26. Chapter 26
Grace
“Grace, will you calm down? It’s going to be fine!” Nellie sounded so sure of herself, but the way she continued to chew at her cuticles told me her head was spinning as fast as mine—probably faster. She was aware now that it didn’t ever get any easier.
“It is so not fine!” I dropped onto the couch next to Nellie before standing right back up again. The anxiety that buzzed in my legs made it impossible to sit still for any length of time.
Behind us, Aurora paced my living room in silence.
Then, she stopped and turned to us, and her surprising calmness swept over the room.
“They’re innocent. It’s going to work out.
It always does.” There was no doubt she was married to my brother when she spoke like that.
She was convincing herself as much as us.
“I know that! I don’t care about that!” I threw my hands in the air, and my stomach leapt toward my throat at the same time.
I crossed the living room to the entry table, running my fingertips over yellow roses in a crystal vase.
The vase was probably the nicest thing I owned, and the flowers just made me think of Connor’s eyes.
“Now, I have to tell my brothers they were right! Do you know how fucked that is?” The last thing I wanted was for them to be right, especially about Connor.
Nellie hummed in agreement, but Aurora sighed.
“Okay, so you dated a guy who turned out to be an asshole. And they’re probably going to rub it in that they were right.
That’s what brothers do.” Aurora shrugged like she couldn’t blame them, and, for a moment, I couldn’t either, even if the thought made me want to throw up. “But they care about you.”
“It was more than that. I didn’t just date him.
I love him in such an all-consuming way; even though I can’t stand the thought of him right now, he’s all I can think about.
You would think the two of you would get that more than anyone, considering the men you both chose.
” My sisters-in-law looked equally pensive for a moment, likely remembering their own challenges with my brothers.
Then, the tension snapped in my arm, and I picked up the vase.
I held it shakily in my grip while a sob broke from my chest. Anger and devastation coursed through me, and a shrill scream escaped my lips.
While the scream danced off the walls, the room around me spun and blurred behind the tears that followed.
When I slammed my hands against the wall like it held my feelings, the vase shattered.
Hearing it break was like relief. I took the half of the vase still in my hand and smashed it against the wall again.
“Oh my God! Grace!” Nellie rushed over to me, quickly cradling my hand in hers. Her touch cleared my vision, making me aware of the flower petals and shards of glass littered on the floor and the fresh blood running down my arm to stain both.
“Fuck!” I hissed when the pain cut through the shock. Why was I surprised? I should’ve known expensive crystal would break easier than my heart. The cut on my hand was hot, and the pain radiated up into my elbow. “I need one of you to take me to the hospital.”
“We’ll both take you,” Aurora said, putting her hand on my upper back. “You need us. But we’ll have to take your car, because Giaco will absolutely lose it if you bleed all over the new interior in mine.”
“Hey! I thought you were off today!” Mariah said when we walked into the hospital. The excitement on her face when she thought she didn’t have to finish her shift alone disappeared when she saw the white-turned-mostly-red towel wrapped around my hand. “What the hell happened to you?”
I sighed, wincing when a fresh wave of pain traveled my arm. “It’s a long story.”
“Well, it looks like we’re going to have time for me to hear it all.
Let’s go.” Mariah didn’t wait before she turned and walked toward one of the empty rooms, forgetting she worked in the rehab department and expecting me to follow.
She didn’t turn to look behind her to make sure I was there before she asked, “Before we get started, do I need to pay a certain someone a visit? Did he hurt you?”
I shook my head, but Nellie and Aurora chuckled until I shot them both a look. “I wouldn’t do that. He’s a cop,” I said, sliding onto the table and holding my hand out. Mariah grabbed the towel, unwrapping it while I cringed and resisted the urge to pull away.
“Who? Connor?” Mariah looked at me in disbelief. “The gangster is a cop?” When I nodded, she laughed loudly enough, I wished the door was closed.
“Showed up and arrested my brothers and Enzo.” My chest felt heavy. I can explain.
Mariah lifted both of her brows, forgetting she was doing something. “What a dick bag. What’d he arrest them for?” She started to clean the cut in my hand, tightening her hold on my wrist when I fought her.
“A bunch of stuff they didn’t do. Their lawyer will have them out before morning.” For a moment, the sharp pain in my hand felt right. It felt like karma—like I deserved it for believing Connor could be anything other than everything I had been warned he was.
“Damn, so he’s a shitty cop too then?” Mariah threw her head back and cackled at her own joke, appearing proud of herself when Nellie and Aurora bit back giggles of their own.
I groaned. “Can you be serious please?” I asked when Mariah pushed her fingers against my hand. “Ouch, shit! That hurts!”
“Yeah, yeah. Don’t be a baby.” She stopped and looked at me sternly. “And I am being serious. You’re fucking hot. You’ll get any man you want. If this dude arrested the wrong guys, times three, and he fumbled you? Then he’s a shitty fucking cop. I said what I said.”
“Maybe I should let Mrs. Holiday set me up with her nephew after all,” I sighed, almost ready to mean it. Or maybe I should let my mom set me up with a suitor of her choice the way she’s wanted to for years and put an end to the misery.
Mariah stopped and put her hand up, holding a single finger in front of my face to shush me. “Okay, let’s not go that far. You’re not desperate.” Wasn’t I?
“Right now, frankly, I don’t know what I am. What if I am desperate?” I hissed when she jabbed me with a needle I knew would numb my hand in a few minutes. How many times had I told my patients that wouldn’t hurt as badly as it did?
“You’re not,” she said matter-of-factly.
“I’ll be damned if I let some cop-pretending-to-be-a-gangster turn you into the type of girl who will marry the first asshole to be kinda nice to her and tell maybe most of the truth.
Not. Happening.” She waved her finger while she scolded me. She wasn’t wrong.
“The good guys are always the worst ones.” I watched while Mariah slowly put stitches in my hand. My skin was mostly numb, but I could feel the string pulling through and the tightness when she tied it pulled on other nerves that hadn’t numbed enough.
“So what do I do now?” I asked while Mariah tied the last suture.
She cocked her head to the side. I knew how much she hated that question.
“You stop for wine and ice cream, you go home, you keep your hand dry and clean, and you let this shit blow over." When Mariah held my hand in both of hers, she looked at me with adoration. “And most importantly, you don’t reach out to him. Don’t do something stupid.”
“I already did something stupid.” I fell in love with the wrong person. As soon as she said it, all I could think about was how empty my bed would feel, how quiet it would be when I went to sleep alone. I would need two bottles of wine—skip the ice cream.