Page 70 of Hide and Seek
Harper’s gaze drops straight down to her top, her brows creasing with confusion, and honestly, same. There’s not a damn thing wrong with her outfit. She looks fucking divine. “What are you talking about?” Harper questions, looking back at her mother’s scolding glare. “This is a designer shirt. Part of the Izabelle Grace summer collection. I would hardly call it a sports bra. I thought you would actually like it.”
Mae scoffs. “I have every piece of that collection, and I can assure you, such a profound, up-and-coming designer would never include such a trampy piece.”
“Really?” Harper grunts, making it damn clear that Mae has no idea that the elusive Izabelle Grace is the one and only Izzy who is currently shitting up the walls of her apartment with explosive diarrhea.
“Yes, now please have just a little respect and put your jacket back on. This is a dinner party for God’s sake, and had you attempted to answer even one of my phone calls, you would have known that tonight’s event was business casual.”
“Business casual?” Harper scoffs. “It’s dinner. With family. This isn’t some fancy event that’s going to end up photographed for some bullshit magazine. But if you insist on bitching people out for their choice of attire, then focus on G-I freaking Joe beside me. He looks like he’s about to go commando crawling across the fucking desert. All that’s missing is the sniper rifle across his back.”
“Hey,” I cut in, gaping at the little she-devil beside me. “Don’t bring me into this shit.”
“Lower your voice,” Mae spits. “Knight is dressed appropriately for someone on call. You are half naked at my dinner table. You’re making the children uncomfortable.”
“The children are fine,” Harper scoffs.
With Elias’ gaze still locked on Harper’s tits, Mae lets out a frustrated sigh, slamming her cutlery down on the table. “I have had just about enough of this,” she mutters, her sharp stare shooting straight across the table to Harper. “First you completely ruined my anniversary dinner, and now you’re making a scene again. Do you have any idea how disrespectful you have been? Do you have no shame? No care for my feelings?”
“Ooooh,” Harper laughs, gripping her fork way too tightly, sending a seething glare straight back at Mae. “You do not want to start with me, Mother. Not unless you care for beinghumiliated all over again—and in front of your grandchildren, no less.”
“Now, now,” Elias says, putting his hands out as if to calm the situation before it can go up in flames, but honestly, I think he’s hoping for it. He enjoys dinner and a show more than anybody, but for appearances, he has no choice but to play the role of the perfect doting husband. I don’t get it though. He could treat Mae like dirt, and she’d still hang onto him like a leech. “There’s no need for this to get out of hand. Harper, please just put your jacket on so we can move past this and have a nice dinner.”
“You wretched child,” Mae spits at her daughter, ignoring her husband. “I have only ever given you the best, and this is how you repay me.”
“The best?” Harper demands, completely abandoning her meal, shoving her plate away, and tossing the fork down as well. She gets to her feet, taking a deep breath and bracing her hands against the table, and I prepare myself for whatever is about to come next.
“I have been nothing more than a hindrance to your existence. I was never good enough. Never pretty enough. Never smart enough,” Harper starts, every one of her words breaking something deep inside of me. “I didn’t get as good of grades as Jonah, so I was an embarrassment. I didn’t excel in sports like Jonah did, so naturally that made me a failure. Not to mention the shame I brought upon you because I chose not to spend the rest of my life in debt and attended a normal, run-of-the-mill college and not some big Ivy League like Jonah did.”
Mae scoffs as though the thought of which college Harper attended is still a sore point, and I’ve never wanted to fling a fork across a table so badly in my life.
“I have never been good enough in your eyes,” Harper continues. “And sure, most of my life I have sat by and bitten my tongue, but I’m done, Mom. I have worked too damn hardto get where I am to allow you to continue shitting all over my successes and achievements. Yes, I work in a morgue. Yes, there are dead bodies. And yes, Mom. I perform autopsies as part of my daily routine, but I enjoy what I do. I fucking love it. I’m on track to become one of the best forensic pathologists in the state, and I can’t for the life of me figure out how the hell you aren’t proud of that.”
Tears well in Harper’s eyes, and I resist the urge to reach out to her.
“I don’t know what I have done in my life to make you despise me so much, but I am done. I am done trying to win your approval, because at the end of the day, I will never be what you want me to be.”
Mae just stares at her daughter, her eyes filled with an ugliness that tears me to shreds, and when she crosses her arms over her chest and arches a brow, I realize this shit has only just begun.
“And here we are, bringing everything back to you,” Mae sputters. “What were you hoping for? That I would fall to my knees and beg your forgiveness for being the best mother I could be? You are ungrateful, Harper-Rayn. I brought you here so that you could see how shamefully you humiliated me during our anniversary dinner party, and allow you the chance to apologize. But instead, you want to spout all this nonsense at me and claim I was a poor mother. Shame on you.”
Harper gapes at her mother, and it doesn’t go unnoticed how the twins’ heads bounce from left to right across the table, watching the showdown like a tennis match.
“Wow, Mom. You really are a piece of work,” she says, shaking her head in wonder. “You want an apology? Well, here you go. I’m sorry that I don’t want to be a damn thing like you. I’m sorry I have done everything in my power to not be your perfect little clone. I’m sorry that when forced to sit around this ridiculous table, I lashed out after you shamed my careerand my achievements in front of a room full of strangers for entertainment. But most of all, I’m sorry that you have allowed yourself to become such a hateful and despicable human being.”
With that, Harper shoves away from the table, but not before reaching for the neck of a full wine bottle and taking it with her. She storms away, and just when I go to follow her, Mae puts on the waterworks, reaching for a napkin and dabbing her dry eyes.
“Oh my,” she wails as Elias hurries to her side, pulling her into his arms, his gaze locked on Harper’s ass as she storms away. “I just don’t understand how she can be so horrid. What have I ever done to deserve such treatment?”
Jonah groans from across the table, disgust in his eyes. “Knock it off, Mom. Don’t you think this routine is getting old?”
Mae whips her stare to the prodigal son. “What did you just say to me?”
“You heard me,” he says, getting to his feet and indicating for his wife to rise as well. “Harper’s right. You’ve treated her like shit since we were kids, and I was too blinded by everything I had going on to notice, but now as a father myself, I see it clear as day. You have diminished every accomplishment she has ever made, and she has every right to be hostile about it. I’m surprised she even still agrees to come to these bullshit dinners.”
Emily reaches for her girls, their little hands in each of hers as Mae looks on in horror. “Where . . . Where do you think you’re going? Dinner has only just begun.”
Jonah lets out a heavy breath. “We’re leaving,” he says. “I was reluctant to bring Emily and the girls. I knew this might happen, but you swore to me that it would be different this time, and I trusted you. But the second Harper walked through the door, you made your intentions clear. You wanted my family and Knight here in the hopes of humiliating her. Well congratulations. Mission accomplished.”
“No. No, you can’t leave,” Mae says, throwing herself to her feet, her fake tears all but abandoned.
