Chapter 21
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
VIOLET
“Who do you think that is?” I ask, my head slightly falling back from dread.
“I’ll get it,” Ezra says dreadfully as he stands up.
I nod, thankful that he’s willing to shoo away whoever is at the door. I haven’t looked at myself yet, but I would say after my angry, crying rage I’m not looking presentable. I throw the bracelets that Zayn and Rya made for me away and place Ezra’s on my jewelry stand.
I shift my focus back to all the jewelry that I need to clean up but I pause when I hear a woman’s voice in the distance.
Is it my neighbor?
I sit quietly trying to listen in on what she’s saying to get a better idea of what’s going on and who it is. Then the voices go silent followed by the front door shutting.
My brows pinch together as I head for the door to see who it could be. Once I hit the stairs, that squeaky high pitch voice is one I can make out almost instantly.
Rya.
I let out a groan. What the hell does she want?
I get closer to the front door and listen in on what she’s bitching about now.
“How could you do this to us? She’s my best friend, and now you’re living with her,” she says in her broken whimper.
I roll my eyes at the audacity she thinks she has to question what Ezra is doing.
It’s a playback of the bullshit Zayn pulled yesterday.
He must have told her Ezra moved in. There is no other way she would have found out.
My blood is boiling like it did when Zayn was here, questioning the exact same thing.
The two of them destroyed everything, and now they’re acting like the victims. They’re twisting everything.
Why can’t they get over themselves and move on?
That’s what Ezra and I are trying to do.
I grab the door handle and whip the door open so fast both of them jerk back. I glare at Rya; her face is red and streaked with tears. The sight of her twists my stomach. She disgusts me just as much as Zayn does now.
“What the fuck do you want?” I say harshly.
I’m done.
I’m so done with them walking all over us. They can’t come here whenever they feel like it and act like we’re going to bow down to them.
Her face drops as if she’s in so much pain. I don’t see the pain. I see betrayal. “Why would you do this to me?”
She’s close enough that I wince when I smell the liquor.
When I step closer towards her, her eyes go wide.
“You. Fucked. My. Husband,” I say as she takes a step back.
“You. Fucked. His. Best. Friend.” I point to Ezra.
“Did I say that slow enough for you to comprehend?” I pause, waiting for an answer.
She swallows the lump in her throat; her eyes are wide and she stares back at me.
“You and Zayn need to get over yourselves and move the fuck on like we’re trying to do.
” I cross my arms in front of my chest, then look over at Ezra and realize he’s in a similar pose.
We look like two bodyguards, guarding my house from this crazy lady.
Do my neighbors see or hear us? If they do, I wonder what they’re thinking.
“So it’s true?”
“Is what true?”
“You two are sleeping together?”
My eyes roll back. Has she always been this dumb too? “Why are you playing the victim?”
“I’m not. I…”
I cut her off. “You are!” I shout, pointing at her, with my chest heaving.
“Do you not get it?” My hands ball into fists.
“You were supposed to be my best friend—my sister—and you went behind my back and fucked my husband. Do you even realize what you did to me? Do you care? I haven’t gotten a damn thing from you.
Not an apology, an explanation, a reason why it happened, or a pathetic excuse, nothing!
” I shout again, squaring my shoulders, and take a step towards her again.
My voice is sharp and uneven; I’m trying to catch a breath but the rage is vibrating inside of me.
“You tore my life apart and now you stand here trying to play the victim.”
She flinches, avoids my stare, and blinks rapidly as her gaze darts to the ground. Her throat works as though she wants to speak, but no words come.
Only silence.
“I even came to you when I was questioning everything, and you lied to me. You told me right to my face that Zayn would never cheat on me. And the whole time you two were sleeping together.” Her eyes shift back to me.
Her mouth drops. “I was going crazy, and you let me. You made me think I was crazy to even think Zayn would do that to me.” Ezra’s hand comes to rest gently on my shoulder, reassuring me he’s here for me.
Her mouth drops even further as her eyes dart from his hand on my shoulder to him. “I understand what we did. But that doesn’t mean the two of you need to be together.”
Both Ezra and I laugh in a bitter tone looking back at one another.
“It’s not funny.”
“Even before you slept with Zayn, our marriage wasn’t good. You never cared about me. You never cared about us. I don’t think there is a bone in your body that has any care in this world for anyone but yourself.”
Her breath catches in shock. “That’s not true.” She pauses. “I love you.”
He scowls. “You only love yourself. The only thing you loved about me was what I was providing for you.”
“That’s not true, Ezra. I love you. I’ve always loved you.” She points at me. “She always wanted what she couldn’t have.”
Both of us jerk back, shaking in confusion. “What does that have to do with anything?” he asks. “It looks like you’re the one who wants everything she has because you slept with her husband.”
She opens her mouth to speak, but I cut her off. “You’re done. This is done. You and Zayn are the ones who put us in this position. And now we have to pick up the pieces you two broke. And we will do that however we would like.”
She blinks like she’s trying to gather up another excuse. “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”
I shake my head. “Like I told Zayn. Something like this doesn’t just happen. His dick didn’t just happen to slip into you. Not only did it happen once, it happened multiple times. So, saying it just happened is a pathetic excuse. Especially when you both continued on with it.”
Ezra steps closer to me. “We’re done listening to both of you make excuses.”
“Ezra,” she whimpers, tears falling from her eyes.
“Rya, stop.” His tone is sharp. “Stop acting like you give a shit about me. If Zayn had been willing to put up with you, I’m sure you wouldn’t be here right now.”
She lets out a sarcastic laugh. “Who says he’s not?”
I’m stunned at how she can flip from sobbing to a sarcastic laugh in an instant like some kind of psychopath.
“That’s the thing. We don’t care.”
“There is nothing left for you here. You two made your choice, now let us make ours.”
She stares at us with a baffled expression, her brows knitting together and her mouth hanging open as if she can’t believe any of this.
It’s not like us to be like this towards people, and I’m sure she sees it and can’t believe it. But we’re both done being dragged down.
We both turn our backs on her and head inside. The door shuts, and we pause for a moment, listening for her next move. When no sound comes from her, I head upstairs.