29. Sylvie
TWENTY-NINE
SYLVIE
Two hours later, I was itching for everyone to stop looking at me with pitying eyes. Duke had taken me to the hospital but wouldn’t give me two inches of breathing room. MJ had followed and was running interference in the hallway, as my overprotective brothers would not stop calling.
The pressure pot in Outtatowner was whistling a shrill cry that something was about to explode.
I sneaked a glance at the father of my child, whose leg was bouncing as he stared at the faded linoleum floor. Maybe it was more like someone . Duke looked as though he was about to go nuclear.
We were only waiting for my discharge papers after a thorough checkup and being reassured that the baby was fine. The second hand tick of the clock was deafening as we waited.
“Do you think you could get me some water?” At the creak in my voice, Duke shot to his feet and looked me over from head to toe. I stifled a tiny eye roll— I am fine —then pasted on a small smile. Without a word, Duke stormed out of the ER room.
MJ poked her head around the doorway. “All clear?”
“I sent him on an errand.” I scooted over to allow my little sister to share the small bed with me.
She lay beside me, resting her head on my shoulder. “He’s like a hot, moody warden.” Her body racked with an exaggerated, playful shiver.
“He’s always been moody,” I reminded her.
“He’s worse with you.”
A tiny ball of warmth bloomed in my chest. She wasn’t wrong. Duke was grumpy and probably a bit overbearing, but coming from him, it wasn’t stifling. It mostly made me feel loved.
Not that he loves me.
Fresh tears pricked like tiny knives behind my eyelids. I let out a slow breath.
MJ sat up to look me over. “Does it hurt again? Should I call the nurse?”
I shook my head, adjusting my bandaged arm. “It’s not that. I just...” My hands moved over the swell of my belly. “How could I have been so dumb?” My voice was tiny. I hated myself for even admitting it aloud.
MJ snuggled closer. “You’re not dumb. You’re in love.”
A sarcastic, congested laugh burst from my chest as I wiped my sleeve across my runny nose.
“That’s the dumbest part of all.” Loving Duke was the ultimate King betrayal.
“It just feels like too much. Everything is falling apart, and I am supposed to bring a baby into that chaos? You know there’s zero chance the boys are ever going to let this go.
Once Dad finds out, he’ll be on a warpath. ”
“Dad sucks.”
I laughed. It was rare MJ ever spoke her opinion about our intense, intimidating father. He adored MJ, but her admission made me wonder if his attention wasn’t just added pressure—pressure that my invisibility helped me escape.
“Shit...” MJ frowned as she looked down at her phone. I adjusted to look at her as her fingers flew over the screen.
“What is it?”
MJ toyed with her lip. “Dad knows.” Dread roiled in my stomach as I swallowed back the urge to throw up. “He’s pissed about the storefront.”
The storefront. Not that his pregnant daughter was injured. Awesome.
MJ’s fingertips hammered out another text, and she lifted the phone to her ear. Her pitying eyes moved to mine. “JP.”
Through the speaker I couldn’t make out what my brother was saying, but the shouts on the other end were clear.
“JP, calm down. It was an accident.” MJ turned her back to me, but I continued to listen.
“She’s fine... a few butterfly bandages and a thorough checkup.
Yeah, the baby is good.” Her hand beat a nervous rhythm against the outside of her thigh.
“Don’t do anything—fine. Okay, but I still think you’re a bunch of idiots. ”
“Give me the phone.” I held my good hand out as MJ turned to look at me. “Let me talk to him.”
MJ glanced at her phone. “Hang on, Sylvie wants to say something.”
When she got close enough, I snatched the phone from her and pressed it to my ear. “JP, what’s going on?”
My older brother’s smooth voice was steady on the other end. “I don’t want you to worry about anything. We’re just making this right.”
“Making it right or getting even?” I demanded.
JP scoffed in my ear. “Same difference.”
“Please don’t. I’m begging you?—”
“Royal, Whip, and I are just going to have a little chat.” I didn’t miss the malice that wove between his words.
