He Chose My Best Friend, Now He Wants Me Back Chapter 04

He Chose My Best Friend, Now He Wants Me Back Chapter 04

The silence in the car was thick enough to choke on.

Ben gripped the steering wheel, his knuckles white. Sloane sat in the back, comforting Ruby, who now had a cartoon Band-Aid on her forehead.

“Mommy,” Ruby’s voice, loud in the quiet car, held a hint of pride. “I protected you. I chased away that bad woman who bullies you.”

Her little chest puffed out.

“I’ll always protect you, just like I did today.”

“Like today?” Ben’s voice from the front seat was as cold as steel. His eyes found Ruby’s in the rearview mirror. “What, exactly, did you do to Aunt Mara today?”

Ruby shrank from his tone but answered stubbornly, “I cut her veil! Mommy said you only wear that to get married, and Daddy can only marry Mommy!”

A screech of tires tore through the night as the car jerked to a stop.

Sloane pitched forward, yanked back by her seatbelt.

“Ben! Are you crazy?”

He ignored her, whipping around to face the back seat. “Who taught you to point scissors at people?” he roared at Ruby. “Who told you to do that?”

The shout stunned everyone into silence.

Ruby’s shoulders began to shake, and then she burst into ragged sobs.

“I just didn’t want Mommy to cry anymore!” she wailed. “And I don’t want you two to fight because of that woman!”

Sloane snapped back to her senses, pulling her daughter into a tight hug and patting her back. The only sounds in the car were the child’s heartbroken sobs and the man’s heavy, ragged breathing.

After a long moment, Sloane lifted her head. Her voice was light, but each word landed with devastating precision.

“Ruby, look at Mommy.”

She cupped her daughter’s face. “You cut Aunt Mara’s veil first, didn’t you?”

Ruby nodded through her tears.

“And she only pushed you because she was trying to get the scissors away?”

Another nod.

Sloane’s hand stilled. Her voice began to tremble. “The scissors… they cut her hand first, didn’t they?”

Ruby looked into her mother’s eyes and finally whispered, “Yes.”

Sloane’s arms went rigid around her daughter. She sat motionless in the dark car, silent for a long, long time.

The city lights slid past the window, casting fleeting shadows across her face.

But all she could see was Mara’s bleeding hand, and the ruined veil that had belonged to her mother.