Stepbrother Unsealed(62)

I almost drop my empty wineglass. Dad gives me a look of total horror. It's the first time since mom walked out that I've seen him looking like he's staring down a ten ton train, heading right for him, ready to obliterate what's left of his miserable world.

“I don't know what she's talking about,” I say weakly, clearing the nervous lump in my throat.

“Evie, Evie, Evie,” Dad shakes his head, fighting off the nightmare image she just painted so vividly for him. “This is stress talking. You need to eat. Don't worry about these things, they aren't even real. Please, baby, do it for me.”#p#分页标题#e#

He stands up, walks over, and throws an arm over her shoulder. It's such a pathetic scene my heart would've melted in my chest, if only it wasn't too busy pounding like a hummingbird on speed.

They almost caught me. And I hate the way I'm reacting, ice in my blood and cotton in my mouth. I thought I was ready to say fuck everybody, to bring my love for Chris out in the open.

But when I saw that look on dad's face...

My own fork slips and clatters, causing my parents to look up. Evie gives me another look, a cruel focus filling her eyes, all directed at me.

“I suggest you have a talk with your dear daughter, Bruce. She's going to slip up one day, and then you'll see the truth. I'm not imagining anything.”

“I'm sure if there were anything untoward happening, Cordelia would let me know,” he says softly, brushing aside her mad concerns.

He doesn't believe her. Good. Too bad lying is the only thing holding me back from total disaster.

Evie grabs his arm and throws him off. She staggers up, throwing her napkin down over her half-finished food, and glares at my poor whipped father.

“Your little slut has some backbone, I'll give her that. She's woman enough to go after a man, even if he's the last boy in the world she ought to be with. That's better than I've gotten, I suppose.”

“Evie...shut up.” Dad's eyes narrow. “If you call my daughter a slut again, I'll drag you back to that goddamned doctor's office, kicking and screaming if I have to. You've been through hell, and we're all here for you, but that doesn't give you the right to be such a...such a...”

Evie cocks her head and purses her lips. “Bitch? Oh, Bruce. I would've given you a kiss if you'd had the balls to finally say it. Whatever's left of that pathetic shit between your legs will just have to crawl up your stomach when you finally see the truth. I'll let you find out the hard way. You won't have to hear it from me, hubby. Good fucking night.”

My eyes are on my food. I've totally lost my appetite, but it seems safe, just in case I decide to grab the nearest thing within reach and throw it at her vicious face.

Dad sticking up for me lends a shred of hope, but he can't hold her off in the end. He rips out a chair and sinks angrily into his seat. We both listen to her heels clacking away, loud and lonely, like the hooves of some creature that just dragged itself out of hell.

With anybody else, I would've been exaggerating, but my stepmother really is a crazy bitch.

“Dad, it's going to be okay,” I whisper, reaching for his hand and squeezing it tight. “Don't listen to her. You defended me when she was accusing me of all that crap. You put her in her place.”

Well, almost, I think to myself, but of course I don't say it. I'm not sure he'll survive another blow to his fragile ego.

“I just don't understand why they all go crazy in the end,” he growls, pulling his hand away from mine. He pushes both across his tense forehead, ruffling his salt and pepper hair. “This is worse than with your mother, honey. At least her affair...well, I saw it coming. I worked too many hours. I ignored her too much. I screwed up.”

I shrug. He's beating himself up again, and I'm not going to hear it. Maybe there's a grain of truth to everything he's saying, but mom walked out on us both, and I haven't gotten more than a Christmas card from her and the new dick she's attached herself to every year since the divorce.

They moved across the country my last year of high school. Since then, it's always been dad and his favorite daughter. I know I'm the only thing in the world he can count on.#p#分页标题#e#

For a long time, that went both ways.

We were happy. We were one little, imperfect, happy family.

Until Evie. Until Chris.

Now, she's tearing out his heart in slow motion a few centimeters a day, and I'm lying to my own father for the last man in the world I should be falling for.

Jesus, what the hell is happening?

I shouldn't have had so much wine trying to ignore the tension over dinner. I start tearing up, and next thing I know, I'm blotting at my eyes with my napkin. Dad looks more shocked than me, wounded because he sees me hurting.