"You went with pink this month, huh?"
"Kindly," Ara glared, "walk off a cliff. I don't want to hear your opinions about my body."
"Oh, I've given you my opinions on your body," Spencer grinned. "Remember your high school graduation? I was just finishing up med school, and you wore that dress where you had one butt cheek hanging out and told the whole graduation assembly that you had a lopsided butt when I teased you about it?"
"I did not know there was a mic that far from the stage!" Ara seethed.
The phone rang, and then Gemma picked up. "Hey."
Relief coursed through me in a soothing wave. "Hey," I said, trying not to sound breathless. "Where are you? Are you okay? Arabella just showed up here and said you left lunch, so I wanted to make sure you were alright."
Gemma was silent for two seconds, and then with atypical softness, she asked, "Did you know? About your mom using me to prove a point to you?"
My gut twisted painfully. I stopped pacing and rubbed my eyes. "I… yeah. I knew. She told me that she thought we were bluffing."
"And you didn't share that with me because?" she asked, her voice trembling.
I looked up to find Spencer and Ara watching me with unabashed interest. "I wasn’t sure how you would react. And… it wasn’t completely relevant."
"Hah." Gemma's half-hearted, emotionless laugh tore through me like claws on tissue paper. "So, your mom told you to yourface that I'm trash, and you just thought, 'As long as Gemma doesn't know, I can get what I want.' Is that it?"
"No." I rubbed my forehead where my brow had creased. "Of course not. She's wrong, first of all. I lo—" I stopped myself, swallowing the words I wanted to say. "I respect you more than anyone else I know, Gem."
"Hey," Ara and Spencer said in unified outrage.
"I didn't want this to hurt you,” I continued. “It was genuinely my hope to disentangle you from this mess—usfrom this mess—so we could… continue what we've started. Unhampered," I finished. I didn't know what she'd heard or who she'd heard it from, but she sounded so hurt, I felt it like a physical pain in my chest.
"She said you've both been playing a game of chicken withmein the middle, but apparently, I'm the only idiot who had no idea what was going on. Is that true, too?"
I grimaced, letting my head fall back. "You are not an idiot."
"But?" she prompted, her voice hard.
"I was playing my horrible mother's… games, yes." Jesus, out loud, it sounded so pathetic. How had I thought that playing into this insanity was the best path to happiness? My parents had twisted me in knots and mind games my whole life, and I was thirty-six now, but apparently, I hadn't learned a damn thing.
"I see," she said glumly.
"You don't," I countered gently. "Where are you? It's easier to explain in person."
"Explain what?" she asked with genuine curiosity. "I mean it, Rook. What is there to explain? Your mom used me as an example. You allowed it to try and outmaneuver her. You hired a lawyer I never got to meet with. You played a chess game where only you could see the moves, and you played me on the board like a pawn. Am I right or have I gotten that mixed up?"
Fuck. She was right. I sighed, crouching because my body felt like it was going to break out into nervous jitters. "I didn't mean for you to get hurt."
"I know you didn't," she said sadly. "But… I did."
I pinched my temples between my thumb and middle finger. "I'm not sure what I was thinking."
"You wanted to win," she replied with equanimity. It was so un-Gemma-like. Her calmness was the most disturbing part about this because it told me she wasn't herself. She'd been hurt, and now wherever she was, she wasn't completely rational.
"I truly wanted you to have your freedom," I said. "I mean that, Gem. I didn't go about it in the smartest way, but I—"
"Rook," she said, cutting me off. "I know. I know all of that. But I need some time. I need to think this over and see how I feel. I trusted you. I thought you—" she swallowed. "I thought you saw me as an equal."
"I do," I insisted, but I knew there was no point in trying to convince her of that. I'd hurt her. She was asking for space. I needed to respect that. "Are you staying somewhere safe, at least?"
"Don't worry about me," she replied morosely. "I brought Mini and Pumpkin to kennels to stay for a bit. I'll let you know after I've had some time."
"Gemma," I snapped, standing and finally succumbing to a wave of anger. "At least tell me where you're going."
