“What the hell did you send her?” I asked.
Nova pulled up her phone and handed it to me.
Raelynn: OMG OMG OMG! 911!!! EMERGENCY!! FaceTime immediately. Need you. 911!! Something’s wrong with V. Call. Now. 911!!!“Wow,” I said, handing her phone back.
“So, just tell me. Rip it off like a Band-Aid. Are you dying? Sick? God, I don’t think I can lose you.”
I sniffed, more tears building, and Nova stormed around the couch, pulling me into a fierce hug.
“What the hell is going on?” she pleaded.
“Something with Nico,” Raelynn answered for me. “I was about to grab some wine so we could talk. Want a bottle?”
“A whole bottle?”
“When your girl shows up at your door sobbing for the first time in all the years of your friendship, you each get a bottle.”
“Ummm…sure.”
“Atta girl.”
Raelynn disappeared in the kitchen, and Nova pulled back, framing my face with both hands. “Are you okay?”
My face scrunched at the question, my lips pinched to hold back more tears, and I shook my head. My body ached like it’d gone ten rounds with a heavyweight. The sharp pain in my chest stung like a knife through my heart, making it hard to breathe.
“I’m so sorry, Vera,” she whispered. “We’ll get through this. You’re not alone.”
More tears leaked free, and I fell into her arms again. Raelynn always made me laugh, and Nova always soothed my soul. Despite the crushing weight of my pain, I knew I’d make it through this with these two by my side.
“Dammit, Nova, I just got her to stop crying.”
I laughed again. Raelynn sounded like a pissed off parent mad at her spouse for waking the baby.
I sat back and wiped my eyes. “Sorry, guys.”
“Stop apologizing,” Raelynn reprimanded.
She sat a bottle in front of each of us, chips and dip, M&Ms, and a charcuterie tray.
“Damn,” I whispered.
“I keep a stash, and my cook made one earlier today for me to munch on. I’m skilled, but not good enough to whip up cheese and meat artfully decorated like that.”
“Do you want me to grab glasses,” Nova asked.
Raelynn sat in the chair catty-corner to the couch, giving Nova a bless-your-heart kind of smile. “Oh, sweetheart, no. We’re drinking straight from the bottle.”
“Oh. Okay. This went so well last time.”
We snickered, mine quickly followed by an unladylike sniff.
“That was a bottle of tequila and nothing goes well when you drink tequila straight from the bottle. Now,” Raelynn faced me, looking like a prim and proper politician’s daughter, perched on the edge of the couch. All except for the way she clutched her bottle of wine. “Talk.”
Snatching my own bottle from the table, I brought it to my lips, taking long pulls. The spicy, berry wine took the taste of Nico away, and I drank more, wanting to do all I could to wash him from every part of me while also wanting to keep every part of him close.
I sat the bottle down with a thud and started from when we walked into the lobby to find my father. By the time I was done, both women looked like they were ready to burn the world down for me.
“What an asshole,” Nova said.
“That mother fucking liar,” Raelynn added.
“The worst part,” I said, huffing a laugh without humor. “I love him. I love him so much.”
I tried to swallow down the tears, but they slipped free, and Nova grabbed my hand for support.
“Do you think he cares for you, too?” she asked.
“I guess a part of me hoped he did. Our honeymoon had been amazing. We got to know each other. We laughed and bonded and the sex—god, the sex. He just…saw me.”
“It sounds like he cares,” Nova said.
“I don’t know because now everything is colored with this lie. Every business conversation, every question he asked, every time he got to know me, now makes me see it as a way for him to get information to steal my family’s company. The trip to France when I thought he just wanted more time alone together? Now I see it for what it was, just a ploy to keep me away. All of it was a lie, and I was the stupid fool who started to believe it.”
“You are not stupid,” Raelynn vehemently scolded. “You reacted to the information you were given, and there were no clues to make you think otherwise.”
“You said Nicholas did it for revenge, but why?” Nova asked.
I ran through the evening, trying to remember everything that was said but also trying to make it all go away at the same time. “I-I’m not sure. Something about his family’s company. I think my father did something.”
“What a dick,” Raelynn said. “That’s a mess between two men fighting with their dicks. Why the hell did he have to pull you in?”
“I-I don’t know.” My voice wobbled over more tears. I’d asked myself that same question on the ride over. Why couldn’t he have just left me alone? None of this pain would have happened if he’d just have left me alone.