Page 4 of Against All Odds

Yes, I’m sure she has. I can only imagine she’s freaking out on her way back to me.

Analeigh grabs my purse, and then she ushers me out the door. Just as we get to her car, Dylan’s car pulls up, blocking her in.

Oh God, I . . . no.

“Get in the car, Vi,” she says, squeezing my shoulder.

“Violet! Wait, let me explain!” Dylan says as Ana gets me to the passenger door. “Violet, please.”

“Explain? What are you going to say? Is it true?” I ask, whipping around to confront him. His face falls, and I realize what a shitty actor he is. “You can’t even pretend.”

“I don’t want to lie to you.”

I laugh once. “Fuck you. You’ve been lying for God only knows how long.”

“It wasn’t like that,” he says, and I don’t even know what that means, but I’ve had enough. I glance at Ana, and she wordlessly hears my plea to get me out of here and away from him.

“No one wants to hear a fucking word you have to say, Dylan. You’ve made your bed, so go find your mistress and lie in it.”

Ana gets me inside her car, closing the door, and then turns on him. “Move your car.”

“Not until I know what she wants.”

“What she wants?” Ana screams. “She wanted a husband who didn’t break her fucking heart. She wanted a husband who didn’t take her away to the islands, all the while preparing toruin everything she thought she knew. She wanted a good man, which you’re clearly not. She wanted fidelity, which you didn’t give her. So now what she wants is for you to move your fucking car so she doesn’t have to see your lying ass.”

If I wasn’t so numb, I would be clapping for her. Every girl needs a friend like Analeigh.

He turns away from her, coming to my window. “I didn’t want you to find out this way.”

I look down at my hands, refusing to give him any more of my time. He’s wasted enough of it already.

Ana opens her door. “You know what, Dylan? I’ve warned you.”

Then my best friend gets in the car and calls her husband. “Nick? How much do you love me?”

He hesitates. “More than you know, why?”

“I’m about to fuck some shit up, and it’s going to cost us some money.”

Nick chuckles. “Do you have Violet?”

“I do.”

“Will this costly thing piss Dylan off and make Violet happy?”

She grins and starts the car. “It will.”

“Then have at it, my love.”

Ana has the widest smile I’ve seen on her. “Thanks, babe.” Her eyes meet mine. “Fuck him.” Then she maneuvers the car around Dylan’s, driving over the landscaping he paid a fortune for. She stops and looks back at the tread marks, then shrugs, puts the car in reverse, and slams into his before going back into drive and flipping him off out the window as she leaves.

“Fuck him,” I say as I watch what once was my sanctuary fade away behind me, knowing where I want to go to feel safe again.

Even if returning to Ember Falls means I have to face my past.

two

Everett

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