“Brenna?” Jess’s voice was shaky. “Can we hide?”
Brenna turned her head and looked at Jess, saw misery and confusion and remembered the tears and her reddened eyes.
“No. We are not going to hide.” Decision made, she pulled on a sweater. This time she didn’t need a dress, makeup or her mother to help her stand up and do what was right. “If you don’t want to come down, that’s fine, sweetheart. I’ll talk to her. You go back upstairs and stay with Luna.”
“You can’t see her by yourself! She was so mean to you.”
“She won’t be mean to me this time.” Brenna walked toward the door, anger licking through her veins.
She stood for a moment, bracing herself to open it, and then she felt something nudge her leg and saw Ash looking up at her, his tail wagging.
“Hey—” She lowered her hand to the dog’s soft fur and then opened the door.
For the first time in over a decade, she faced her tormentor. Her first shock was how normal the other woman looked. Not a terrifying monster, but another human being. She was older and a little heavier, but apart from that, she didn’t seem to have changed much outwardly.
“Hello, Janet.”
Janet looked her over. “I came to see my daughter.”
“It’s not convenient.” Brenna was studiously polite. “If you call Tyler, he’ll arrange a time that suits both of you.”
Janet didn’t budge. “You haven’t changed at all.”
Brenna thought of how she’d been back then and how she was now. Maybe not on the outside, but on the inside she knew she was different. “I’ll tell him you called. He’ll be sorry he missed you.”
“So finally you’re living under the same roof as him. It’s what you always wanted.”
“Drive carefully. The roads are icy.” She started to close the door, but Janet stopped her.
“He is never going to marry you, you know that, don’t you? He’s never going to say ‘I love you.’”
Ash pressed closer and Brenna put her hand on his head. “Goodbye, Janet.”
Keeping an eye on the dog, Janet took her hand off the door. “You’ve been around all of his life, and I’m willing to bet that not once in all those years has he ever said
those words. He isn’t capable of it. You are wasting your time.”
Even now, after so many years, Janet knew exactly which words would hurt the most, and it was like a physical blow. Reeling from it, Brenna almost closed the door but then remembered this wasn’t about her, it was about Jess.
Standing a little taller, she met Janet’s gaze full on. “What Tyler says to me is none of your business, and who he has a relationship with is none of your business, either. And my time is mine to waste in any way I see fit.”
“So he hasn’t said it.” But instead of looking smug, Janet’s eyes looked haunted. “Be careful he doesn’t get you pregnant. Don’t make the same mistake I did.”
“Jess is a person, not a mistake. And you should be ashamed of yourself for saying those words to a child.”
“It’s the truth. Having her ruined my life.”
“It didn’t need to. There was help to be had if you’d asked for it.”
Janet’s bag slipped from her shoulder. “My parents wanted nothing to do with me.”
“But the O’Neils were there. They would have helped. They wanted to, but you pushed them away, and you did it to hurt them because you knew how much they all wanted Jess.”
“They wanted Jess, not me, and I couldn’t stand to be tied to a man who didn’t want me. You thought I had no feelings for him, but I loved him, too.” Janet hauled the strap of her bag back onto her shoulder. “You were the one he spent all his time with. Every day after school you’d meet him and go off together. I saw you on weekends up on the mountain. Always together.”
“You were jealous.” Brenna’s mouth was dry. It gave her no pleasure to have her suspicions confirmed. “That was why you hated me.”
Janet’s cheeks were streaked with color. “I gave him the one thing I knew you wouldn’t, but afterward he got dressed in a hurry because he’d arranged to meet you. Do you know how that made me feel?”