17. Alana
Alana
It’s time for Family Day.
The parking lot is filled with luxurious armored cars and parents dressed in designer couture.
There’s more money in this school than in some countries.
There’s also chaos, and nannies and so many kids.
It makes my brain hurt. I walk into the auditorium and yep, metal folding chairs.
Good to know where the tuition is going.
Waverly sees me and jumps to her feet, waving like she hasn’t seen me in months.
Next to her is Thiago and his wife, Monica, and Dimitri and Katya are sitting on the other side of her.
Duncan and his wife, Linda, are sitting in the row in front where she lifts a pile of coats for me to sit down.
Donny, who sits on Duncan’s left, must be the representative for his family.
He gives me a head nod but goes back to his phone.
Though everyone is a shade tanner than when they left, Waverly and Duncan are bright red.
Apparently the two of them didn't understand the concept of sunscreen.
“Aunt Alana!” As I’m about to sit down, Ian comes running down the aisle. “You made it.” He hugs me and doesn’t let go, and I relax for the first time since they left. He’s happy and healthy, and this time he avoids my wound… or maybe it doesn’t hurt as much. Is it him or me?
“I can’t wait to hear all about your trip, but shouldn’t you be backstage?” His nose and forehead are also bright red, and he gives me a harder squeeze.
This is the first Family Day the school decided to have in a couple of years, thanks to Izzy’s ex ignoring all decorum. I missed the first one, and there’s no way I’m missing it now.
Right on cue there’s an announcement about students going backstage. Ian steps away, heading towards the stage when I call out, “Hey Ian, don’t get kidnapped this time.” Shit, that was in really bad taste. He might not have the dark humor that goes hand-in-hand with trauma.
But he smiles and points right back at me. “Aunt Alana, don’t blow up this time.” I love that kid.
Then I turn to see Dimitri with an ashen expression. He’s gonna tell me not to say things like that. Trauma isn’t a joke.
“He’s a little shit, you know that?” I say as I take my seat, placing my purse on my lap. I twist to the side and ask Duncan and Linda, “How was the trip?”
The Irish mafia boss huffs. “I was about to ask you the same thing.” Are my organs on the floor, because they have to be with the way my stomach dropped?
“What?” I whisper, because that’s the only sound that will come out.
A slow grin seeps across Duncan’s face, but there’s nothing sinister in it.
No malice. Somehow that makes it so much worse.
I’ve seen this expression on my own dad, playful with a dash of gloating.
An ‘I’ve got something on my kid’ look. He lifts up his cellphone and shows Linda a picture of Grae and I eating hot dogs in Iceland.
Mother fucker! Duncan’s old timer did not have my back at all.
His loyalty to Duncan runs deeper than the wrath of the Lioness.
I’m calling my bomb expert as soon as I get a chance.
“Alana was caught canoodling!”
Linda peeks at the screen and gasps, “That’s a very attractive man.”
Donny leans over, takes one glance and shakes his head, “That’s not a man, that’s a Fae prince. Don’t drink his wine, keep iron on you at all times, and don’t introduce him to my sister. I’m not about to fight the Seelie Court for her.” But his eyes linger on the screen.
Duncan continues to show the phone around and all I can do is glare. In times like this, silence is more powerful than threats. Thankfully, Katya grabs the phone out of Duncan’s hand.
“If Alana has something to say, then she will. Respect her privacy.” Oh, thank Odin. But as fast she snatched it, she flipped the screen over. “But I’m gonna check it out anyway.” Once she registers what she’s seen she gasps and drops the phone. “Oh my God.” Suddenly she can’t meet my eyes.
Both Dimitri and Waverly reach for the phone at the same time and have very different reactions. Dimitri curses in Russian and scrubs a hand down his face. He’s met Grae a few times now, so there’s no hiding it from him. And Waverly turns even more red than before, whisper yelling, “Grae!?”
Yeah, she was one of the many reasons I wanted to keep this whole thing a secret. Waverly has been talking about her attraction to Grae at least once a month for the three years I’ve known her. I can’t tell if she’s embarrassed or pissed that I betrayed ‘girl code’.
Donny twists in his chair to talk to Waverly. “What’s the big deal?”
But Thiago curses in Spanish, his glower mirroring my own rage, humiliation and fears. “You’re back with him.”
“Back?!” Waverly hisses, choking on her words, “As in, you were with him before?” Now she covers her face. Dimitri doesn’t seem shocked, but Katya does… Uri must have told him. But he was loyal and kept his damn mouth shut.
“Shit,” Donny laughs. “Why are you hanging out with us when you could’ve been with him?”
“Because he didn’t want her,” Thiago spat, and a thousand daggers hit my heart at once. Thiago, my oldest friend, knew me when I was Kinsley. He hisses in a deadly low voice, “I’m not watching you go through this again. End it now.”
Snap. Did anyone else hear it? The last shred of my restraint?
“Last time I checked,” I say with deadly stillness, “we’re not married. Therefore, you have no fucking say in who I put inside me.”
“Honey, it was really bad last time.” Monica dips her head. I’ve known her longer than the other women, but we’ve never been close.
“Who is this guy?” Duncan's voice drops lower and rougher. No longer a playful dad, but a mafia boss.
Katya leans in, “He’s a celebrity, a client, her ex-boyfriend she didn’t tell us about and Lance hates him.”
I turn to Linda and enunciate every word through gritted teeth. “I need to see a program.” She lifts it, and I rip it out of her hand.
