She scoffs. “Fuck you, Dante. I’m on drugs because I’m using retail therapy to deal with my husband telling me he wants a divorce? You won’t even touch me anymore. If I were on drugs, you drove me to them.”
“I won’t touch you because you’re an evil bitch. I saw that video of you pushing Bella away from you. I know you’ve been taking money from her account.” I have to pause to get the rest out. “Do you know she thinks you treat her the way you do because she’s a bad girl? I know what that feels like, Bethany. I’m not going to allow you to do this to her.”
Guilt covers her face. She takes a few steps toward me. Ducking her head as if she’s truly remorseful. If this was five years ago, I’d believe the act.
“Dante, I…I planned to put the money back. Daddy needed some help. I thought I could help him and put it back before you noticed. I’ve been so stressed out. I may have lost my patience with Bella, but I would never hurt her.”
“Why didn’t your father come to me? It wouldn’t have been the first time.”
I call her on that bullshit lie because I know her father has come into a new lucrative investment. It’s a rumor I’ve been meaning to look more into. Man, this woman can lie through her teeth. How am I just seeing her for who she is?
“He was embarrassed. I found out by accident. He made me swear not to tell anyone.”
I don’t have it in me to call her on her shit. I’m exhausted. I’ve been living this nightmare for longer than I care to admit. If not for our daughter, I would have had the guards at the gate turn her away.
I inhale deeply and drag my tired body up to my secret place. I can sleep in the bedroom up there. I need a break from my lying, manipulative, selfish wife. A moment to think clearly and make some real decisions.
“Dante,” she calls after me. “I still love you.”
“You have a poor way of showing it,” I mutter and keep walking.
Lizzy
“And who has you smiling like that?” I say as I walk into the kitchen.
Nyla looks down at her phone with an uncharacteristic goofy grin on her face. Something has changed about Nyla. I just can’t put my finger on it.
“No one,” she says quickly and puts her phone on the counter face down.
I shrug it off and go to the refrigerator. I’m hungry. Since I didn’t go on my date, I didn’t eat dinner.
“Hey, what happened to your date?”
“My boss needed me to work late. I had to cancel.”
“That sucks. You want to get some content in? It’s been a whole since we’ve gamed together. We can push some product too.” She’s right, it’s been almost six months since we’ve played together.
“That sounds good. I’m not going to get any sleep. Besides, the sponsors are going to be after us if we don’t post something new soon.”
“Yeah, I know. Not that we need them. Our merch and subs are keeping us afloat,” she says.
“Afloat, I was thinking of taking a long vacation or buying a boat or something.” I chuckle. My sister bursts out laughing. We both know I would never.
Although, she’s right. Our merchandise and subscriptions to the Twitch channel are keeping our accounts very healthy.
“Yeah, I can finally let go of my harem of sugar daddies.” She snorts and slides off the stool she has been perched on.
I tilt my head at her. Something in her words jumps out at me. I get ready to pry, but her phone rings.
“Hey, I’m getting ready to jump on for some content. I can’t really talk right now,” she says into the phone.
After a pause, she speaks again. “Does he know you’re calling?” I watch her face closely as she frowns. “Why is it so hard for him to tell me he wants me? Yeah, I know that, but even that wasn’t done right.”
The person on the other end replies while Nyla looks up to find me staring at her.
“He has to call for me. Look, I have to go.” She takes a pause. “Yeah, I want to see you too, but this is on him. I’ll text you later.”
“So you’re seeing someone?”
“Lizzy, you’re not ready for me to share my life.”
“What makes you say that? I miss our talks. What happened to us?”
“You’re still my baby sister. My life has just become more complicated over the years. Trust me, one day, all the secrets will come out.”
“Are your secrets why you’re back and thinking about sticking around?”
“Not mine exactly, but they’re twisted up in it all.” She purses her lips and looks like she’s going to say more. “Come on. We have an audience who awaits.”