Aleena
The elevator doors opened and I stepped into the penthouse with my bag sliding off one shoulder.
My feet hurt the same as my head hurts.
My entire day was spent carefully measuring my words around Liam that it had left a dull pressure behind my eyes that refused to ease.
I had almost reached the stairs when my mother’s voice cut across the foyer.
“You’re late, Annika.
Dinner is ready.
Come and sit with us.”
It wasn’t a request.
Her tone left no room for the usual soft refusal.
I turned to see her standing near the dining table already set for three, her expression expectant.
“I’m tired,” I said.
“I’m just going to…”
“Aleena.” She didn’t raise her voice, but the single word stopped me.
“You have been avoiding having dinner with us since we moved here.
So come sit.
Don’t make this difficult.”
Something in my chest tightened.
I wanted to push back and walk upstairs anyway, but I wasn’t really in the mood to engage my mother in a fight, so I nodded.
“Give me a minute to freshen up,” I said.
Upstairs I stripped out of my work clothes and pulled on a more comfortable oversized t-shirt and bun shorts.
I stared at my reflection for a second longer than necessary, then went back down.
Ethan was already at the table, holding his phone in one hand.
He didn’t look up when I entered, and the only empty chair was the one beside him.
As I sat, the side of my calf brushed against his.
The contact was light, barely a second.
But the heat of his skin through the thin fabric of his trousers shot straight up my leg and settled low in my stomach.
My breath caught and I pressed my thighs together under the table before I could stop them.
I jerked back an inch, my pulse suddenly becoming loud in my ears, and I fixed my eyes on the plate in front of me.
Ethan didn’t move or speak.
He simply continued scrolling, as if nothing had happened.
I bit my lip, it was almost as if I was the only one feeling all these emotions.
Had that night been a lie?
Had he pretended to want me, or was it the two years we spent apart that made the want die?
Either way, it wasn’t fair that I should feel all this and he just goes on unbothered.
My mother poured the wine and began talking about the arrangements with the florist, the event planner, and all.
Honestly, I wasn’t enthusiastic about her engagement at all for obvious reasons, but she kept pulling me into the conversations and I answered when I had to, as long as she wasn’t going to force me to go clothes shopping with all the mother-daughter bonding bullshit.
I stared at the food on my plate, it might as well have been paper.
Then she set her glass down with a soft click and smiled brightly.
“Aleena, Ethan and I have decided on a date,” she said.
“The engagement party will take place in the next two weeks.
And the wedding… We’re looking at early next September.
Ethan and I think it’s best not to wait.”
September?!
That’s just two months away.
My chest tightened.
Ethan was going to be my stepfather in a matter of weeks.
I felt my fingers tighten around the edge of the table until the wood pressed hard into my palm.
My throat closed.
I couldn’t look at either of them.
I just stared at the untouched food and forced my face to stay still while the reality of it settled over me like cold water.
As if that wasn’t enough, my mother turned to me and said, “So Aleena and I are going shopping for our dresses tomorrow.
You know, a day for us girls.” My mother giggled at the last statement and I felt a stab of annoyance.
“I actually have work tomorrow,” I said quickly, the lie slipping out before I could stop it.
“There’s a deadline I can’t miss.
Maybe another time.”
My mother’s smile didn’t falter.
If anything, it sharpened at the edges.
“Nonsense.
You work too hard, darling.
You need to breathe.
Besides, I already called your office and told them you’d be taking a personal day.”
“You did what?”
“Don’t look at me like that.
I’m your mother.
I know what’s best for you.
You’ve been moping around this penthouse like a ghost, and I won’t have it.
Tomorrow, nine o’clock sharp.
We’re going to the boutique on Fifth Avenue.
End of discussion.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but my mother had already turned her attention back to Ethan, reaching across the table to place her hand over his.
The gesture was intimate, possessive, and it made my stomach churn.
I pushed back from the table so abruptly that my chair scraped loudly against the marble floor.
“Excuse me,” I choked out.
I didn’t wait for her response.
I turned and walked away, my legs carrying me up the stairs as quickly as they could without breaking into a run.
I didn’t look back.
Because if I did, I would see them sitting there together, his mother and her fiancé, playing house while I burned alive from the inside out.
The next morning came too quickly.
