Page 2 of A Love Like Pumpkin Spice (Wayward Hollow #1)

“People like her are meant to be used. She’s always been a joke. Way too emotional and way too stingy with her money.” Marissa lets out a deep sigh. “Fucking annoying that she had her breakthrough when she was of age. My parents and I could have used that money a lot better than her.”

“Just be glad she didn’t spend it. Think of all the millions she’s saved up, for us,” Jay says, still laughing. “And I can’t wait to spoil you with it, baby.”

I glance at Lauren. She sees the meltdown loading behind my eyes. I’ve heard enough .

My eyes are stinging with tears, and my hands are shaking with anger. How could I have been this damned blind?

The sound of clothes rustling from the other side of the door almost makes me vomit. It doesn’t take a lot of brain cells to know what they’re doing.

Fucking in Jay’s old room during our engagement party.

I knew Marissa hated me. Hated that, all of a sudden, she wasn’t an only child anymore. But even for her, this is a new low. My bar for her was in hell, and holy shit if she didn’t fucking limbo under it.

“Let’s go,” Lauren whispers, pulling me away from the door as if it’s the edge of a cliff.

I follow her, but my world is packed in cotton.

The walls are closing in on me, every laugh from downstairs hitting me like a slap to the face.

The pictures hung on Jay’s parents’ walls mock me with every step down their stairs.

Us at the beach. Jay’s birthday. His proposal.

We reach the bottom of the stairs, and Jay’s mom suddenly appears before me.

“There you two are!” she says brightly, holding a plate. “Come have some cake, honey. Jay was asking for you”—she looks around, confused—“a while ago. No idea where he wandered off to now, though.”

My mouth opens, but no sounds come out. I’m not sure if it’s bile or a scream I’m holding back.

I gulp and force myself to focus. I need to get out of here. I don’t know where, but I can’t stay here, in the house where my fiancé is currently fucking my sister.

“I …” I stammer and shoot Lauren a helpless glance. She squeezes my arm and answers for me.

“She realized she forgot something at home,” she jumps in with the kind of parent-charming smile I’ve only ever seen her do successfully. “A surprise for Jay. We’re going to get it, and we’ll be back in a flash.”

“Of course,” Nora says and shows me a warm smile. “That is so sweet! I can’t wait to see it. I’m sure he’ll love it.”

“Oh, he’ll be ecstatic,” I force myself to reply, not quite able to swallow the bitterness in my voice and try to return her smile. Lauren pulls me outside, then pushes me into her car’s passenger seat.

“Fuck.” I completely deflate as soon as Lauren shuts the door behind her as she climbs into the driver’s seat. Reality crashes over me with the force of an avalanche. “Fuck, fuck!”

“I can’t believe them,” Lauren adds, cursing them out under her breath. I bury my face in my hands and force myself to take a deep breath in a feeble attempt to gather my thoughts.

It was all a lie? Every single second?

How could he?

And how did I not see it?

Lauren’s hand lands on my shoulder and draws reassuring circles over my back as I fight back my tears. And after a few more deep breaths, I lower my hands and turn to her, the ice in my veins replaced by burning hot anger.

“Lauren, I need your help,” I admit with a sharp inhale. “Help me deal with this smartly. I can’t think straight.”

“Are we going the calm route or escalating?” When I glance at her, I notice a mischievous sparkle in her eyes. I'm so glad she's here.

“Calmly but nuclear.” I pinch the bridge of my nose. “I want it to hurt. Want them to hurt. But I don’t want either of us to go to jail.”

“Got it.” She nods and pulls something out of her pocket. “Remind me, did you and Jay live together yet?”

“Not officially,” I say and lean my head against the backrest. Right. She was never his biggest fan and at some point, I stopped bringing him up during our calls. “We were planning on it, being engaged and all that. He has a bunch of stuff at my place, though. ”

No wonder he hesitated about finding a place together. I still don’t get it. How could I not see it?

“Good. That’s good,” Lauren says with a solemn nod and hands me her phone. “Call Gus from my contacts, please.”

“Huh?”

“We’re having your locks changed.”

Barely an hour later, we’re on our way back, all of Jay’s stuff thrown into trash bags and piled into Lauren’s backseat.

I would have been fine with ghosting him, shutting him out without wasting another word on that turd on two legs. However, Lauren rightfully pointed out that he’d want his stuff back and knows where I live. Ergo, back to his parents’ house we go.

