Looking away, he rubbed his palm down his face. “We never would have had to have this conversation with Marquette.”
My jaw unhinged as I jerked a step back. Hurt rolled through me, fanning my anger like wind did to a fire. In the four years since they’d taken me into their home and their lives, I’d never heard them say something like that, at least to my face.
“Carl,” gasped Rosa.
“I didn’t ask...” I drew in a shallow breath. “I am not her. I will never be her.”
He lowered his hand and then his head swung to where I stood. The color faded from his face. Regret filled his gaze immediately. “Mallory—”
“I’m not going to make her decisions,” I said, hands shaking, and it all just came out again. “I don’t want to spend the rest of my life in a lab. I don’t want to do anything in the medical field. I’m not perfect like her. I don’t want to be.”
Rosa placed her hand to her chest. “Honey, we—”
Done.
I was so done with this conversation that I didn’t even need words to tell them that. I didn’t need to be lectured right now. I didn’t need to hear anything they were saying. I needed to be with Rider—be there for him, like he’d been there for me so many times in the past. The rightness of that struck me hard.
It was my turn to take care of him and to be the strong one. The one who held it together so he could fall apart a little. I was not going to shatter and rely on anyone to piece me back together.
I was d
one.
Spinning around, I left the kitchen and darted upstairs. Once inside my bedroom, I slammed the door shut and then whipped off my loose shirt. I threw open a drawer and rooted around until I found a bra and then a tank top. I grabbed a hoodie and pulled it on over my head. I yanked my hair back in a loose knot as I walked over to my bed. Shoving my phone into my bag, I slung it over my shoulder and then pivoted. I headed out of my bedroom as I dug my keys out.
I took the steps two at a time and when I hit the foyer, Rosa appeared. “He didn’t mean it.”
“It doesn’t matter.” I walked straight to the door.
She followed. “Where are you going?”
“Out,” I replied, my heart racing.
“Mallory—”
Opening the door, I stopped in the doorway and faced her. “I need to be there for him. Hector and Jayden are like brothers to him.” Cold air washed over me and rolled into the house. “I need to go.”
“You can’t—”
“I need to go.” My hand tightened on the knob as Carl appeared in the background. “I’m going.”
Then I did.
I left the house knowing that Carl and Rosa didn’t approve, knowing I was going to be in trouble.
Knowing that I was letting them down.
That I already had.
* * *
I’d tried Rider again, but the call went straight to his voice mail and the text I sent him didn’t show delivered. I knew that most likely meant his cell was turned off. I tried not to let myself freak over that too much, because I was freaking about Carl and Rosa.
We never would have had to have this conversation with Marquette.
God.
God, that stung bad. It hurt. But it also hurt to know how they viewed Rider and even Hector and Jayden. Never did I think they’d be like that. I was so mad, so disappointed, that my knuckles ached from my grip on the steering wheel.