HIS SONS GIRL

CHAPTERTWO;SIENNA

I was still crying when I got to Nova's.

Not the pretty kind of crying. The ugly kind. The kind where you can't catch your breath and your whole face hurts and you don't even care because there's nobody left to look good for.

Nova opened her door and pulled me straight into a hug.

She didn't ask anything. She just held on.

When I finally stopped shaking she sat me down on her couch, made tea I didn't drink, and let me talk. I told her everything. Jade's text. The wrong person she said that I knew was a lie. Coming home.The scattered house. The sounds from the bedroom. The door I pushed open and wished immediately I hadn't.

Nova's face got harder with every word.

When I finished she was quiet for a second.

Then she stood up and said: “What a bunch of ungrateful losers, oh my I wish I could go and slap that stupid Cole’s face.”

"You know whatGet up. We're going out."

I looked at her. "Nova, I've been crying for an hour."

"Exactly. Which is why we are not spending tonight in this apartment." She pointed at my face. "Wash that. Put on the red dress. We are going somewhere loud and we are going to drink until Cole Hale becomes just a bad memory in your head."

"I don't want to go out."

"Sienna." Her voice softened just a little. "If you stay here you're going to sit and replay it all night. I know you. Come out with me. Just for a few hours."

“Theres a new bar that just opened downtown LUX. Heard they have a lot of handsome men there, who knows you will meet someone better than Cole.”

She was right and I hated that she was right.

I put on the red dress.

The bar was as Nova described. Lux. New place downtown, busy on a Friday. Loud music, low lights, the kind of crowd that was there to forget about the week.

Perfect.

We walked in and went straight to the bar. Nova ordered two drinks before we'd even sat down. I took mine and drank half of it immediately.

"Okay," Nova said, looking around. "See? People. Life. Things that are not Cole."

I almost smiled.

We found a spot near the back. Nova was mid-sentence about something I was barely listening to, just drinking and existing when I looked up and went cold.

Across the room.

A private booth with the curtain pushed halfway back. A group of people inside, loud and laughing, bottles on the table.

And right in the middle of them — Cole.

With Jade pressed against his side like she owned him.

My grip tightened on my glass.

"Sienna —" Nova saw my face.

"He's here," I said.

"Don't —"

But I was already looking. I couldn't stop.

The group around them was loud and happy. Drinks everywhere. Someone said something and everyone laughed. Cole was leaning back with this massive relaxed smile on his face, the smile of a man who had not a single thing weighing on him.

Then someone in the group, a big guy, Marcus I thought, Cole's closest friend, one who thought he was funnier than everyone raised his glass and grinned.

"Hey Cole! Isn’t this your girlfriend's cousin you’re here with ? You are a crazy one dude.” He looked around the table. "Go on then kiss her! Do it! Let's all see."

The table erupted. Everyone cheering, everyone egging them on.

Cole laughed. He grabbed Jade's face and kissed her right there while his friends went crazy.

I felt sick.

When they pulled apart Marcus was still laughing.

"But wait, wait," he said, wiping his eyes. "What about Sienna? Isn't she going to lose her mind when she finds out?"

Cole waved his hand like the question was nothing.

"Sienna?" He said my name and laughed. "She's not going to do anything. She's just a simp man. She loves me too much. I could do this right in front of her and she'd just stand there."

More laughter.

"For real though " Marcus pushed.

"For real." Cole's voice got easier, more casual, like he was talking about the weather. "She has nobody. No family,no connections, no backup plan, nowhere to go. She's an orphan. Always so boring like some dead fish." He shrugged. "What's she going to do? She can't even afford to lose me. I'm the best thing that ever happened to her."

Jade laughed against his shoulder.

Didn't say one word to defend me.

Not one word. Not like I was expecting her to.

And these were people who had sat across from me at dinner. People who had smiled at me and called me Cole's girl. People who had known me.

I stood there and let every single word land.

Simp. Orphan. Boring. Can't afford to lose me.

The best thing that ever happened to her.

I turned around and walked straight back to the bar.

"Hey." Nova was right behind me. "Sienna, look at me."

I didn't look at her. I put my glass down and signalled the bartender.

"Another one," I said. "Actually make it two."

"Sienna —"

"I'm fine. Tonight we drink till we drop!!."

"You are clearly not fine."

"Then I will be fine in about twenty minutes." I picked up the first drink the moment it arrived. "Just sit with me, Nova. Please."

She sat.

I drank.

One drink. Then another. The music got louder or maybe I just stopped caring. The tight horrible feeling in my chest didn't go away but it changed. It stopped feeling like grief and started feeling like something else. Harder. Angrier. Something that wanted to do something instead of just sit there and take it.

Simp. Orphan. Best thing that ever happened to her. The words replayed in my head.

I thought about that smile on Cole's face. That easy, unbothered, completely certain smile.

He wasn't scared of me. He had never been scared of me. He knew I had nowhere to go and no one in my corner and he had used that. Quietly, casually, the whole time.

The anger got hotter.

Then something else moved through me. A thought. Small at first. Then bigger.

What if I did something he would never see coming?

What if instead of walking away quietly and licking my wounds, I did something that would actually get to him? Something that would sit under his skin and stay there?

What if I found someone tonight?

Someone to make it very, very clear that I was not the sad, pathetic, going nowhere girl he thought I was. Let me show him I can do without him.

Even if I have no family left I still have my dignity left.

"I need to move, I’m going to find a younger, hotter guy tonight. " I said, and stood up fast.

Too fast.

The room tilted sideways. Four drinks and no dinner, my body made its opinion very clear.

I stumbled forward.

And walked straight into someone.

Strong hands caught me before I hit the floor. Firm. Steady. No hesitation.

"Careful," said a voice. Low. Calm. Like nothing in the world could rattle it.

I grabbed the arms holding me and looked up.

My breath stopped.

Dark hair. Strong jaw. Eyes like grey steel looking down at me cool and sharp and giving absolutely nothing away.

Woah

I knew that face.

Three times. Three company dinners with Cole. Always at the edge of the room. Always the person everyone else kept looking at without meaning to.

Julian Hale.

Cole's father.