Under the Mistletoe: He Chose My Brother

CHAPTER 3: DISCARDED

REVA

“I’ve already signed.”

The words hung in the air, sending me staggering backward, and they barely settled before Hunter extended the envelope toward me.

Divorce papers… my divorce.

My world split, and something inside me snapped so violently that the room spun. Bile surged up my throat, and before I knew what I was doing, my hand shot out faster than thought and connected with Hunter’s cheek.

The sound echoed in a brutal crack that sent his head whipping sideways. The envelope slipped from his hand, scattering the papers across the floor like broken promises.

“How could you?!” My voice was unrecognizable. “You’re my brother!”

Tears clouded my vision as betrayal tore through me, too shattered to spill.

“Even if Nikolai didn’t care, you should have! You should have! Because we’re family! Because you owe me that much!”

Nikolai stepped forward, trying to wedge himself between us, but I shoved him, my palms slamming against his chest with enough force to send him stumbling back.

“Don’t touch me!” I howled. “Don’t you dare touch me!”

Hunter stood frozen, his hand cradling the side of his face, but still he didn’t say a damn word, and I screamed, taking long strides toward him again.

“Why?! I took you in when your bastard of a father threw you away like trash, like he did to me with your mother’s help. Even after recalling the last time we saw each other, how you looked at me like a toilet stain. I didn’t hold that against you. I took you in when you showed up broken and opened my home to you! I loved you, Hunter!”

My chest heaved. “I treated you like blood, and you stabbed me in the back like I was nothing! You’re just like your heartless b***h of a mother,” I spat. “Cold, vile, and selfish.” But I didn’t finish, and Hunter’s voice crashed into mine like a wall of fire.

“Keep my mother’s name out of your filthy mouth!” I flinched, and he took a step toward me. “You want to talk about heartlessness? About selfishness?” he roared, stepping forward again. “Your mother was a w***e, Reva. A homewrecking w***e who seduced a married man and tried to take him away from his family!”

My mouth dropped open, and for a second, everything around me froze as I tried to piece together if he’d really said it, if he’d actually dared to say that to me while standing in front of me and doing the same thing… while standing in the wreckage of the home he helped destroy.

My voice trembled. “What does that make you, then, Hunter?” I bellowed. “Here we are with you doing the same damn thing. Taking a married man. Breaking a home. What does that make you?!”

He didn’t so much as blink before he smirked like he hadn’t just gutted me alive.

“It makes me whatever you want me to be to feel better about yourself, to have someone to blame,” he said with a shrug. “But unlike my father, who loved my mother and made a mistake, Nikolai didn’t make one.”

His eyes were cold as they locked on mine. “He doesn’t love you, Reva. He never did, and you can’t lose what you never had,” Hunter continued. “I’m not stealing him from you. He’s leaving. So why don’t you do the same? Save whatever’s left of your dignity and walk away because all this hollering isn't going to change a thing.”

I screamed from somewhere so deep my insides curled, and I lunged at him. I wanted to claw his face off. I wanted to rip the skin from his bones.

But Nikolai grabbed me from behind and yanked me back. “Let me go!” I shrieked, twisting, thrashing, and biting at his arm like a rabid animal. “Let me go, Nikolai! Don’t you dare hold me back; don’t you dare!”

But he didn’t listen. He hauled me backward like he couldn’t stand the sight of me, dragging me through the hallway as I kicked and fought him every step of the way.

My nails raked across his arm, and I landed a sharp bite on his shoulder, but he didn’t stop. He threw the door open. “Get off me!” I roared, clawing at his hands, but he flung.

I stumbled and landed hard against the wall, barely catching myself on the vase by the entryway before hitting the floor as the door slammed behind me.

Just like that, I was discarded like trash by a man I gave my soul to, and I folded forward, arms wrapping around my middle as my legs gave out. My forehead pressed to the cool wood of the door, and broken sobs tore from my throat.

Everything went blank, and my ears were ringing. Then, through the fog, a sound finally broke through. I heard the sound of footsteps echoing across the tiles from somewhere behind me.

Turning around, I saw a guy rushing toward me. I didn’t recognize him, but he was dressed in the same uniform as the resort staff: dark slacks, a neat shirt, and the resort crest stitched over his chest.

His face was bunched in concern, and he said something, but I didn’t catch it, as right at that moment I registered all the other faces that were looking at me... all the sad eyes from the people now standing in front of their doors. Some were holding up their phones to record me, while others gasped, looking ashamed for watching but doing so anyway.

Their faces blurred together as humiliation tore through me like a million red fire ants during fall. I couldn’t breathe, and just then, the voice echoed again.

“Ma’am, are you okay?” This time I made out the words, but I couldn't respond; I was numb. Hands gripped my arm, but I recoiled, stepping away from him.

“Don’t touch me! I don’t want to…” I couldn’t finish and pivoted so fast I almost tripped over my feet as the lump throbbed in my throat.

The wind whipped my hair and caught my tears to throw them back at me while my legs moved without direction, stumbling over stone paths and uneven ground between the cabins.

I didn’t know where I was going; I just couldn’t be here.

My chest heaved, each breath interrupted by the sting of all the rejections I had suffered in my life, all crashing back with brute force.

Every “I’m sorry,” every “I need more than this,” every “I tried, Reva,” Every door slammed in my face and every back turned as I reached out for someone to stay, came hurtling back.

All the times I gave everything, and still they chose someone else... always someone else, came crashing back, dragging the feelings of helplessness with them.

I was tired of fighting, tired of trying. I just wanted peace; I wanted everything to stop, and it was at that moment that I finally registered the sound of the ocean rumbling somewhere ahead of me.

Suddenly, I knew what I needed to do to silence the screaming in my head and the breaking in my chest.

Leaving the lights behind me, the darkness swallowed my shadow, and I ran faster toward the sound, toward the cliffs, my feet bleeding from the rough terrain and my lungs burning.

The ground disappeared beneath me, and for a brief, breathless moment, I was airborne… weightless. The wind howled past my ears, ripping through my hair like a thousand tiny blades against my skin. And time stretched into silence.

My parents’ faces flashed behind my eyes, my father’s warm gaze and my mother’s soft smile. Then I heard my nieces laughing and calling my name.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, and the words disappeared into the night. But it was all I could do, and I prayed the universe would somehow carry it to them.

The water rose to meet me like a wall of black glass and shattered around me as I hit.

The impact knocked every thought from my mind, and as I sank, the cold water coiled around me fast and mercilessly as it silenced my thoughts.

I didn’t fight it; I didn’t know how, as I didn’t even know how to swim. My limbs flailed, wild and useless as my body took on a life of its own, fighting even as the soul accepted its fate.

Water rushed into my mouth, burning down my throat into my lungs, and my chest heaved, sending my eyes wide open to stare at nothing but darkness.

The pressure pushed in from all sides, dragging me deeper. And just when I thought the pain would split me open, something grabbed me... a tight grip around my arm. But it didn’t matter. It was too late, and the world slowed and then dimmed. My lights went out.