Lahat ng Kabanata ng DIVORCED, BUT SPOILED BY MY FIVE BROTHERS : Kabanata 181 - Kabanata 190

Chapter 181Janet’s first povI watched as Caroline and Flora left the room.Caroline's heels were sharp on the floor. Flora's steps softer behind. The corridor door swung shut, and the silence that followed felt like someone had opened a window.Just the three of us now.I expected Grandma to sink back in the chair. To close her eyes. To finally rest.Instead, she reached beside her wheelchair for her cane.I frowned. "Grandma, what are you—"She swung it.Whack."Ow!"Rowan jumped back, clutching his arm, staring at her with his mouth open."Grandma! That actually hurts!"She lifted the cane again.He stepped back fast.I pressed my lips together. It's hard enough that i nearly choke on the laughter I'm trying to hold back."I didn't realise," Grandma said, "that I'd raised such a useless grandson.""Useless?" I said, wondering where Grandma is coming from."A disgrace."Whack.He got his arm up in time, mostly. It still caught his shoulder. "What did I even do this time?" Rowan's mu

Chapter 183Rowan's POVI was still rubbing my arm when the door opened.The doctor came in with a nurse behind him, and I straightened up fast and tried to look like a man who had not just been on his knees on a hospital floor thirty seconds ago."Mrs. Thayer." The doctor nodded at Grandma. "I'd like to get you properly settled in the bed so I can examine you again."Grandma sighed like a teenager being told to do homework. "Everyone keeps treating me like I'll break if I sneeze.""Maybe," I said, "if you hadn't vanished from the house without telling a single soul, people would trust you more."She turned her head. Slowly. Looked at me.My eyes went to the cane before I could stop them.I heard a small sound from Janet's direction. I looked over. She had her lips pressed together and her chin down, and she was looking very hard at the floor, and the corner of her mouth was doing something she clearly did not want it to do.She was enjoying this.Part of me was offended. Genuinely. I

Chapter 185Rowan's point of view I saw it happen. Something behind her eyes went soft and bright at once, and she crossed to the bed and sat on the edge of it and took Grandma's hand in both of hers.I stood by the window and watched them.And something ached in my chest. An actual, physical ache, right under the breastbone, like a bruise someone was pressing on.Grandma loved her. Not because of me. Not because Janet had married into the family, or carried the name, or was useful to anyone. She just loved her, the way you love a daughter.And I'd spent three years treating that same woman like furniture.Grandma ate two apple slices. Then she set the plate down and said, "Rowan. Tomorrow night.""What about it?""The Avenue auction."I knew it. I'd known about it for weeks. The invitation was sitting on my desk under a pile of contracts."I want you to go.""Fine.""And you're taking Janet."Janet's head came up.I looked at her. She looked at me. Her eyes said no in several langua

Chapter 187Janet's POVThe dress was Jasper's idea. The shoes were Peter's. The necklace, apparently, had been a group vote I wasn't invited to. Ever since I told them about my public appearance on a gala My whole family wants me to look like a queen. Peter said he won't want anyone to be the talk of twon aside from me.I sat in the back of the car between them and smoothed the fabric over my knees and thought, for the tenth time that evening, that this whole thing was ridiculous.I wasn't here for the photographs neither was I here for the champagne or the crowd or whatever Caroline would say about me tomorrow.I was here for Grandma.She wanted the Eye of the Blue Sea. She'd wanted it for eleven years. She'd sat in a hospital bed withcolorr in her cheeks for the first time in days and told me to go.So I went.That was the whole reason. Nothing else.The car turned the corne, and the Avenue lit up in front of us. A red carpet stretched from the curb to the doors, lined on both sid

Chapter 189Janet's Point of View Inside, the room was gold and warm and full of people who had never once been told to wait.A woman in silver with pearls at her throat saw Jasper and smiled wide. Then her eyes went to me, and the smile changed into something careful and curious. She came over. She introduced herself. She complimented my dress like she meant it.Another woman. Then another. They knew Jasper. They knew Peter. But didn't know me, but they knew enough to understand one thing: Jasper Beckett did not walk women down carpets. Peter certainly did not share the job with his brother unless she mattered."Will you be at the Hartley exhibition next month?" one asked."Oh, we must have lunch. Here's my card.""Darling, if you see Jasper later, I'd be so grateful if you'd mention my husband's name. Just a word. He'd listen to you."I almost laughed out loud.They thought I had influence over Jasper. "I've known the Becketts for fifteen years," an older woman said, leaning in wi