“He didn’t deserve you!”

“Again, that’s my job to decide, not yours, and you shouldn’t have slept with him to prove it.”

“I don’t regret what I did. I did it for you—”

“Don’t use me as an excuse for your whorishness. Everyone knows you’re a slut and that you fuck anything. You just couldn’t handle that I found someone who made me happy and that person wasn’t you. You were mad that I had it all—I was happy, I had a great life going for me and a great guy who cared for me, and you had to ruin it. You’ve always been jealous of me!”

Skylar laughed. “Um, other way around, kiddo. I don’t care one bit what you do.”

“You’re right, I wanted to be you. I wanted to be beautiful and witty, and I did everything I could to be like you, but it didn’t work. So I was me and I was happy, and you hated it because I wasn’t up your ass.”

“You know nothing!”

“I know everything! I know you slept with a guy I really cared for, whom I could have loved, and then you tried to say you did it for me. Um, no, you did it because you’re selfish and you were horny.”

“Okay, that’s enough. We’re supposed to be working this out,” her father said, but Mekena shook her head.

“Dad, there is no working this out. She slept with my boyfriend, she broke my heart, and because of that, she’ll never be anything more than a sister I don’t speak to,” Mekena yelled, and then she looked to Libby. “I’m ready when you are.”

“Oh, let me get my things,” she said, running off as Mekena looked back to her parents’ and stood.

“If you’re siding with her, then I’m done with all of you. She broke my heart, and I can never forgive that.” Looking to her sister, she held her gaze. “I will always love you because you are my sister, and if you ever need help, I’ll be there. But other than that, I have nothing to say to you.”

“Mekena, she is trying,” her father yelled, but she shook her head.

“No, she’s doing what y’all want. I haven’t heard from her in well over a year. I haven’t seen her, nor has she reached out to me at all. She doesn’t want to apologize except when you guys make her. Which is fine, she’s not sorry. She did it because she wanted to, because she wanted to hurt me, whatever. I’m done.”

“That’s not true,” Skylar complained, but Mekena shook her head.

“It’s not? Then why haven’t I heard from you other than when I come into this house?” she asked, and Skylar promptly looked away. “Because you’re only doing this to appease them. Not to own up to what you did to me. To really apologize from your heart and whatever.” Mekena’s voice broke as her eyes filled with tears. “What, did they said they’d let you stay here if you made things right with me?”

“Skylar! Tell her that’s not true,” her mother yelled, but when Mekena met her sister’s gaze, Skylar only shrugged.

“I mean, it isn’t. I don’t know. It was so long ago, I’m over it.”

Tears started rolling down Mekena’s cheeks from the outright dismissal by her older sister. The person she had idolized for so long. She hadn’t wanted to accept that her sister did it to hurt her. She’d hoped there was some other excuse, but Skylar wasn’t saying anything. She didn’t blame Markus, nothing. She knew what she did, and she didn’t care. That hurt. It hurt more than Mekena could ever express.

“And this is why I have nothing more to say,” she said definitively, shaking her head. “Don’t y’all dare do this to me again, or you’ll never see me again.” Wiping her face, she walked toward the back door since it was the closest exit. “Tell Libby I’m outside.”

“Mekena, wait, please,” her father tried, but she slammed the door, leaning her head against it as her parents began to yell at Skylar. “How could you do this to her?”

“I didn’t do it to hurt her. I did it for her!”

“Skylar, this is disgusting! She’s broken from it.”

“She’ll get over it! It’s just some guy.”

But it wasn’t some guy.

It was the guy.

Mekena’s heart was in her throat. Her chest was seizing as the tears fell quickly down her face. She hadn’t wanted to do this. She was fine thinking that her sister loved her and hadn’t wanted to hurt her, but standing there, looking at her, Mekena knew that wasn’t true. Skylar did it because she wanted to, not for Mekena’s sake, and that hurt even more. Why was everyone out to hurt her?

Wiping her face, she took in a deep breath as her lip wobbled. She hated crying over it. She wanted to be strong. She wanted not to worry about it, let it go, but it was still like it happened yesterday and it was gutting her. All over again.

When she heard the front doorbell ring through the back door, she stood up straighter and decided she needed to go. No telling who that was, and she wouldn’t put it past her mother to call their pastor in to do a prayer meeting for them or something crazy. Sending a quick text to Libby that she was driving herself, she started around the house. But she came to a halt when she heard his voice.

“I need to speak to you.”

Markus?

Standing in front of the girl who ruined everything, Markus thought he would feel something more. He thought he would feel hatred, anger toward Skylar Preston, but he felt nothing. As he looked into her eyes, he couldn’t believe the person who was standing in front of him, and he felt sorry for her. She didn’t look the way he remembered. She looked like she was on something, drugs or whatever. Her eyes were bloodshot, and she was skinnier than he remembered. No longer muscular like she used to be. He wouldn’t make assumptions, but it was obvious this wasn’t the girl he had known.

She wore tight shorts and an even tighter crop top, her breasts flattened under the shirt. She was basically showing off the cow and serving the milk in the back, but Markus wanted none of it. Not when he kept thinking about Mekena. She had left that morning in a cute little dress that covered almost every inch of her, and that had turned him on more than all the skin in front of him now.

Looking uncertain and a bit surprised, Skylar shook her head. “Um. This isn’t really a good time.”