Page 2 of Four Times Forever

"Where's my husband?" she insisted.

'What husband? Your tormentor? What has he ever done for you, but make your life a living hell?!' That's what I wanted to scream, but I kept it inside. She was vulnerable right now. In shock. She needed time, care, understanding and patience. Aaaaaah!

Eric slipped his hand around my balled fist until it softened and he laced his fingers through mine. Matt rubbed my back. Ethan passed me a look and without words, asked, 'you okay?' I took a deep breath and nodded. Ryan's upper lip was curled, mirroring disgust back at my mother before he turned away with a shuddering breath.

"Let's not do too much, Mrs. Thornbread," the nurse braved as my mother power-walked through the garden, looking left, right, up and down, as if she expected an exit to open up as she commanded it. "You've only been feeding on pureed foods for months."

The nurse's words must have connected because Mom grabbed her head and her thin body rocked. I unlaced my fingers and rushed forward. Standing on one side and the nurse on the other, I started to guide her back inside the house. "What do you say? I bet you're tired of soup, aren't you?" I smiled at her. "I bet you could sink your teeth into something juicy."

"Yeah, uh..." Eric stuttered.

"We've got lots of food over at our place. I'll go get it," Matt offered.

"Yeah, and uh, if there's anything specific you want, just tell us and we'll go out and get it for you," Ethan offered.

"You hear that, Mom? Isn't it nice having all these men at your beck and call?" I grinned.

When has Terry's smelly ass ever done anything remotely kind for you?

"I got lucky, finding all these men who want to marry me, didn't I, Mom?"

Okay, now my mother laughed. Except she wasn't laughing with me. "Marry you?" she muttered, even as she collapsed into the cream love seat. "Is that what pimps are doing nowadays?"

I took a deep breath and released it. "They're not my pimps, Mom. They're about to be my husbands."

They love me better than anyone has, than you can.

"No! No. You don't know anything about being a wife. You're a whore. I'm a wife! I have a husband! One husband that I dedicated my life to! That's what being a wife is! Where is MY husband?!"

Out of nowhere, heat zinged through me and settled in my face. I ran from the room before the tears could rush down my cheeks in front of her. I was supposed to be stronger than this, damn it.

Chapter 2

Ryan

My gaze was glued to Lily's red-hot skin as she scurried from the room, seconds away from falling apart. The guys ran after her, but I was frozen to the spot.

I didn't think; my brain was too fried to think.

The alcohol in my blood burned hotter than it did going down. It happened too quickly. I turned around, pinning Mrs. Thornbread's eyes with mine.

"How dare you?" I mumbled first.

Her brows raised against her wrinkled forehead, skin dragged down from months of eating next to nothing and years of drug abuse. Her top lip curled and she let out a little scoff. A scoff! A display of arrogance. Her? You had to be fucking kidding me. Ooh, that little scoff was like the soft echo of a match strike as the stick lifted off the side of the box. Poof! I was the sparks eating up the string of dynamite, rushing toward the blast.

"How dare you?!" I repeated.

This time the words were biting and I even jumped from the decibel of my voice, but it resonated so deep within me that I rejoiced in the aftermath of the explosion, bathing in the debris.

"After all she's done for you, he's the one you're asking for? What happened? Did the drugs kill off your two brain cells?" I gestured, my body vibrating with such ferocity, another blast was on the horizon.

"Ryan, what the fuck are you doing?" Matt grabbed my arm, but I shrugged him off me, impassioned now and moving toward Mrs. Thornbread.

"You want to know what happened to your precious husband?" The words glided an anticipatory roll from my tongue, syncing with my steps. "He's dead." I dropped to her level and I spat the words. "Dead like the little rat that he is. And no one misses him but silly old you."

Now, I was the one to curl my upper lip and scoff.

"I mean, you'd think that after he beat the living shit out of you, you'd be happy to never see him again." I shook my head. "You're disgusting."

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