Page 124 of Syndicate of Sin Bundle

“What is it, Constantino?” I asked. “Sage is—”

“You ditched her for Bethany,” Constantino said.

“Bethany is my friend.”

“Bethany is not your friend!” he shouted, then shut his eyes and blew out an angry breath. He turned around and paced the room, running a hand through his hair. “Sorry for raising my voice. But I can’t stand that bitch.”

“Why?” I asked. “You always say that, but you never tell me why you do.”

“Because she manipulates you. She lies to you. She’s disrespectful of our space. She convinces you that you need to do shit that you have never once been interested in doing.”

“Like what?”

“Lip fillers. Botox. Fucking chin lipo!”

“She didn’t convince me to do any of those things. I make my own decisions.”

Constantino pursed his lips together. “Laila, come on.”

“What?!” I exclaimed. “When Bethany suggests things, she doesn’t force me to do them. She’s just being honest with me about what she’s doing and if she thinks I should too. That’s what friends do.”

“Friends shouldn’t make you feel like you need to quit your passion to be accepted.”

I had been prepared to go on and on about why he was blowing this way out of proportion, about why he was wrong about Bethany and the girls, but as soon as he shot back about my art, I didn’t know what to say.

I must’ve opened and closed my mouth five times, no words coming out.

“You know what else friends don’t do, Laila?” Constantino said between gritted teeth. “They don’t watch someone dump their friend’s dinner into the trash without saying and doing something about it.”

“I did say something,” I defended.

“And then you went to dinner with Bethany!”

“It shouldn’t matter,” I said, though it did matter. A lot. “Sage is our toy. Nothing more.”

Lie. Lie. Lie. Lie. Lie.

Sage was my friend.

At least, I considered her so.

But I couldn’t stand how my husband was attacking me over her, making me feel even more like shit than I already did. I had thought about Sage all night since I had left for dinner. I knew that I had hurt her really badly when I didn’t say anything more to Bethany.

Still … I hated feeling so attacked.

“That is what we agreed,” I said. “What, are you catching feelings for her or something?”

Because it had only been a weekend, and I … I thought I might’ve been. I didn’t want to be alone in it. I was scared, terrified of falling for another woman. What will everyone say about me? What will the family and my friends think?

“No,” Constantino said, shaking his head and pacing the room once more. “You’re my wife, Laila. I could never love anyone the way I love you. But if it didn’t matter”—Constantino pointed toward the bedroom, where Sage slept—“if she doesn’t matter to you, then you wouldn’t have come home and cuddled up behind her. You wouldn’t hold her the way I hold you.”

I glared at him, but really, it was to hold back the hot tears building in my eyes.

“Whether you’re friends with Sage or not, I don’t give a shit,” Constantino said. “But the woman I married would never have been okay with letting their friend dump someone else’s food into the garbage while they were hungry.”

Tears welled in my eyes, and a sob escaped my throat. “I wasn’t okay with it.”

“Then, why did you leave?”

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