Quinn
When my mother called me three days later, I could hear the dissatisfaction in her voice before I even picked up the phone. My heart clenched as I stepped outside of my house and wiped the paint off of my hands before pressing the button to answer it.
“Hello?”
I bit my lip. The piano music was on loud enough that Leah, Hallie, and Emma wouldn’t be able to hear my mom’s words, but they would hear mine easily.
“Have you convinced him to sign the paper yet?” She sounded thoughtful and nice, but it was just a façade. After what I’d pulled with Cody, she was pissed. My mother cared a lot about how she looked, and if her friends were looking at me making out with a shifter, she would be dealing with the negative backlash.
“I’m working on it.” I glanced over at the house, though I could hear the other ladies inside it.
“Well you need to work harder, because things are only getting worse.” My mom snapped, and then paused to gather herself before she spoke again. “I’m sure he has some sort of lumberjack-esque charm to match those bulging muscles, so I understand that it’s a difficult task, but really honey. Have sex with his brother and leak the video and this whole thing will be over and done.”
I closed my eyes and fought back a wave of irritation.
“I’m not a prostitute, mother.”
“Using your womanly wiles to make things happen isn’t prostitution, Quintessa.”
Gosh, I hated my name.
“So you’re telling me the dozens of men you’ve slept with to win cases and progress dad’s career doesn’t feel at all like prostitution to you?”
I knew better than to say it, but I couldn’t help it.
“That’s cruel.” My mom was highly offended, even though it was true. “A little sex never hurt anyone. If you don’t want to bang the brother, Logan Lush is a perfect second option. He won’t be able to resist you after all the time the two of you spent together back in the day.”
My face flushed and I looked at the house again, praying that I was right and the other women couldn’t hear her words.
“I’m not doing that either. I’m not here to be a homewrecker, I’m here to convince Cody to let me go legally and civilly, and if I can do it without breaking anyone’s heart that’s a good thing.”
“You were born to be a heartbreaker, honey. Goodness knows you’ve broken mine and your fathers’ hearts more than enough times, and with a body like that, it’s destiny. Stop fighting who you are and do what needs to be done.” She chided me.
Tears sprang in my eyes and I cursed myself. I’d disappointed my parents so many times.
“Alright, I’ll take care of it. I promise.”
“See that you do.” My mom hung up the same way she had always done, without an “I love you” or “goodbye”.
I took a few moments to gather myself, wiping at my eyes and taking a few shaky but deep breaths in. Just as I started back inside the house, my phone rang again. My heart dropped before I even saw the picture on my lock screen proclaiming who was calling me.
“Dad.” I lifted the phone to my ear and took a steadying breath in.
“Why are you painting your house?” he jumped right to it.
“Because it’s a wreck. You of all people shouldn’t expect me to live in a dump.” Considering the four multi-million dollar homes he and my mother owned across the country, I didn’t know why he was asking.
“Obviously.” His voice was flat and uncaring. “Why are you painting it yourself when you could pay a company to do it in a day?”
Oh. That was what him in a tizzy.
“Cody’s mom and sisters offered to help and I didn’t want to turn them down.” I admitted. “But—”
“You’re wasting all of our time, Quintessa.”
As much as I hated it, every time he or my mother used my full name it made me feel so much guiltier.
“You shouldn’t be bonding with animals anyway. Kick them out and pay someone to finish it by tomorrow, and in the meantime, get to work on making him sign that paper. Travis Childers won’t wait forever.”
I bit back the retort that I didn’t want him to wait at all.
“You do know that your mother’s friends have already started avoiding her, don’t you?”
Something stuck in my throat.
“What?”
He didn’t pause to answer my question.
“Christopher’s wife has threatened to leave him if we don’t erase this blemish from our family name.” I swallowed hard. “Some of our firm’s clients have asked to be represented by people who don’t empathize with shifters. Your inability to make one man hate you is causing problems for all of the rest of us. I expect you to have a signature on the document I emailed you by the end of the week.”
“What?” I squeaked. “You said I had two months. One week isn’t anywhere near long enough, he’s stubborn and unyielding. I’m making some progress, but it’s going to take some time.”
His only response was silence.
“One week is all I can give you. If that paper isn’t signed one week from now, I will disown you and the world will know what a disappointment of a daughter you are.”
My dad’s words may as well have been a baseball bat to the back of my head.
“I’ll take care of it.” I kept my voice even.
“I should hope so.”
He hung up.
I slipped my phone back into my pocket and took a second to gather myself. Looking at the house we’d been working so hard on, I realized that I had two options. I could either abandon my family to spend the rest of my life with Cody in Mount Edge, or I could get Cody to sign the paper and marry Travis Childers.
There was no question which decision would make me happy. I loved being around my soulmate’s family. With Cody, I was happier than I’d ever been. Every day it was becoming clearer why we were soulmates.
But the question wasn’t which decision would make me happy. It was a matter of responsibility. I wanted to be with Cody, but I didn’t have the heart to turn my back on my family. As awful as they were, they were my people. And as much as I sucked at it, I wanted to be a Longhorn. I was proud of my family.
Because I wasn’t willing to walk away from my family, really, there was no choice to make. I was going to have to go back to making Cody hate me.
This time, I was going to do it knowing exactly how incredible the man that I was trying to break was.
When I first met Cody, I’d been flustered. Knowing what I had to him made me feel wrecked. I was choosing duty over love, and that hurt more than I could ever express, but I knew that it was what I had to do.
So I walked back into my house and politely asked Cody’s mom and sisters to leave. I had to force my face to remain neutral as they questioned me and I explained that I had plenty of money to throw into letting a company take care of it, and then I had to hold back tears again when I repeatedly told them that I wasn’t interested in their help.
When they were gone, the tears got even harder to hold back.
My hands were shaking and my eyes were leaking as I pulled up the plan I’d started to make on my phone when I met Cody. After the three days I’d played nice, I was going to have to step it up. I was going to have to be sluttier and nastier and meaner, and it was going to be miserable but it was the only thing I could do.
I called Beth after I put together that plan, and the second I saw her face, I lost control and the tears began to flow.