Page 31 of The Fiancée Farce
Tansy had been humiliated.
She didn’t know where to look or what to do with her hands, so she got down on her knees and grabbed the loose tail of yarn from the tangled skein. She wiggled it in front of the table, smiling when Mills darted a paw out. “He told me he loved me.Beforehe slept with me. Obviously. And I fell for it. Hook, line, and sinker. I was stupid.”
Gemma took a swig of her water and scowled, looking for all the world like she wished it were something stronger. “Like I said, you’re supposed to be a little stupid at—”
“No.” Tansy gave a quick, curt shake of her head. “I mean, I was really stupid.” Heat crept up her jaw, her cheeks burning. “I—I let him take pictures of me.”
Gemma’s jaw dropped, lips parting in a silentoh.
“Yeah.Oh.” A wry laugh slipped out of her mouth. “Dumb, right? It’s, like, the number one thing they warn girlsnotto do. I should’ve known better.” Not that her mistake, her misplaced trust excused what Tucker had done. Not that it was her fault. He’d been kind and doting and he’d led her to believe she was safe with him. Her only true mistake had been trusting him. “I went to school that Monday and everyone was staring, whispering, laughing. At me. Because Tucker had shared the pictures with his friends. They spread like wildfire. By the time the bell rang for homeroom, half the school had seen me naked.”
Gemma looked furious, eyes flashing, jaw clenched. “That fucking piece of shit.”
The anger was fresh for Gemma, but it was old news for Tansy. “I confronted Tucker. Demanded to know how he could do something like that to me.” She shrugged. “He laughed. Told me I had nice tits and should be happy that everyone was appreciating them.”
A strangled sound escaped Gemma, but Tansy wasn’t looking at her. It was too hard, eye contact. Mills was gnawing on the yarn with his pointy little teeth, and she focused on that instead.
“I kind of had a public meltdown in the hallway. I—I don’t know. It’s sort of a blur by this point. I remember Tucker laughing and telling me he couldn’t believe I fell for everything he said. That I was so easy. As if it were my fault for trusting him.” She cleared her throat. “Like I said, I don’t remember everything, but I guess I started screaming, because he called mecrazy and . . . the next thing I remember was sitting in the front office getting lectured by the principal and guidance counselor for mypoor judgment. The last thing the school wanted was a scandal. They made Tucker delete the photos from his phone, but otherwise, he barely got a slap on the wrist. The Van Dalens were the school’s biggest donors. Montlake Prep didn’t want to jeopardize their funding.”
She bit the bullet and lifted her eyes, breath catching in the back of her throat at the completely shattered expression on Gemma’s face.
“And your stepmother?” Gemma asked, voice crisp and cool, a sharp contrast to the glossy sheen of her eyes. “Why didn’t she step in? Stick up for you. Dosomething.”
“I didn’t tell her. It was humiliating enough without Katherine knowing. And to be honest, I wasn’t confident that she wouldn’t blame me, too. That she wouldn’t, I don’t know, look at me differently.”
In hindsight, it was ridiculous. She should’ve said something, but at sixteen, the idea of losing the only family she had left had been unconscionable.
“Anyway, that’s how I know Tucker. I was branded a whole slew of awful things I’m sure you can guess and Tucker went back to pretending I didn’t exist. I basically became a pariah.” Her lips twisted in a rueful smile. “Oh, but Ididget asked out plenty, seeing as all the guys at school thought I was easy. I didn’t go on many”—any—“dates until after graduation.”
“Jesus,” Gemma muttered. “Tansy, that’s—that’spathetic.”
Tansy flinched.
“No.God no.” Gemma’s fingers circled Tansy’s wrist, grip firm. Her eyes were a different story entirely, soft inside an otherwisehard face. Her jaw was clenched, her lips pressed into a thin, flat line. Buther eyes... how something so soft could break Tansy was beyond her comprehension.
“Not you.Tucker.” Gemma sneered. “I’m not surprised that he betrayed you, but I do still find it disgusting, the depths to which he’ll sink.”
Tansy smiled tremulously. It was weirdly nice, having someone be indignant on her behalf. Not just someone—Gemma. “Yeah. He’s a real piece of work.”
“Piece of work? Piece ofshit.” Gemma’s thumb stroked the inside of her wrist, and—not that it wasn’t nice, but it was... strange. Here she was, kneeling on her living room floor in her nightgown, with Gemma van Dalen sitting on her couch holding her hand. Comforting her. She’d takethings she never would have dreamed of happeningfor one thousand.
“Seriously, Tansy, how can you even stand to be around him?”
She blew out a noisy breath. Talk about a loaded question.
“I don’t know, I just... do it?” She scoffed softly. “Who am I kidding; it’s hard. Being around Tucker brings back bad memories. I didn’t see much of him for years, and then he and Madison started dating and he started coming to family dinners and...” She rubbed her eyes. They were scratchy, tired.Shewas tired. “Katherine and I aren’t close, but she’s the only family I have.” Ashleigh, too, but Tansy had stopped holding her breath praying she’d come around. “And I wish we were closer. I know it’s probably hopeless at this point, but I can’t help but hope that if I keep trying, going to family dinners, maybe—”
“Katherine will start treating you like a daughter. So you twist yourself up into a pretzel to make her happy.”
Tansy frowned, not sure if that was meant to be a potshot or what. However she sliced it, Tansy had had therapists who hadn’tclued into her issues that quickly. “I mean, I wouldn’t put it like that, but yeah. I guess.”
“I didn’t mean it as an insult.” Gemma squeezed her wrist. “I get it. Probably more than anyone.”
“Sounds like maybe you have experience with the same thing?”
“You could say that.” Gemma dropped Tansy’s hand, and Tansy kind of missed the contact. The warmth of Gemma’s skin. “It’s not worth it. Trust me.”
Trust me.