“I don’t think I can do this without puking,” I mumble when their driveway comes into sight. My heart beats into my throat as I fist my clammy hands in the hem of my shirt.

“Even better, in my opinion. Throw up on his shoes.” Her jaw ticks as she puts the car in park. “He’d deserve it.”

“His parents don’t, though,” I point out and she sighs. “They’ve always been lovely to me.” Gulping, I try to swallow the emotions threatening to surface.

Jay’s parents showed me what it could be like to have parents who love you.

His mom jokingly called me “the daughter she never got to have” and cooked my favorite meals when she invited us for dinner.

I could barely mention finding new snacks I enjoyed without his dad having boxes of it ready for me on our next visit, his face lighting up as he showed me .

“I hate it when you’re right,” Lauren grumbles, then points to the back. “Then open one of the trash bags. Throw up on his things.”

“Great idea.”

We wrestle all the trash bags out of her car, mostly filled with his clothes and random stuff he left around my house, such as his chargers or Tupperware.

Though I couldn’t help myself and dumped a pack of glitter into one of the trash bags.

Whoops, didn’t know that was hidden between his clothes and all that.

Among the two of us, we manage to carry the seven bags to the front door in one trip before ringing the doorbell.

Nora opens the front door, her eyes widening in surprise, then eyebrows creasing in confusion when she sees everything we’ve brought.

“Nora, I’m sorry in advance,” I whisper to her, and she tilts her head in response, utterly confused, as we carry the trash bags inside.

“There you are, baby!” Jay pops his head around the corner, and I fight against the invisible force that wants me to freeze in my spot and cry while hitting his chest and dramatically sobbing, “How dare you?” Taking a deep breath, I try to brace myself. I have to do this.

Slowly, I glance up at him, putting all the hate that’s searing through my veins right into my eyes.

Suddenly, I notice every single detail. His brown hair is more ruffled than this morning.

His lips are red from kissing. There's lipstick on his cheek, almost hidden by his stubble. His usually perfectly ironed designer shirt is crumpled. There’s even a hint of a goddamn hickey on his neck and it’s not even subtle.

Either I’ve been literally blinded by love, or they think they’re winning already and have become careless.

Whichever it is, soon it’s not going to be my problem anymore .

“Here I am.” I want to scream, but I can’t bring my voice above a whisper.

I force a smile on my lips as I walk into the living room, throwing the trash bags into a corner.

The clutter makes all heads in the room turn to me.

My parents, his uncles, cousins, and so many people I’ve never even met before, all of them stare at me as if I just grew a second head.

The room is suddenly so silent I could hear a pin drop.

“What’s going on?” Jay asks cautiously and steps closer, reaching out to grab my arm, but I quickly take a step back. The smile on his face tenses as he speaks through gritted teeth. “You’re acting strangely.”

“You know,” I raise my voice, making sure everyone in the room hears me. It might only be less than thirty people, but I might as well be in the spotlight in front of a sold-out arena.

It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters.

“It’s funny you should say that.” I cross my arms in front of my chest. “I mean, considering I learned you’ve been fucking my sister less than an hour ago, I think I’m pretty calm.”

A sharp gasp from my left leaves me feeling strangely vindicated.

“I don’t know what you’re talking abo—”

“Save it, Jay,” I interrupt him and roll my eyes.

Oh, the anger is back, baby. “At least have the balls to admit it. I heard you. Well, I left once you undressed each other.” Color drains from his face, and he opens and closes his mouth in a pretty accurate fish-imitation.

“And at home, I found the deleted messages on your tablet.” I step closer to him and add in a whisper, “All of them. And I have a backup of every. Single. One. So, I suggest we do this amicably. I might not be the brightest, but trust me, I’m not as dumb as you might think. ”

Jay gulps, a muscle in his jaw twitching, anger burning in his eyes. He doesn’t appreciate being backed into a corner, and that’s exactly what I’m doing. Because I’m now well aware that if I wasn’t doing this publicly, he’d probably find a way to gaslight me into thinking I imagined everything.

“Anyway,” I add loudly. “Here’s your stuff. Don’t bother trying to come back to my place—your key won’t work anymore. For the record: It’s over.” Then I turn around to the side of the room where my so-called family is standing, leveling Marissa with a cold stare.

She stands straight as an arrow, her blonde hair combed back strictly, her makeup flawless, as if she had dressed up for a glamour photo shoot rather than a family gathering. No smile. No emotion. Just slightly smudged lipstick and the same dismissive, slightly pitying look she always gives me.

“You’re dead to me.”