Page 97 of The Broposal

“I know you’re gonna call ICE on me, Jackie,” I interrupted, watching her face carefully for a reaction. Her head whipped over in Kenny’s direction.

“Youtoldhim?” she shouted.

Kenny gave me a deer-in-headlights look. He had no idea what I was doing here or why I was egging Jackie on, but that didn’t matter. He’d figure it out soon enough.

“So what if I do call?” Jackie seethed, her face now a blotchy red. “All you’ve done since I’ve known you is try to ruin my relationship! Why should I protect you from the consequences of your own actions?”

“Jackie, please—” Kenny pleaded, but I cut him off.

“Do it, then,” I said, meeting Jackie’s shocked eyes.

“What?” she and Kenny said in unison. Kenny looked even more surprised than Jackie, but he moved his body between us, as if he could shield me from whatever I was about to unleash.

“If you want to call ICE on me, then do it. I’ll probably get deported, or maybe locked up for a while. Same difference to you though, right?”

“Han, what are you doing?” Kenny asked.

Jackie just stared at me like I’d been speaking gibberish. “I don’t know what game you’re playing, but I seriously will call them if you don’t back off Kenny.”

“Go ahead,” I said, not daring to lose Jackie’s gaze. “If you’re not bluffing, then neither am I.”

“What are you talking about?” She crossed her arms apprehensively. Kenny’s expression finally switched from fearful to curious.

“I have posts ready to go on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.Posts with your name, your picture, your job, and the whole story of how you called ICE on me to break up my marriage with Kenny. If you try anything, Leti has the go-ahead to post all of them. Your choice.”

“You’re not serious,” she said, eyes narrowing in on me.

“Try it, then,” I dared her, holding my breath. There was no way she’d try to get me deported if everyone would find out what she did. She’d no doubt lose her friends and her leverage on Kenny, and I doubted her job would take kindly to the implication that Jackie herself was an abuser. If she was going to ruin my life, I’d ruin hers right back. “Everyone will know what a racist bitch you are.”

“Oh, please. It has nothing to do with racism. This is about me and Kenny.”

“Then you wouldn’t mind Leti posting about it? How many people do you think will see it your way?”

“I—I’m notracist! I… It’s just…” Then she just burst into tears. “I wasn’t actually gonna do it, okay? Is that what you want to hear?” When I didn’t give her so much as a pitying look, she turned to Kenny. “What else was I supposed to do? You weren’t listening to me! I had a fuckingbabyon the way, and you still wouldn’t break up with him!” she sobbed, but even Kenny didn’t give her an inch of pity.

“What do you meanhad?” Kenny said, his voice cold.

Jackie let out a frustrated scream. “I got an abortion, okay! That’s what I was trying to tell you, why I wanted to talk. I couldn’t do it! I don’t want to raise a kid withHan! I don’t want to have a baby just to get you to stay with me if you’re not even going to stay.” Jackie’s voice was almost unintelligible with how hard she was crying, but neither me nor Kenny was about to comfort her.

Kenny completely ignored Jackie as he threw his arms around me and squeezed me up in a hug, but I couldn’t bring myself to hug back. Kenny pulled away and looked me in the eyes, relief washing over his features.

“So you can just abandon me like you were always going to do!” Jackie wailed, and Kenny finally turned to face her.

“You know what, Jackie? You are abusive.”

“I’m not—” But Kenny didn’t let her finish.

“You’ve always treated me like shit. You made me hate myself. You made me second-guess every move and every choice I made. You made me, like… really unhappy. You’re so fucking controlling, it’s suffocating!”

Jackie looked like she’d just been slapped in the face. “But youknowwhy I’m like that! It’s not my fault!”

“No, your parents getting divorced wasn’t your fault. But you’re an entire fucking adult now. What happened to you when you were a kid doesn’t excuse you treating everyone around you like shit. Grow up.”

I wanted to slow clap right there. I never would have thought I’d see the day when Kenny told Jackie off, but here we were. I had to admit, I was pretty damn proud of him. Sure, Kenny and I still had a ton of shit to work out, but the worst of it was over. He turned to me and nodded toward the door.

“Come back home,” Kenny said once we were in the safety of his car.

I swallowed. “I don’t have a job to be paying rent.”

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