Maria performs first, then Shae’s solo and three acts later, Drew and Ian’s presentation.
Twenty minutes. That’s what the kids get.
Then I’m done and salting the earth and burning the ground.
With a stillness of an assassin I turn to Duncan, “The Irish family is the only family to stay in my good graces, why would you ruin it?”
“I didn’t think…” Duncan’s Irish guilt weighs on him.
“No,” I cut him off, “you didn’t.”
The preschoolers finally get on stage and start singing “You are my Sunshine,” off-key.
And I’m too pissed to enjoy it. Next, Maria and her class come out and read a poem the whole class wrote about family.
She’s the loudest and still has her princess hair bun she got from the trip. It’s seen better days.
The next group of kids makes me sit through a speech about the environment, caring and the power of friendship.
Finally, Drew and Ian walk on and do their stage fight reenacting their classic hit from the first time, and it’s actually pretty cute.
Once they’re offstage, I stand, push past the Four Families and walk out of the auditorium.
Why aren’t you with him? He didn’t want me.
It was really bad last time. He’s a client.
A celebrity—and high profile equals dangerous.
He comes with his own issues. And if Lance still hates him, then Grae must be a really shitty guy.
Oh, and he has a habit of fucking my friends, so that’s a big red flag.
Once in my car, I un-silence my phone and find it exploding with messages. Twenty-five missed calls. And so many text messages.
Lena: Apa
Missed call
Lena: Apa
Missed call
Lena: Apa
Missed call
Lena: Apa
Missed call
Lena: FLYING BUFFALO
Lena: Answer your phone.
Missed call
Missed call
Missed call
Lena: Grae… you’re back with GRAE
Missed call.
Lance: Are you insane?
Missed call
Lance: He’s going to destroy the life you built.
Lance: So was this your plan the whole time, marry me off so you could go suck his dick and I won’t notice?
Lance: Really fucking selfish to ruin our honeymoon.
Adrenaline surges through my muscles, and I need a release.
I scream in my car until the windows rattle and punch the dashboard until my arms quiver.
My two rocks, my Person and my best friend…
I knew this was going to happen. They were going to overreact and make me feel like shit for doing one thing for myself.
The phone buzzes again.
Izzy: I’m so pissed.
Yeah, I’m not surprised, it still hurts though.
Izzy: At Lance… sorry hit send too soon.
Izzy: You did not ruin our honeymoon. He’s doing that all himself for being a whiney little bitch.
Izzy: And if that was your plan… not a bad one at all. Get it girl.
I’m too tired to smile, but her message does take some of the stress out of this.
Waverly: OH MY GOD! PLEASE DON’T HATE ME.
Waverly: Do you hate me? He’s hot and I didn’t think he was like a REAL person.
Waverly: Like I knew he was real but like not… this isn’t making any sense.
I don’t have it in me to ease Waverly’s ego right now. She’s kinda low on my priority list.
My phone rings and it’s Lena’s ringtone. Might as well get it over with.
“What the hell?” she screeches.
“Don’t yell, it will ruin your vocal cords,” I say, and rest my forehead against the steering wheel.
“You’re back with the man who stole my straight boyfriend.” I’ve listened to this shit for years, and I finally break.
“CJ was never straight. Three conversations with him, and I knew he was bisexual.”
“Then why has he only been with women since they broke up?”
“Because he was in a relationship with Grae. You can’t come back from that, I’m living proof.
” She huffs like an angry bear until she starts her breathing exercises.
The irony? Grae was the one who taught her those when we were kids.
I lower my voice and whisper, “Are you mad because I’m with him, or that I didn’t tell you? ”
“I had to find out through Lance—who should be fucking his wife, but that’s on him.” I can hear her drinking a glass of water because she slams it down. She sounds more resigned. “Well, what did he do?”
What did he do? How did I fall back into this trap?
“He instantly apologized, it was so heartfelt and honest. I believed him.”
“Oh,” she whispers, shocked. “Is that all?”
“Then he went down on me, and I think I went blind for a few seconds,” I add.
“Nice.” Her voice lightens as she asks, “Was he hot?”
Sharp suit, styled hair and those eyes that look at me like I’m the only person in the world. “Hell yes.”
“Yeah, he always is,” she admits.
“What’s your excuse for telling Uri about Grae and me?” Two can play the guilt game, and she curses under her breath.
“I was in a mood.”
“Cool. You definitely traumatized the poor, gay Russian.”
“Sorry. I’ll make it up to him somehow.”
I pull my head off the steering wheel and check the mirror. There's a fresh red crescent across my forehead. I lean against the headrest and stare up at the ceiling. Well, this is going as well as can be expected. But this is Lena, which means…
“Hey, is your security staff in the room?”
Silence.
“I don’t know, I’m in the bathroom. Hold up.” The door creaks open. “Darren—are you crying?”
Between sniffles and high-pitched squeaks he says, “She was Pen Girl the whole time.”
“I don’t know what that means.” Lena slams the door, there’s a deep sigh on her end as she softly says, “I love you. You know that, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Does this mean I have to start being nice to Amanda?” Not this shit again.
“I gave Grae two weeks, then I’m gone. There's not much damage he can do in two weeks.” There’s a long silence before she laughs.
“Wow, I almost believed you.” She hangs up, and my phone buzzes one more time.
Izzy: So Lance told me his side of the story. When you’re ready, I’d like to hear your side. And then I’m asking Grae.
Izzy: Nothing about Lance’s story makes sense.
No shit. I've been trying to unravel this mystery for years.