Chapter 8
Shelby
I watch Sheila cry in front of Ace, my stomach hurting for him. Begging for him to give her a chance to explain, but he doesn't want to hear anything from her. She hangs her head as her shoulders shake as she cries. Ace walks away from her and tries to walk past Joseph, who is stupid enough not to see that he's hanging on by a fucking string. Only people who know him well can see the signs. He's usually calm and cool, but the minute he untied his bow tie from his tux, I knew it was just a matter of time before he would snap.
"Ace," Joseph says. All I know is that I inhale a deep breath, and I want to step forward and make sure that Ace is okay. I'm about to step forward when I see it happen before my eyes. My eyes go big as Ace's shoulder pulls back, and the next thing I know, Ace's hand is balling into a fist, and his fist connects with Joseph's mouth. I see his head snap back, and then his footing slips, and he falls to the side. My sisters and I gasp as Joseph's hand comes up, and he sees he is bleeding. He leers at Ace, and it angers me all the way through my veins. Ace doesn't even give him a second thought before he walks away into the event space.
I shake my head and then look at Joseph as he gets up and takes a step toward me, but I hold up my hand for him not to come any closer. "I'm going to go and make sure that everything is okay in there," Clarabella says, and I just nod. "Presley, you stay with her." She looks at Joseph. "And you fuck off, you spineless piece of shit." It's the first time that someone has cursed him out loud since all of this happened. I see her turn her head toward Sheila, who waits for whatever is going to be thrown at her. "You." Clarabella laughs. "You're second place, you know that, right?" She looks at Sheila. "At the end of the day, he chased after Shelby and left you in there." She points at the ceremony doors. "He may have declared his love for you in a fucking email, but at the end of the day, he went after the woman he wanted." Clarabella takes one more look at Joseph before turning and walking back into the ceremony space.
Sheila just shakes her head. "I am so, so sorry," Sheila says, and she wipes her tears away. “I never meant to hurt anyone."
"Meant to hurt anyone." I laugh out at her. "Meant to hurt me? Of course, you didn't." The sarcasm just rolls off me. "It's funny because I went over and over it in my head last night. All night," I tell her. "Every single time I was nice to you. Every single time I included you in plans because all I wanted to do was be your friend. Every single time I confided in you about things, you just took that and used it."
"That isn't how it happened," she says, stepping forward and then stopping.
"The only thing I think you are sorry for"—I swallow and look over at her—"is that you got caught." I look at them. "That both of you got caught."
"Trust me, the last thing I ever wanted was for anyone to find out," Sheila replies and looks at Joseph, who just looks at her. I don't know why she was expecting him to rush to her side. He's always been a selfish person, but I overlooked it since he was an only child. He didn't know that you needed to do certain things. Whether it was for little things like forgetting when I had a stressful day and just wanted to relax but instead focused all on himself. Or when he forgot the biggest day of my life three months ago, which could have broken us. Instead of sticking around to hold my hand, he went out of town. Now that I think back, the signs were all there. I was just blind to it. She takes one more look at me before turning and walking out with her head hanging down.
"I hope when things calm down," Joseph says, his hand coming up as his thumb rubs the side of his mouth where a drop of blood trickles out again. He looks down at his hand. "I hope that you give me the opportunity to talk to you and explain myself."
I stare at this man who I was going to marry. The man who I thought I loved with everything I had. The man who in the end was nothing that I thought he was. "I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you," I tell him, and he nods at me and storms out the front door.