Oh, God… what if Reece tried to call me because he’d gotten into an accident, and now he was dying because I didn’t pick up?
Dad’s phone was dead, so I couldn’t even use his to try and reach my fiancé. Mom was already in her seat, watching the whole competition with everyone else. Nova wasdesperate to see the whole thing only because she had a crush on one of the skaters, and she didn’t want to miss her.
“I’m sure he’ll get here any minute,” Dad said, then leaned down and pressed a kiss to the top of my head. “I can try and find Emory. She could call him.”
I shook my head. “Knowing Mom, she definitely left her phone at home just so she didn’t have to give it to Kim.”
Kimlovedplaying games on Emory’s phone. Lily and Colin wouldn’t give her one, so she always opted to ask Sofia and Emory for theirs.
“Eden definitely has his phone,” Dad said. “I can try and find him, but that might take a hot second.”
I chuckled, even if it was just briefly. “He’s probably trying to flirt with one of the skaters or their sisters. He’ll think it’s embarrassing if you suddenly show up and ask him for his phone.”
“One more reason to go there.” Dad shrugged. “That kid hasn’t made raising him easy.”
“Well, I didn’t want him to begin with.”
Dad tilted his head at me, raising his eyebrows.
“He’s okay.” My eyes rolled, a smile tugging on my lips. “I’m still your favorite, though, right?”
“I love all of?—”
“Nope.” I covered my ears with my hands, not wanting to hear him finish that sentence. “I’m the original, Dad. Youhaveto love me the most. I won’t accept anything else.”
I could see him laugh before turning around and making his way back to all the other skaters, probably in hopes of finding my brother.
Eden was a good kid. A bit exhausting at times, but good. He had a huge problem with wanting to impress everyone around him, including our parents, and he was deadly afraid of disappointing anyone he loved.
And ever since Eden learned that there was a whole crowd of girls out there he could impress instead of just random ice hockey fans, he was always on the go to find a new victim of his charms.
Teenagers, am I right?
As I was waiting for my dad to return, I kept staring at the entrance doors in hopes that my fiancé would finally get here, but it was hopeless at this point.
He stood me up.
Then the doors opened, but it wasn’t Reece who entered, it was Erik. His casts came off exactly six weeks after the incident, which was good for him. He could walk again… well, to an extent. He was re-learning it as far as I knew.
At huge events like these, he was still bound to his wheelchair.
But that wasn’t what had caught me off guard. It waswhowas pushing that wheelchair.
I was baffled. All the words in my head in both languages I was able to speak left my brain in just one second.
Her green eyes were burning holes into my body as she stared at me, waiting for any sort of comeback. There was none.
She put her blonde hair up into a tight bun, her makeup flawless. She wore a grey suit, looking all business-like. Millie looked like she had her whole life together, caring for her sick child. She was acting like the ideal mother, as if she hadn’t abandoned her own daughter the moment she was born.
Millie couldn’t have been Erik’s mother, at least not biologically. Unless I had a twin I never knew of, but Dad would’ve told me.
Perhaps she was only working for Erik’s family. Who knew?
But there was no other logical explanation for her pushing Erik’s fucking wheelchair.
It didn’t matter anyway. This woman could’ve died on the spot for all I cared. So then she knew Erik, perhaps she even adopted him, or maybe she was his stepmother, it didn’t matter. Millie just threw me away to raise someone else’s kid. No biggie.
Yet, despite telling myself how little I cared, I couldn’t seem to tear my eyes away from them. How she laughed when Erik spoke, and how she helped him open a can of coke because he still struggled with that.