Lahat ng Kabanata ng DIVORCED, BUT SPOILED BY MY FIVE BROTHERS : Kabanata 201 - Kabanata 210

Chapter 201Janet's Point of ViewThe auction had ended, but the evening wasn't finished with me yet.I stood near the collection counter with my paddle number in one hand, waiting while the assistant checked items against his list. Behind me, the hall was emptying slowly, the noise thinning into the scrape of chairs and the clink of glasses from the reception room. Rowan was somewhere across the floor with a circle of men in dark suits, laughing at something that probably wasn't funny. Peter had disappeared five minutes ago, muttering about a phone call. I knew Peter. That call had nothing to do with business, and the thought made something warm and foolish flutter in my chest.I was right.The assistant came back with a trolley. Not a box, a trolley. The flower sat in its sealed case, and the pocket watch lay in its small velvet pouch, and beside them were three more boxes I had never bid on: a small silver frame, a leather-bound book, and something wrapped in tissue that looked sus

Chapter 203Janet's Point of ViewCaroline smiled at Flora, then at Rowan, the smile of a woman presenting a gift she had been waiting years to give. "Put it on her," she said. "Let everyone see she's important to this family."I stared at her, my pulse thudding in my ears. "Are you serious right now?"She didn't even look at me. It was as though I were a piece of furniture that had spoken.Flora lowered her eyes, and her voice went soft and small. "Mrs. Thayer, you don't have to. I know Grandma wanted the necklace...""But you deserve it." Caroline patted her arm tenderly. "People have been saying such terrible things about you. If Rowan puts it on you himself, perhaps they'll finally learn some respect."I turned to Rowan. He wouldn't. Surely he wouldn't, not after tonight, not after everything. That necklace belonged to Grandma. She had sat up in a hospital bed with color in her cheeks and sent him to get it. It was the one thing in this whole miserable evening that was supposed to

Chapter 205Janet's Point of ViewI was tired of every conversation becoming a trial, tired of defending myself against things that had never happened, tired of the tears and the hands on stomachs and the gasps that arrived exactly on cue. The weariness went all the way down, into my bones, and I let it carry me. I set the boxes on the floor carefully, one at a time, as though they were the only things in that corridor still worth protecting."I did not push her," I said.Flora cried harder. "You hate me so much you don't even care about my baby!""Flora, stop," Rowan said sharply.For half a second, my heart lifted, foolish and hopeful, because I thought he was telling her to stop. Then he turned on me."What is wrong with you?"I stared at him. He was furious, truly furious. His face was tight and his eyes were hard, and he was looking at me like something that had crawled in from outside."Can't you control yourself for one evening?" he demanded. "You insulted my mother. You argued

Chapter 207Rowan's Point of ViewI drove away from the Avenue alone.The necklace case sat on the passenger seat, empty. Flora had still been wearing the stone when I left, laughing with my mother in the lobby, and I had walked out past them without a word because I couldn't stand another second in that building. The silence in the car was almost worse. It pressed against my ears until I could hear my own pulse.I should have been thinking about the business contacts. Or the fake antique I had paid a small fortune for while the entire room whispered behind their hands. Or Grandma's necklace, which was now hanging around the wrong neck. Instead, all I could see was Janet.Janet walking into that gala between Jasper and Peter with her chin lifted and one hand through each of their arms. The cameras turning, every one of them, swinging away from Flora and me like a tide going out, and the shouting that followed, the questions, *who is she, who is she with*. The women inside greeting her

Chapter 209Rowan's Point of ViewI didn't have an answer. I didn't have one single fact to offer her, and the emptiness of that sat in my chest like a stone.Her eyes filled with tears. That undid me more than the shattered lamps, more than the shouting. Grandma did not cry. She had buried a husband and a son and never once let me see her eyes wet, and now they glistened in the lamplight, and I could not look away from them."What is it about Flora?" Her voice broke on the name. "What do you see in that woman that makes you hurt Janet over and over again?""I don't love Flora," I said."Then you're an even bigger fool!"I flinched as if she had struck me.She wiped her face with the back of her hand, angry at her own tears. "You don't love Flora, but you humiliate Janet for her. You don't want Flora, but you let her stand where Janet should be standing. You say Janet is strong, so you punish her for surviving." Her hand shook against her cheek. "Tell me how that makes sense, Rowan. T