This was the fucking reason why. “You are annoying.”
“Your husband was annoying, too, but you got over it,” she shot back before popping another grape between her lips.
“How do you know that?”
She patted the seat by her bed. “Let’s have a mother-in-law, daughter-in-law heart-to-heart.”
“Comments like that are why you annoy me,” I said, moving to sit on the couch farther away.
“How would you
like me to talk then?”
“How about don’t talk?” For some reason, even her voice bothered me. Her face, her hair, her body, everything about Calliope bothered me.
And just like that, she stopped talking, eating her grapes in peace. Another annoying trait. I rolled my eyes.
“What is his plan?”
“Ethan never has one plan in his mind. He’s always processing and readjusting them. A lot is going on in there.” She motions to her head.
“I know that. What’s the one he is currently working on?”
She stared at me like I was still not getting it. Shaking her head, she sighed. “Right, it looks like he is making them tire out their resource by attacking the Callahans at different places, then after I have regained enough strength, we’ll go to Italy and end the fight once and for all. I’m sure he’s trying to figure out whether we should bring Gigi with us because he doesn’t trust anyone else to watch over her. Or put his grandmother at risk by leaving Gigi with her. He really loves Evelyn and considers her the only family he can trust right now, besides Gigi and me.”
“Evelyn knew we were alive and didn’t tell him. Why didn’t he count that as a betrayal?” I asked, annoyed again.
“Because Evelyn didn’t abandon him. She raised him and supported him. Coraline focused more on her own kids and Wyatt. She didn’t understand Ethan very well. I think she might have even been afraid of him.”
“And Evelyn does? Understand him?”
“No, but even when she doesn’t, she tries to reach out and support him anyway. She never backs down from him and knows he cares, even when he says nothing or makes a mistake. Ethan probably forgave her for lying about you all the moment he found out. Part of him sees her more as his mother than you.”
My eyes narrowed at her, and she smiled.
“You are jealous.”
“Jealous?”
She nodded. “That’s why you hate me, and you are not happy about Evelyn being the only one he will forgive.”
“Do not guess my feelings, little girl.”
“Don’t make them so obvious, old lady.”
I frowned, and she smiled wider. “Ethan loves you, Melody. A lot. He’s grateful for everything you’ve done. He wishes he could have thanked you for all that you taught him over the years. He knows he wouldn’t have survived and become the man he is today if it weren’t for having for a mother like you.”
My throat felt dry for some reason, but I didn’t let her see. Her gray eyes watched every move I made.
“Did he say all of this?”
“He doesn’t need to.”
I scoffed. “What is with you two and doing that? As if you can read each other’s minds?”
“When everyone is wiretapping our home to eavesdrop on our conversations, we had to become good at speaking without speaking.”
“It’s annoying.”