Page 42 of Reckless

Was it because she was a girl instead of a boy? And if so, why? Could it be so simple and yet utterly complicated?

“Let’s all calm down,” Luis said.

“Calm down?” Mindy thundered and Hector sighed heavily.

“Harlow and Miles, please, sit down. Let’s all have a meal and stop fighting,” Hector said. “Harlow, stop letting her push your buttons. Mom, you need to rein this in. Your grandchildren are here. Think about the example you’re setting.”

“Don’t talk to your mother that way! She’s whoring it up out there and it makes us all look bad. Just like your father. Worthless. You and Luis you went to school and got training. She can’t be bothered with that or hard work. Never has a regular job. You talk about my example? What about her? Allow this tramp around your boys and they’ll think all women are just like this one over here. They’ll trap those boys into marriage by getting pregnant on purpose. Just you wait and see. I had to protect you from her influence. Even when she was a baby she flirted too much. You can see how she is. A lazy slut.”

Though she’d had years and years of dealing with Gloria, Harlow couldn’t prevent the way she recoiled from her mother’s words. Though she knew better, she paused to see if anyone would actually kick Gloria out for real, and after a few more loaded seconds, she knew that wasn’t going to happen. She hated herself for the hurt that trickled past her shields.

Before she could say anything though, Miles tossed his napkin to the chair. “Harlow, let’s go.”

“No, please don’t go,” Mindy said before glaring at Gloria who was in her element having just set things on fire for pleasure.

“He’s right. Nothing has changed here,” Harlow said. “I wish I could believe otherwise, but I’m old enough to accept reality.”

“Go get our things and say goodbye to your nephews,” Miles said in her ear.

And leave him alone with them? No way. She shook her head.

“I’m good,” he said firmly. “Go on. Give them some love and we’ll leave.” Harlow nodded a little jerkily before heading to the room where she’d left their things.

Mindy pointed at her husband. “This has gone on long enough. You need to think hard about the next few minutes and do the right thing or risk your relationship with your sister being broken forever.” And she got up and headed after Harlow.

Miles wrestled back his absolute killing fury at the way Harlow had just been treated by her family. This wasn’t about his feelings. “Now that she’s out of earshot, let me go ahead and say a few things.” Miles pulled his sleeves down with care before he looked to Gloria and then both Harlow’s brothers. “You two,” he said to Hector and Luis, “are the poorest excuses for brothers I’ve ever encountered. Do you know what I’d do ifanyonespoke to my baby sister the way your mother just did to Harlow? It’s a long list, but nowhere on it is make my sister responsible for the abuse heaped on her. Not that our mother would ever speak to her children that way because she’s not a spiteful bitch.”

Gloria sputtered and he didn’t care. He held eye contact with Harlow’s brothers until they both looked away before he looked to their mother again. He’d hoped against hope that at least Hector would do something, but he’d been wrong.

“Understand this. First, if you speak to the press and sayanythingdisparaging about Harlow, I will make it my business to strip away everything that matters to you and set it on fire.” He shifted his attention to her brothers. “That goes for you too. She loves you and your children. She came here tonight knowing she might be ambushed by this trash, and she came anyway. With an open heart because for some unknown reason she continues to love you despite the fact you do nothing to protect her from behavior you know is wrong. You don’t deserve her.”

“Who do you think you are?” Gloria demanded,

“I’m someone with more connections than you can dream of. I’m someone who cares deeply for your daughter. Someone who is absolutely shocked that any parent could be as cold and meanspirited toward someone as full of love and light as Harlow. And, I’m someone who will make good on all the threats I just made. Call your child a lazy slut? Get yourself right, you nasty cow.”

Harlow came back down the hall and he moved to meet her and Mindy.

Lulu started crying and Hector murmured to her, trying to soothe her.

Gloria opened her mouth and Miles stood, waiting. Letting her see on his features just how much he hoped she would. Never in his life had he wanted vengeance more than against this person who had put so much sadness on Harlow’s face.

“I’m so sorry,” Mindy told them. “I would have warned you early on, but I honestly thought after Hector called her, she wouldn’t come. Please don’t blame Hector.”

“But I do. And you know why. I can’t always feel like a choice was made and it wasn’t me. It’s never me. I don’t know why. But Hector and Luis saw it my whole life and here we go, time eleventy million and it was you and Miles who defended me. I’m worth more than this. I have to go,” Harlow said, and Miles stepped between them, shielding her as they left.

She made it to the car and a few miles until they’d gotten out of the subdivision until she turned her face into Miles’s shoulder and started to cry.

CHAPTERTHIRTEEN

By the time they returned to the hotel, he had ordered a meal for them both and sent a note to Poppy. He asked her to coordinate with Nora to get an overnight bag packed for Harlow. So she could sleep in his room that night.

He wouldn’t push it if she wanted to be alone. But he didn’t want her to be all by herself as she was still reeling from that night’s horror movie of a dinner.

She was on auto pilot, and he steered her into the elevator and then into his suite. “Dinner will be here in about ten minutes. Do you want to change into your pajamas first? Get your makeup off?”

Harlow’s gaze cleared a little. “I should go to my room. I’m not feeling very sociable right now.”

“That’s okay. You can change and get into bed, and we can watch a movie, or you can read, and I’ll get some work done.” He pointed at the bag on the couch. “Nora packed you an overnight bag so you’re all set. You can go down in the morning for your yoga and breakfast with your crew as usual. It’s not like they don’t know where you start the night out before you fall into your own bed.”

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