Page 18 of One Last Chance

Chapter 7

Rowland

Dayton’s words, filled with betrayal, ring in my ears like an aftershock. I stand next to the couch, drawing in sharp breaths, trying to soothe the shake in my hands.This is not how things were supposed to go.I let out a desperate sigh and rub my face.

The moment my thoughts finally clear, a completely new emotion takes over me. It burns at the bottom of my stomach, the heat quickly rising.Goddamnit, Mina.

I take a sharp step out and march toward the stairs.

“Rowe, I’m so sorry,” mother blurts, hand pressed against her chest, but I don’t care. She isn’t the target of my anger. “S-she wouldn’t stop about— She just booked it out of the car the moment—”

“It’s fine. Go wait in the car with Mac,” I say firmly, without even looking at her.

By the time I get on the first floor and head to Mina’s door, I realize I have to rein in my frustration. I can’t see red when I talk to her, so that I don’t say something I’d regret. Instead, I force myself to take a few breaths once I stand in front of her bedroom, counting down to five. When I reach for the handle, it is locked—of course.

“Open the door, right now,” I order, clearly leaving no room for compromise.

“I don’t feel well,” I hear her annoyed voice, barely audible.

Calm down. Don’t lose your cool.“I said to open that door, Mina,” I use an even firmer tone. Moments later, I hear a muffled sigh, and then steps. She opens it finally and pokes at me through the gap with her usual ‘irked by my mere existence’ expression. I gently push the door to open and walk into the room. Already puffing her cheeks like a toddler, she goes back to her bed where she’s been sitting with her phone. She rests against the wall, crossing her arms over her chest.

“What,” she snaps.

“What do you mean, ‘what’?” I almost growl, having to clench my teeth to push back against the pressure building up inside me again. “Do you think I’m stupid?”

Mina’s gaze lands on me, and somehow, she manages to perfectly convey the feeling of rolling her eyes without actually doing so.

“Answer me!” I press, raising my voice. Some other emotion finally comes through. She frowns and shakes her head lightly. “I know you heard me talking about the date to your grandmother this morning. About me needing space for myself.”

“That’s not true,” she says, averting her gaze, but doesn’t even put enough effort into her lie. Or maybe she just doesn’t care. I can’t even remember the last time she was that sweet little girl I used to know. Last time she reacted with anything but disgust, agitation or indifference, and I am so damn over it.

“Didsheput you up to it?” I ask, grinding my teeth again. I hate resorting to this. To this stupid, toxic, horrible way of dragging her in the middle of our issues, but my gut tells me this is where the problem lies, as always. Mina opens her mouth, no doubt ready to deny it confidently, but I jump in before she can. “I know she stopped at your school to take you out for lunch break, Mina. The teacher called me. Believe it or not, I am still your primary caregiver—your parent,” I snap, pointing at my chest.

Her smug snort makes my hand twitch. I keep imagining grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking her until she comes to her senses, but unfortunately, life is far more complicated than that.

Something inside her eyes shifts. They almost darken, making me pull back with my lips pressed together.

“You didn’t tell him about us,” she says, pronouncing each word clearly, soaking every single one with as much poison as she can. The attack works just as she intended. My chest tightens, and my heart tugs as I straighten my back, staring at her. “Of course you’d keep us a secret.” The disdain in her voice,even if I know she’s purposefully trying to hurt me, makes my stomach upturn.

“Stop it, Mina,” I say, voice low. Like I don’t feel guilty enough about it already. Like I don’t feel like the worst human being ever for keeping them from Dayton—for his sake, and theirs. “You are too young to understand the complexities of this. People don’t just… I wasn’t keeping you a secret, I was just—”

“Why wouldn’t you?” she continues, relentless, her tone cold to the bone. “Couldn’t have him knowing about us boring, ordinary, stupid betas. You don’t even lo—”

Oh, that’s it.

“Enough!” I shout. Finally, she seems taken aback enough to close her mouth long enough for me to take control again. “This attitude of yours is completely unacceptable, do you hear me? I did not raise you to be this uncouth and cruel, and I will not tolerate it. Furthermore, you’re entirely too young for me to have to justify my relationships to you.”

Unwilling to get berated by a tween any longer, I make a wide step to her bed. Mina pushes away from me in fear—like I have ever laid my hand on her!—but I reach for her phone instead.

“You’ll get this and your console back after you’ve had a good, long look at yourself and your behavior. Now get back down and go with your grandmother.” My tone is resolute enough to finally get her to listen. Letting out a low growl, Mina gets off the bed and marches out of her room like a pack of angry elephants.

I stand there for a few moments, trying to keep some semblance of control—to talk myself out of what I’m about to do—but I can’t.

This is going too far. I’m so fucking tired of it.

Mother stands at the bottom of the stairs when I return, still visibly riddled with concern. The momentum of the storm raging inside me is still going, so I swiftly reach for my car keys, coat, and walk out of the door without giving myself any chance tolose steam and reconsider. I’m done with being the reasonable, calm one; always the one to take punches without a word back.

She follows me. “Rowland, what—”

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