2
The whole lounge went silent in an instant.
Only the music drifting in from the ballroom outside kept on, sticky and syrupy, and somehow that made it sound all the more mocking.
Alison leaned into Luke's arms, one slender white hand pressed to her stomach.
So frail she looked like a breath of wind could knock her over.
She lifted her eyes to me, a film of tears over them, her voice thin as a mosquito's whine. "Sandy, I'm so sorry... I didn't mean to ruin your engagement party with Luke, I just hurt so badly I couldn't stand it, so I..."
As she spoke, she shrank a little deeper into Luke's arms.
As if I were the one about to bully her.
Luke tightened his arms around her at once and pulled her close.
When he raised his head to look at me, his brows were knotted hard.
"Sandra, Ali isn't feeling well, there's no way I could just leave her on her own. What did you mean by all those things you said in the group chat? The guests are still out there. Can't you stop throwing a tantrum?"
Watching him stand there so righteous, I nearly laughed out loud.
Throwing a tantrum?
He'd left me alone at our engagement party, and somehow he thought I was the one throwing a tantrum?
Before I could open my mouth, my father stepped in front of me first, jabbing a finger at Luke's face. "Luke, you say it plainly. Who exactly is causing a scene here today? You leave a hall full of guests behind and go running off to drag this stray girl over here, and you've still got the nerve to say my Sandy is throwing a tantrum? You think the Pruitt family has no one to stand up for her?"
"Dad!" Alison's eyes reddened all at once, tears spilling down.
"I know you don't like me, that you hate my mother for switching me and my sister back then. But I still lived in the Pruitt house for eighteen years... How can you call me a stray girl... And... I really did hurt so much I couldn't bear it, that's the only reason I called Luke over. I never wanted to steal my sister's fiancé..."
She sobbed until she could barely catch her breath, her shoulders jerking with it.
It cut Luke to the heart, and he shielded her tighter still.
His eyes went cold as they turned to me. "Sandra, get your father under control. Today was just an accident. How can he say something so cruel? Ali's in this much pain and she still insisted on coming to apologize to you. Can't you give her a little room?"
The words had barely left Luke's mouth when my father let out a snort of a laugh.
"Give her room? The Pruitt family poured our hearts into raising her for eighteen years, she took over what was rightfully my daughter's and stole her fiancé too, and now we're supposed to give her room? Luke, has that little schemer bewitched you clean out of your senses?"
