Page 66 of Unraveling with You

I bite back my own tears at Natalia’s breaking voice. I wish I could hug Annabella like this too. To tell her I’m sorry I made her feel just as abandoned, and that I believe her with my whole heart.

“No, don’t blame yourself ever again,” Remington mutters. “I mean it. I’m okay. He’s finally gone.”

She nods, pulling back. “Can I go back to Mom and Dad’s with you?”

He gives her a half-up smile. “Hell yeah. Now I get to ride with my two favorite women in the world.”

Natalia breaks into a smile, extending her arm for me. The three of us walk to Remington’s car with our arms around each other, smiling despite heavy hearts.

Thankfully, Remington’s sister is a safe face amongst the chaos of their parents’ house. But chaos might be underestimating this. Remington has hardly moved: a silent column in a room of shouting, criticizing, and mocking laughter.

Outside of his playful aspects, I consider Remington a soothing person. But his silence today is far from calm. He almost looks unfamiliar, devoid of emotion and unwilling to participate in conversations beyond a few simple words.

At first, I felt horribly sad for him. But the more his family harasses him for not speaking, his cousin even pushing him back into his seat to keep him from leaving, the faster my simmering anger bubbles.

Is this what I looked like all those years, amongst Dad’s chaos? Snuffing the life out of myself until I fell utterly silent, unable to even say “no?”

I grip Remington’s hand, squeezing a few times - our silent safeword. He doesn’t squeeze back, so I lean in as close as possible to whisper, “Can you tell me what color the stoplight was while we were driving, earlier?”

He blinks a few times, as if I’m snapping him out of a haze. “I think... yellow.”

So he’s okay, but on the brink of “red.”

“Let’s just leave,” I whisper.

But his cousin spots us whispering, shouting across the dinner table. “Ahó, cugino! You still into that fucked-up sex shit?”

My heart flips. I can’t believe he said that in front of the whole table. Remington ducks his head, and my gut churns - shame radiates off his tense shoulders, which is the last thing I’d want him to feel about what we do together in private. But with how tightly Remington clenches his jaw, I’m afraid of how this will play out.

Natalia rubs his arm, muttering what Mom used to say to me when I’d get myself too worked up. “Scialla, scialla–”

“She your new toy?” His cousin laughs, lifting one finger from his crossed arm to loosely point at me.

The whole table falls silent. I don’t know what to do or say, my shoulders rising to my ears as everyone turns their eyes on me - and not in a good way.

But Remington lifts dark, piercing irises to his cousin, sending a chill down my spine. His voice shifts from a low growl to a yell. “Vaffanculo!”

My jaw drops. I certainly remember that Italian word, but I’ve never heard it spoken so wholeheartedly - to the point where I’m not looking forward to how Remington’s cousin responds.

Thankfully, multiple men hold his cousin back as the whole family erupts into a shouting match. The volume rises loud enough to crackle my eardrums. I flinch into Remington, and he does a double-take.

“Fuck, my poor girl,” he says, tucking me close. “That’s not how I think of you, okay? Please, don’t listen to them. I’m sorry for yelling.”

Staring Remington’s raw fear in the face, I clutch him harder. He’s not okay. Squeezing pressure down his arms as fast as I can, I quiver through my words. “I know, Rem, I know. I’m taking you out of this place, okay?”

When I stand, Remington sucks in a tight breath.

And I raise my voice louder than I have in years. “Hey!”

Everyone freezes, turning to me. Maybe I really have gained some real confidence.

I clear my throat, softening my voice. “I’ve had enough of this conversation now. We’re going home. Thank you for dinner.”

A gasp resounds from the table’s opposite end.

A sea of eyes zips their focus to Remington’s mother. She’s beet red. “You can’t go! Ignore these idiot men – we haven’t finished eating!”

I remain standing. “And I’ve had enough of this conversation now. We’re going home. I hope you have a nice rest of your night.”

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