Page 162 of Always Us

I start undressing. “We’re not having sex. We’re checking for microphones.”

“On our clothes?”

“Yes. They could’ve planted them on us while we were there. So take everything off.”

She takes off her dress and we change into different clothes. Then I bring her dress and my suit downstairs and leave them in the study. My dad will check the clothes later when he checks his suit. He has one of those wand things to check for hidden microphones but I don’t know where he keeps it.

“Okay, now we can talk,” I say when I get back upstairs. Jade is lying on my bed. I lie next to her.

“Are all the meetings like that?”

“No, but I can’t tell you what they’re like so let’s not talk about it.”

“Do you think Victoria’s going to try to do something to me now that she’s been punished?”

“No. If she did, she’d be punished again. The members see you as one of us now, and Victoria no longer is. She knows if she messes with you, she’ll get in trouble.”

“Maybe she doesn’t care. She’s already been punished so she has nothing to lose.”

“She has a lot more to lose. They went easy on her.”

“What about Sadie? Do you think she’ll do something to me?”

“If she does, I’ll go after her myself. You didn’t do anything wrong, Jade. This is all happening because of what Royce did. Did Sadie say something to you while you were standing there? I saw her turn her head and it looked like she said something.”

“She called me a bitch.” Jade says it softly.

I sigh. “What the fuck is Sadie’s problem? You’ve never said or done anything bad to her and she still acts like that.”

“Her sister called me a whore.” Jade’s eyes are tearing up. She really wanted sisters, but I think she’s finally getting that having the Sinclair girls as sisters is not a good thing. “Emily doesn’t even know me and she still called me that.”

God, I hate those girls so bad.

“Jade, come here.” I hug her into my chest. “Just forget about them. You don’t need them in your life.”

“I know. But I wanted them in my life. I wanted more family.”

“You have family. You have my dad and Lilly. Frank and Ryan. Grace and William and Meredith. You don’t need Sadie and her sisters.”

Jade’s phone rings. She gets up to check it. “It’s Harper. I’m surprised she’s taking a break from Sean long enough to call me.”

I leave, so the two of them can talk. As I’m going downstairs, I see Lilly walking toward me from the living room. She has her head down, her shoulders slumped.

“Hey.” I meet her at the bottom of the stairs and pick her up. “You want to play a video game?”

She shakes her head, then rests it on my shoulder. I think it’s finally hitting her that her parents are divorced and her mom isn’t going to live here anymore. Last week, she was distracted by all the holiday activities, but now Christmas is over and my dad will be at his meeting all week and Jade and I are leaving. This will be a hard week for her as reality sets in and she realizes that things aren’t going to be the same anymore.

I go in the living room and sit down, setting Lilly on my lap. “Do you want to talk about it?”

She shrugs.

“Tell me what’s wrong.”

“Why did Mom leave me?” She keeps her head down and picks up the drawstring on my hooded sweatshirt, wrapping it around her finger.

“She didn’t leave you. She just had some things to care of. She’ll be back.”

“No, she won’t. She’s never coming back. She doesn’t want me anymore.”

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