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Newt stroked a hand down her arm and gave me a pitying look. He wasn’t yelling at me, which was nice, but pity wasn’t much better.
“I can’t lie to you,” I whispered.Could the ground open up beneath me?
Dina flipped her phone back around, stared at the image with a hard, angry stare, and then shoved it back into my face. “So that is you. My baby sister, who told me she would stay away from James Maximus? The guy I warned her was a manwhore and a fucking sex freak?”
I stiffened at that. Hurt going deep as my shame spilled acid on the fresh wound. What would my sister think if she knew how aroused I’d been at the club? That I had seen nothing freakish, just…different?
Tears burned my eyes, and I looked down.
“Dina.” Newt nudged me to the side and stood before his wife, blocking me from her view. “That’s enough. You need to calm down.”
“Don’t tell me what I need to do!”
“So, you want your mom and dad to come in here and see what all of this is about?” he asked. “You want to keep saying horrible things to the sister you love with all your heart, things you can’t take back?”
His tenacious defense might make me feel better. Later.
Right now, the only thing that would help was waking up and all this being a dream. Or a nightmare.
“How could you do this? What were you thinking?” Dina demanded, shoving Newt out of the way to stare at me with bruised eyes. “Do you have any idea what this could do to my business?”
Wrapping my arms around myself, I looked away.
“I can tell you didn’t even think about it,” Dina said, sounding hurt. “Tina, this could ruin us. If this stunt of yours comes back to hurt my business, I will never forgive—”
“Okay, that’s enough!” Newt pushed between us again and caught Dina’s arm, pulling her away.
“…just stop, okay?”
“Stop? Are you nuts? She just all but fucked some notorious manwhore in public, and you want me to—”
I couldn’t listen anymore.
Turning on my heel, I walked blindly through the house, back into the family dining room. My parents looked up, both of them with worried expressions.
Considering the possibility that one of their friends might see the article, my stomach turned inside out.
“I’m not feeling good,” I blurted out, my voice sharp and shrill. “I need to go home.”
My mom was halfway out of her seat, a concerned look on her face. “Oh, honey…another migraine? Should you be driving?”
“I can drive. It’s just…auras,” I said, tossing words out without even wondering if they made sense. I just had to get out of there. Now. Right now.
* * *
The drive passed in a blur.
I had no concrete memory of leaving the home I’d lived with my sister and parents for years.
My mother could be right. Perhaps I shouldn’t be driving.
Making it home safely, I turned off the car, then just sat there.
Heat gathered in the car, and sweat formed on my brow while the muscles in my neck and shoulders locked up. Even the slightest movement was agony.
A bead of sweat formed on my temple, rolled down my cheek, and fell to my chest, snapping me out of the apathy that had kept me frozen in a car getting hotter and hotter.
Jerking the keys from the ignition, I climbed out and made my way to the front door of my house.