She laughs in a very creepy “I’ll make your death look like an accident” way and stares up at me.
Okay. I might be just a little afraid of her.
“You should be.”
I’m alerted by the sound of Kendrick and Haze’s bickering. I turn my head to see them heading toward us. They’re not holding any drinks. We got here so early the food stand probably isn’t open yet. Riley notices Haze and Kendrick approaching and looks at me with a smile on her face. Just like that, I know…
She’s going to do something.
“Why do you have to be so horrible to me?” she scolds me.
You have got to be kidding me.
“What’s going on?” Haze asks, stopping next to us.
She gets back on her feet and glares at me. I’m certain that no one could ever fall for her show, until fake tears come pouring down her cheeks and she starts sobbing.
Shit, the bitch is good.
“Nothing.” The words tumble out of my mouth.
“Nothing? You call threatening me nothing?” She wipes a tear away dramatically.
“What? That’s insane. I didn’t threaten her.”
“Oh, I’m insane? Your girlfriend just told me that I was ruining her relationship and she wanted me gone. She said that she’d do anything for things to go back to the way they were. She wants to get rid of me. Of us.” She points to Jacob and chokes on her false sobs.
“What? I didn’t say anyth—”
“More lies. How can you live with yourself? All I wanted was to reunite my son with his dad.” She starts stuffing Jacob’s toys into her beach bag.
I expect Haze to see right through her game because he knows me. He knows I would never do something like this. But when I look up at him, the understanding eyes I imagined would be point
ed at me are nowhere to be found.
His eyes are cold, torn.
“Come on, Jake. We’re leaving.” She pulls a very confused Jacob into her arms and starts to walk away. “Don’t even think about seeing your son again as long as this psycho’s in your life.”
“Riley, wait,” Haze calls out, and hearing him desperately call her name breaks me.
He believes her.
No. It can’t be.
“I told you there was nothing to worry about.” His harsh tone sends shivers down my spine. “Why did you have to make a scene?”
Kendrick intervenes. “Excuse me? Are you kidding me right now? You’re seriously going to believe that girl instead of Winter? She loves you, for some un-fucking-believable reason. There isn’t a single bad bone in her body, you know that.”
“Shut the hell up, Kendrick. I’m not talking to you,” Haze hisses angrily and turns to me.
“I can’t believe you… Tell me you’re not actually considering this. You know me. I’d never do anything to make you lose Jake. I didn’t say any of these things, she did. She said that in a week tops, you’d be together again. That I’d be out of the picture even if she had to get rid of me herself. How can you believe her?”
“I…” He stops speaking, a bit angrier with every passing second. “Fuck, I don’t know what to believe, okay?”
My heart splinters into a million pieces.
Don’t cry. Don’t cry.