“A chat? What does that even mean? And where’s Abel?”
I waited for JP to respond, and he finally admitted with a sigh, “Abel has a record. He can’t be involved.”
“JP . . . please!”
“Look, we’ve been holding back because of the situation you’re in, but that’s over now. Things changed, and we have our marching orders. I’m sorry, Syl.” The line went dead as my heart rattled against my ribs.
“That jerk hung up on me!” I tossed MJ’s phone onto the bed and flipped the bedsheet off my legs before sitting upright. “We have to go. I need to go.” Panic squeezed my throat tighter.
“You’re not going anywhere.” Duke stared down at me, a small Styrofoam cup clutched in his hands. “Not until the doctors give us the okay.”
“I’ll go.” MJ’s eyes communicated clearly that she would go and attempt to run interference before my brothers did something epically stupid in retaliation for the broken window.
She dropped a kiss on my head. MJ gave Duke’s biceps a squeeze before grabbing her coat.
She was furiously texting again and I hoped it was to stop whatever my brothers were planning.
I was tired. Bone tired of not being seen. Or heard. Tired of everyone around me making decisions in my best interest .
Fuck. That.
I took in my huge belly and bandaged arm, helplessness washing over me. I sank into the bed as the tears rolled out of me. Duke sat next to me, and the weight of his body had me leaning into him. One muscular arm wrapped around me.
“Who was on the phone?” Duke’s voice was soft, but insistent.
“My brother JP. I think something bad is going to happen.” Duke tensed beside me, his feelings clearly at war with hearing me out and sending a warning to his family. “I tried to reason with him, but he totally ignored me, and then the asshole hung up on me. ”
“I’ll take care of it.” MJ zipped her coat and hurried out of the emergency room.
“Fuck them.” Duke’s words were steeped in anger. All this time he was careful not to talk shit about my family, but the man next to me looked as though he’d snapped. “You need to stand up for yourself.”
I blinked up at him and swallowed past the hurt the truth in that statement caused. “I tried .”
“Try harder.” Duke stood, dragging his hands through his hair and down his face. As he paced the room, his frustration bubbled and grew. “You let them walk all over you and treat you like shit. How can you be okay with that?”
Defensiveness and fury slammed into place as I lifted my chin. “Excuse me?”
Duke held his hands out. “Am I wrong?”
I blinked. “Well... no, but it’s none of your business.”
He scoffed. “None of—” Duke’s steps pounded on the linoleum. “None of my business? Are you fucking kidding me right now? Why can’t you just stand up for yourself?”
The urge to fold in on myself was intense.
I hated being the target for Duke’s frustration, and past-me would have dipped into the shadows until the storm passed, but a small spark of defiance had been lit.
That sizzling ember burned a hole through my gut and was ready to set my entire life ablaze if it had to.
I jostled myself to stand toe to toe with him. I squared my shoulders and lifted my chin to look him in the eyes.
“You can’t stand it, can you?” Duke’s dark brows furrowed, but I barreled on.
“You’re so used to saying jump and watching everyone happily leap into the air.
” I pointed to my chest. “Well, that’s not me.
You want me to stand up for myself? Well here I am.
I am not just another person for you to take care of.
That’s not a partnership. Don’t you see that? ”
“What’s wrong with wanting to take care of people?” Duke’s voice undoubtedly spilled into the hallway, but I was beyond caring.
My skin was hot, and the baby was doing somersaults against my rib cage. “We can’t live in a fantasy world forever. I won’t live on the farm, tucked away where you protect me from the rumors and whispers and dirty looks. Face it, you don’t treat anyone like an equal, least of all me.”
Duke blinked as though my words were a slap across the face. The muscles in his jaw tightened as his fists flexed. “What do you want from me?”
My high-pitch scoff rang out into the small room. “I don’t want anything from you. I want something with you! Why is that so hard to believe?”
Fleeting emotions flickered over his dark features as my words soaked in. His lips pressed into a thin line. I stared at his broad shoulders in disbelief as he turned his back, and left me alone in the hospital room.