Page 31 of Pretty When She Breaks

“My apologies,” I said, folding my hands together. “It won’t happen again.”

“Don’t go all duchess on my ass now,” she said. “Just bring them next time. I’m lowering the buying price by five K, though.”

“Of course you are,” I said dryly, and her lip twitched again.

She pulled a slip of paper from her bag and laid it on the table. It’d have the rest of her requests for next month marked in the pages, and I’d pass it to my aunt Rosalind to get the jewelry for me.

She left her hand resting on it and looked up at me. “So, I’ve been wondering. How much longer are we doing this? Surely you have more than enough stashed away to make a clean break from Daddy Dearest.”

My heart sank at the question. She’d been dancing around it for ages but never outright asked until now.

“I still have unfinished business,” I said, my voice tight.

She gave me a long look, her mouth twisting in concern. “Jule is dead, babe,” she said softly, still eliciting a flinch from me. “No, listen. If there’s one thing that shithead cared about, it was you.”

Her voice wavered a bit.

We’d never talked about him.

We’d never talked aboutanythingafter she’d left us.

“You know he was trying to get you out of here. He?—”

“Don’t. Just don’t,” I snapped.

She looked at me, mouth open, like I’d slapped her. The pain was rising again, years of feeling alone and confused and abandoned welling up in me in a tide of anger.

“Don’t look at me like that. You don’t get to abandon me like that and then pretend you care.”

“I needed space?—”

“Yeah, fromhim.” I cut her off, my voice trembling. “But what aboutme, Jade? You couldn’t have stayed around for me? Did you even actuallylikeme, or was our friendship all so you could get with Jule?”

“It wasn’t like that,” she said, her voice thick with emotion.

“You just fucked off after your fight with him,” I said, my hands balling into tight fists. “Just left me that stupid note, which didn’t explain anything. And then you pop up a few years later, wanting to resell my jewelry for money. Pretending like none of it had happened. You didn’t even apologize, Jade! So what am I supposed to think?”

“I just?—”

“What? You just showed up to use me like everyone else does,” I snapped.

“I was trying to help,” she said quietly.

I snorted. “Sure. You did. I’ve got my money. So, how about we’re done? Don’t come here again.”

She hesitated, and for a moment, I hoped she’d dig in her heels and stay. Or yell back or something other than grab her jewelry and head for the door.

Great.

At least she wasn’t still pretending to care.

FOURTEEN

12 YEARS AGO

LAUREL

Jule glanced at me from across the room and nodded. Claudia’s back was turned, and it was our chance to slip away. I followed him as he silently opened the apartment door, and we both stepped out into the corridor and started running.