Amanda cares about me.Doesn’t she?
She waited for Amanda to tell Nicole so, but Amanda didn’t.
“Nicole, you’d better tell me why you’re here, or I’ll have to call the police.”
“As if they could. I’m still your wife, remember? Now, if you want me to sign those divorce papers, you’re going to sit down with me and discuss terms. You’d know all this if you’d been taking my calls or listening to my voice messages.”
“You—you’re not divorced yet?” Snow couldn’t help but feel hurt. Amanda had referred to Nicole as her ex-wife multiple times. Apparently, each and every one of those times had been a lie.
Before Amanda could answer, Nicole turned her full rage on Snow. “Get out of here, you filthy little slut! You’re young enough to be her daughter! How far you have fallen, Amanda. Now get out of here, slut.”
Snow’s eyes filled with tears. She looked to Amanda, waiting for Amanda to defend her, but Amanda said nothing. She was starting at Nicole with daggers in her eyes. All of her attention was focused on her ex-wife—no, her wife, Snow reminded herself—and she didn’t seem to have any energy to spare for Snow.
Snow grabbed her things and ran out of the apartment, trying to hold back tears.
She managed to do so until she reached her car. Once there, Snow broke down completely. How could Amanda do this to her? Not only did she lie to Snow multiple times, but she hadn’t said a single word to defend her when Nicole had been screaming at her, saying vicious and cruel things that were so untrue. Amanda should have jumped to correct Nicole, but she didn’t.
Snow started the car. She wanted to get home as soon as possible.
She didn’t remember much of the drive home. All she remembered was rushing to her room and slamming the door shut, ignoring Daisy’s worried questions. She knew that her mother would take care of Bluebell when Snow so clearly needed her space.
Snow lay on her bed, sobbing. Things had been so good with Amanda. She had thought Amanda truly cared about her.
How wrong she had been. If Amanda had really cared, she would have told Snow the truth. Snow would have understood. Divorces were complicated, and sometimes, it took time to get the paperwork sorted. She wouldn’t have held that against Amanda.
So why did Amanda lie? Snow couldn’t think of a reason, which just made this even worse. Was Amanda the kind of person to lie for no reason, just because she could? If you’d asked her a few hours ago, Snow would have said absolutely not, but now, she wasn’t sure.
Perhaps even worse was the fact that Amanda didn’t stand up for her. She just stood by while Nicole screamed that Snow was a slut, without saying a word to defend her.
Things had been going so well between them. Snow should have known that it was too good to be true. No one found someone so perfect for them. Amanda didn’t truly want her for anything more than sex. If that had been the case, she would have defended Snow to Nicole. She would have told her the truth about not being divorced yet.
Snow had never imagined that she would be used in this way. Casual sex wasn’t something that she did.
Before, sex with Amanda had made her feel amazing, but now, the thought of it just made her feel dirty. She’d been such a fool. Of course, Amanda wouldn’t really be interested in someone like Snow.
Amanda was successful, glamorous, assertive, and all the things that Snow wasn’t. She was out of Snow’s league, and Snow had been a fool ever to imagine otherwise.
Snow wept bitterly for what felt like hours. There was a timid knock on her door. “Mom? Is everything okay?”
Snow sighed and wiped her face before opening the door. She was all too aware that her face was red and puffy, but she couldn’t do anything about that now.
She pulled open the door. “Hey, honey.” Her voice sounded awful, and Bluebell’s little eyes were alarmed as she wrapped her arms around Snow’s waist.
“It’ll be okay, Mom.”
“I know it will, sweetheart. I’m just sad at the moment, but I’ll feel better in time, I promise.”
“What are you sad about?”
“Someone I trusted turned out not to be who I thought they were.”
“Who?”
Snow didn’t really want to get into the details with Bluebell, especially since Bluebell seemed to like Amanda so much. “It doesn’t matter. She’s not part of my life anymore. She can’t hurt me again.”
Bluebell seemed satisfied with this answer. “Do you want to borrow my stuffy bunny? He always makes me feel better when I’m feeling sad.”
Snow couldn’t help smiling. “I’d love to borrow your stuffy bunny. Perhaps we can both play a game with him. How about that?”