his wife’s.
For just a second my eyes locked with Mrs. Pruitt’s.
She was staring at me in the same way that Isabella always did.
Like my time had come. And I saw her in a whole new light now.
She was the real mobster. My dad had married into this mess.
Was she the one controlling the strings?
Was that why there was unrest with the families?
Was that why everyone was staring at me like I didn’t belong?
Matt tapped his glass against mine. “To family,” he whispered in my ear.
I tried to take a deep breath. It didn’t matter if this family hated me. The family I was marrying into didn’t. “To family,” I said and leaned forward to kiss his cheek. Matt was my real family.
Everyone started clinking glasses and drinking their champagne.
I turned to watch Isabella take a sip of hers. And I couldn’t help but smile. It was game time.