Chapter 154

This meeting with my parents has gone surprisingly well and I’m feeling optimistic about it. So much so that I even feel uplifted as I start to leave. For the first time in a while, I feel like I have a set path in front of me.

Ending things with Hugo, and now plotting a new career path leaves me feeling more excited about my future than I have in a while. Well, really, since Miles and Selena became engaged.

I hate to place all my problems at their feet. But it certainly didn’t help my morale.

Well, no matter. Things are finally feeling like they are back on track.

Gathering my things, I’m in the entryway, when a voice stops me from behind.

“Esther, can we talk?”

I look over my shoulder to see Thea standing on the stairs. In an oversized sweatshirt and pajama shorts, she looks like a kid again. It makes it much harder to ignore her.

“What do you have to say?” I ask her, opening a door that I should probably leave closed. But, even with all of the resentment between us, the anger and the jealousy, she is still my sister. We might not be blood related, but that doesn’t change it. She is my sibling through and through.

“Please,” she says. “Come to my room.”

She doesn’t wait for an answer before ascending the stairs.

I should just leave. I don’t owe her anything. Yet, I don’t have it in me to do, even if she does deserve some pushback for her actions. Sighing, I leave my things in the foyer and head up the stairs to Thea’s bedroom.

Not much has changed in here since her youth. Stuffed animals still cover her bed. High school photographs cover the walls. Cheerleading medals hang from a hook on the back of the door.

The only things that have really changed are a more updated television and phone, as well as more expensive brand-name clothes in the closet.

Thea goes to her bed and sits down. I pull out her office chair away from her desk and sit there, facing her.

“Do you want to tell me what’s going on?” I ask her.

She looks away, averting her gaze as if she’s embarrassed. “How is Garnar?”

I blink, surprised by the question. Though maybe I shouldn’t be. Garnar and Thea were shameless in their affair. Should I really expect anything about that to change, even now that Garnar and I are divorced?

“He seems fine,” I say. “We don’t really talk a lot when we meet to give and collect the girls,” I say.

“Does he seem healthy? Has he lost weight? Does he look sad at all?”

“Uh…” Even if he did, I probably wouldn’t notice. Garnar would always be the father of my children, so I would always care about him in some way. But it’s not an active ‘how are you doing?’ care. It’s more like, ‘call me if you’re dying’ kind of caring.

Thea doesn’t ask the real questions she wants to know. Does he miss her? Is he torn up without her?

Honestly, I knew these two were on the rocks, but I didn’t know they were that distant.

“I don’t know,” I tell her. “I don’t see him for more than a minute here and there. He seems okay to me, but what would I know? He’s never clued me in on the real him.”

Thea nods critically, accepting my words.

I really hope I don’t regret opening the door on this, but… “Haven’t you talked to him?” I ask.

“No,” she says miserably. “He’s not returning my calls, and he’s asked me not to come over when your daughters are there. On days they aren’t, I try going over there, but he doesn’t even open the door.”

Garnar, it seems, continues to be a hypocrite. He’ll cheat on me and expect me to stay, but when the person he’s seeing does the same, he brushes her off. Hopefully this means Garnar has learned a lesson, but I doubt it. More likely, he thinks he has separate rules just for him.

“You’ve even dolled yourself up?” I ask. “You know he likes those stockings…”

It’s so strange giving my sister advice on how to seduce my ex-husband, but I guess I really don’t care about him anymore. If this conversation helps to repair my relationship with my sister, I’m willing to have it, however strange.

“I’ve tried everything,” Thea says miserably. “I even went over naked one time, under my coat.” She sighs. “I’m starting to show. Seeing the baby bump makes him go cold. It’s like we can’t move past it.”

“Thea,” I say, gently. “Is the baby Garnar’s?”

“Does it matter?” she asks.

Which is a no. Or, at best, an ‘I don’t know.’ Either way, it’s not good.

To maintain the peace, I want to lie to her. But, being sisters compels me to tell her the hard truths, especially because it seems like no one else will. Our parents baby her. Garnar keeps her at arm’s distance. Who knows what her friends tell her?

“It will to him,” I say. “When the test results come back, if the baby isn’t his, I wouldn’t expect to hold onto him for much longer.”

Her shoulders droop and tears start to well. For a moment, I think she must truly care for Garnar to have such a reaction.

But then she opens her mouth. “But he spends so much money on me…”

Okay. Well. I guess it’s good she has her priorities.

“The other person that could be the father… What does he do?” I ask.

She sighs and shakes her head. “He’s broke.”

“Well…” I’m not sure what to say to that. I think for a moment, and eventually land on, “That sucks.”

“It does,” she says and huffs another breath.

It’s a weird conversation, but oddly, I feel closer to Thea than I have in years. I’d take all the awkwardness in the world to have a better relationship with my adopted sister.

I stay talking to Thea for a few hours, and then eventually return home. It’s been a strange day, but not a bad one. I have direction, a budding relationship with my sister, a beautiful home, and a good-enough relationship with my ex.

If things could stay just like this for a while, I’d be happy.

The roller-coaster of my daily life has been exhausting. I’m ready to spend a few days just relaxing and thinking things over at my own pace.

Tossing my jacket over the back of the couch, I scoop up the remote on my way to the kitchen. Flicking on the news, I only half listen as I head into the kitchen to pour myself a much deserved glass of wine.

“We have breaking news today from the presidential campaign trail,” the news anchor says.

There’s always news on the campaign trail so I prepare myself to be underwhelmed. Someone endorsed someone, maybe. Or someone else said something that was taken out of context and now they are backtracking.

“A spokesperson for Representative Miles Hamilton has announced today that Representative Hamilton’s fiancé Selena has decided to end their relationship…”

I nearly drop the wine bottle.