I had barely slept, tossing and turning while the events of dinner replayed on a loop in my head.
When my mother knocked on my door at eight-thirty, I was already dressed in jeans and a simple top, my hair pulled back into a ponytail.
“Ready?” she chirped through the door, far too cheerful for someone who had ruined my life.
I opened the door and gave her a flat look.
“Do I have a choice?”
Her smile didn’t waver.
“You always have a choice, darling.
You just happen to be making the right one today.
Now come on.
The driver is waiting.”
The car ride to the boutique was silent.
I stared out the window at the passing buildings, watching the city blur by.
My mother tried a few times to start conversation, something about the weather, something about the new restaurant she wanted to try, but I answered in monosyllables until she finally gave up.
That silence lasted all of ten minutes.
“So,” she said, adjusting her designer sunglasses as she turned to face me in the backseat of the town car.
“What happened to that boy, what’s his name again?
Liam.”
I stiffened.
“What about him?”
“You two seemed so serious.
You were together for what, two years?
I never really understood what happened between you.
He was such a good boy, Aleena.
Handsome, successful, from a good family.
What went wrong?”
My fingers curled into fists against my thighs.
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Nonsense.
I’m your mother.
You can talk to me about anything.
Was it something he did?
Did you two have a fight?
I always thought you made a lovely couple.
His mother and I were already planning the wedding in our heads.”
I turned my head sharply to look at her.
“You were what?”
“Don’t look so shocked.
You were dating for two years, darling.
It’s natural for mothers to dream.
I just want to understand,was it something you said?
Something you did?
Because men like Liam don’t come around every day, and I worry that you might have been too harsh with him.
You always did have a bit of a temper.”
Something hot and ugly unfurled in my chest.
He cheated on me.”
She sighed and adjusted her sunglasses again, as if I had just told her the weather was slightly overcast.
“Oh, is that all?”
I blinked.
“Excuse me?”
“Is that really why you ended things?
Aleena, honestly.
You could have stayed.
Men cheat.
It’s what they do.
They’re not like us, they don’t think with their hearts, they think with their…
well, you know.
It’s just biological.
You can’t hold that against them.”
I stared at her, certain I had misheard.
“You are joking.”
My mother turned to me fully, pulling her sunglasses down to look at me over the rim.
Her expression was serious, almost pitying.
“I’m not joking, Aleena.
I know I spoiled you growing up.
I gave you everything you wanted, and I think that’s why you have no idea how the world really works.
Men cheat.
It’s a fact of life.
You learn to look the other way, to forgive and forget, because the alternative is being alone.
Is that what you want?
To be alone?”
“Are you seriously telling me I should have stayed with someone who betrayed me?”
“I’m telling you that you could have overlooked a simple behavior as that,” she said, her voice taking on that lecturing tone I hated.
“If you had been smarter about it, you would be engaged by now.
You would have a ring on your finger and a husband to take care of you instead of running around that office pretending to be a big shot.
But no.
You had to be stubborn and proud t.”
The anger that flooded through me was so hot and sudden that I couldn’t speak for a full five seconds.
When I finally found my voice, it came out low and dangerous.
“Pull over.”
“What?”
“I said pull the car over.
Right now.”
“Aleena, don’t be dramatic.
We’re almost at the boutique and…”
“Pull.
The.
Car.
Over.”
The driver, sensing the tension, obediently pulled to the curb.
I didn’t wait for the car to stop completely.
I threw open the door and stepped out onto the sidewalk, my heels clicking against the pavement.
“Aleena!
Get back in this car this instant!”
But I slammed the door and walked away before she could respond.
I heard her yelling through the window, but I didn’t look back.
I flagged down a taxi back gave to the penthouse.
When I finally arrived back at the building, I stormed to my room not caring that Ethan had been in the living room,reading something on his tab.
I slammed door behind me and I stood there for a long moment, breathing hard.
I needed to calm down.
I stripped off my clothes and stepped into the bathroom, for a hot shower.
I stayed under the water until my fingers pruned and my skin was red from the heat.
Then I stepped out, wrapping a towel loosely around myself before discarding it on the bathroom floor.
I walked out, completely naked as nobody ever enters my room without knocking.
I reached for my underwear on the bed, when suddenly the door opened and I turned to see Ethan staring at me.