Chapter 3
1374 Words
When Sean and I first started dating, he was a harsh, no-nonsense older brother to Jenny.
Jenny was terrified of him back then. But after she started high school, I noticed something shifted in the way she looked at him, something off and unfamiliar.
Back then, though, Sean doted on me so fiercely that I was convinced no other woman could ever catch his eye. I was so sure he wouldn't suffer any other woman in his life, the same way no one can stand a grain of sand in their eye.
But looking at things now? I was so dead wrong.
I went to take a hot bath. Sean never came upstairs the entire time. When I finally headed down for dinner, every single dish on the table was loaded with spice.
Jenny knew perfectly well how things were. Sean is obsessed with spicy food, but my stomach was finicky.
I stared down at my plate, picking at the only non-spicy thing on the table, which was plain white rice.
Jenny asked me timidly, her voice trembling. "Susan, don't you like the food I made?"
I didn't bother answering her. I turned my head to lock eyes with Sean instead.
"Three years apart, and you have already forgotten I can't eat spicy food?"
Before Sean could get a word out, Jenny jumped in to take the fall.
"Susan, don't blame him! I picked all the recipes myself."
Don't blame Sean? Please. He was the one who explicitly told her to make whatever Jenny liked best.
I smiled, sharp and cold. "Jenny, didn't you say you were so busy trying to figure out my tastes that you accidentally broke the couple bowls? If you were paying that much attention, how'd you forget I don't eat spice?"
The second I mentioned the couple bowls, Sean's eyebrow twitched.
"Suzy," he started, rushing to explain, "it's not what you think. Those bowls were prizes from a company team building event. Jenny thought they looked nice, so she brought them home to use."
Jenny pressed her lips tight, putting on her best kicked-puppy, I-did-something-wrong face.
She grabbed her phone, all flustered. "Susan, what do you feel like eating? I'll order you takeout right now."
I shook my head. "No need. I'm not hungry."
Prison never served anything even close to tasty, and you had to fight for every bite. I was already lucky if I could grab a single dinner roll per meal, so my appetite was tiny now.
I turned and headed back upstairs. Behind me, Jenny started sniffling quietly.
"Sean, I heard people who get out of prison aren't picky eaters at all. I didn't expect Susan to still be the same as before..."
"Susan has a weak stomach," Sean cut in, his voice firm. "Next time you cook, don't make everything spicy."
Jenny answered in her sweetest, most obedient tone. "Got it, I'll remember."
I shut the bedroom door firmly, cutting off the sound of their voices.
When Sean came in later, the desk lamp was on, but I was pretending to sleep.
He lifted the covers gently and wrapped his arms around me from behind.
This wasn't the first time we'd shared a bed, but three years apart, plus Jenny hanging over our relationship like an unshakable weight.
Everything felt so wrong, like the whole vibe between us was totally off. But Sean was burning hot with longing, totally unphased by the awkward tension between us.
He nuzzled his chin against the crook of my neck, his stubble scratching gently at my skin.
"Suzy, I've missed you so much."
My heart softened for a split second, stupid and traitorous.
I turned my head slowly in the soft golden glow of the desk lamp, and my gaze locked with his eyes, dark and glossy as polished obsidian.
My finger traced the sharp curve of his brow bone, memorizing the feel of it like I might forget again.
His warm, soft lips pressed first to my ice-cold ones. Then they moved down to my neck. Then lower, to my collarbone.
Abruptly, he froze. He brushed the collar of my pajamas aside with one hand. His thumb brushed the raised, jagged scar there.
His voice softened to a worried murmur. "Suzy, when did you get hurt?"
I turned my face away, my tone as calm and detached as if I was talking about a stranger's life.
"Oh, got in a fight in prison. Broke my collarbone."
He blinked in shock. "You? Fighting?"
"I don't know how to fight, that's the problem. I was always the one getting my ass kicked."
Every single one of my cellmates was a convicted murderer. I was the only one there for "drunk driving and vehicular manslaughter."
In prison, the meanest, toughest person calls the shots. So, of course, I turned into the cell's resident punching bag, the unlucky chump everyone picked on.
Pain flickered in Sean's eyes, sharp and obvious.
"Suzy, why didn't you tell me any of this?"
I folded my collar back down, covering the scar again.
"Tell you how? You didn't come visit me even once in three years. Was I supposed to yell it to you through the prison walls with telepathy or something?"
My sharp, sarcastic tone seemed to stab right through him. He froze for a beat, a flicker of uncomprehending pain in his eyes.
I drew the words out slowly and deliberately. "So? Are you gonna explain why you never came to see me?"
His eyes darted away, unable to meet mine.
"Suzy, right after you went to prison, Jenny was diagnosed with severe depression. The doctor said traveling would help her condition, so I—"
Oh. So while I was taking the fall for Jenny, getting my collarbone snapped in prison, getting my face stomped under someone's shoe while I knelt there begging them to stop?
He was off traveling the world with Jenny?
I cut him off mid-sentence, cold and sharp. "Save it. Let's just sleep."
But Sean pushed on, still desperate to make me see his side.
"Suzy, you don't get it, she was really sick back then. She felt so guilty every single day after you went in, and then she started college and had to adjust to a whole new environment. That's why she got depressed."
"She felt guilty I was in prison? Then why didn't she turn herself in and take my place? Why make me do it?"
I sat up straight, my hands curling into tight fists under the covers, my nails digging hard into my palms.
So me taking the fall for her was the reason she got depressed?
I was the bad guy here now?
Sean's voice rose without him even realizing it, sharp and defensive. "Suzy, this isn't Jenny's fault. The plea deal, asking you to take the fall, that was all my idea."
Was that really the truth?
No. It wasn't.
Sean had no idea. Long before he ever asked me to take the fall for her, Jenny had planned the whole thing from the very start.
Otherwise, how could the cops possibly have been dumb enough to miss the obvious fact that I wasn't the one driving drunk when that fatal crash happened?
I let out a sharp, bitter laugh all of a sudden. Sean grew visibly annoyed at my laugh.
I said, "You know what, Sean? Looking at you right now, I feel like I'm the third wheel, the one who never should've been here in the first place."
Sean ground his teeth. He grabbed my shoulders, shoved me back against the bed, and loomed over me.
"Susan, I already promised I'd marry you. What more could you possibly want?"
Just then, the bedroom door burst open without warning. Jenny stood there clutching a stuffed bunny, her eyes puffy and red from crying.
"Sean, it's pouring outside, and I'm so scared—" She froze the second she caught sight of us in that compromising position.
All the color drained from her face right before our eyes. She froze completely, rooted to the spot.
A sharp, uncharacteristic rush of satisfaction shot through my chest.
I curled my arms around Sean's neck.
"So let's go get our marriage license tomorrow, yeah?"
- Writer
