Page 66 of Remember Me
“Does Finn know about them?”
“You mean Phineas? I suppose he does, but his past isn’t so perfect either. And besides, everyone in the art world snorts a little. It’s not a secret, Miss Goody-Goody.”
She holds me in her contemptuous gaze. “You better be careful. I have a lot of power. One wrong move and I can bring Phineas down. And trust me, he’ll never recover.”
There’s some truth to her words. I’m caught between a rock and a hard place. The last thing I want to do is destroy Finn’s career, something he’s worked so hard for. While I weigh my options, she continues.
“It’s funny how life works. Some people like me fall up. Others like Phineas’s ex fall down... literally. No pun intended.”
Is she referring to my life-defying accident? Does she know who I really am? Was she involved?
An icy chill sends goosebumps to my arms as she laughs at her cleverness. “You’re the kind of spineless person who’s doomed to fall down.”
Inside, I’m burning up with rage; I feel my cheeks heating. I’m not Finn’s ex-wife. Iamhis wife. And the last thing I am is spineless!
“Finn doesn’t have anex-wife!”
With a fling of her head, she lets out a huff. “Semantics. Whatever way you look at it, she’s gone.”
Wrong! She’s alive and well and you’re looking right at her!
As fury mounts inside me, she reaches inside her bag and pulls out a pack of cigarettes. Marlboro Lights. Opening the box, she slips one out, and to my horror, lights it up and takes a drag.Tilting her head back, she blows out a puff of smoke. The ring floats in the air.
“Please put the cigarette out.” I try to temper my anger. How dare she smoke around an asthmatic child?
She shoots me a defiant look. “Are you kidding me? You’re tellingmewhat to do?”
This time, I don’t hold back. “Put out the damn cigarette, Kayla. The smoke is really bad for Maddie’s asthma.”
“Asthma shmasma.”
Throwing back her head, she takes another drag and this time deliberately blows a cloud of smoke in my face.
I choke. Not so much on the smoke but on the bile that is rising in my throat. I can’t let this insipid woman marry my husband. And become the mother of my precious daughter.I can’t!My mother used to tell me: “What goes up, must come down.” Whatever it takes, I’m taking Kayla down. Starting now. The tough, ballsy, fearless Skylar Collins is back with a vengeance. I hold her fiercely in my gaze.
“Kayla, get the hell out of here.”
“How dare you talk to me like that?!”
“Kayla, what the hell are you doing?”
The gruff, angry voice is accompanied by thudding footsteps. With a jerk of my neck, I look over my shoulder.
Finn! Marching toward us, his face dark with rage.
“Oh, hi, darling!” In the blink of an eye, the tone of Kayla’s voice has gone from malevolent to saccharine. But it falls on deaf ears.
His paint-stained hands clenched by his sides and his lips pinched tight, Finn steamrolls straight up to Kayla and snatches the cigarette out of her hand.
“Jesus, Phineas. What are you doing?”
With a sharp flick of his wrist, he tosses the half-smoked butt onto the floor and then stomps it out with the toe of his Nike. His eyes, flickering with fury, meet Kayla’s.
“I thought you gave up smoking.”
“Well, I did. But the little chat I was just having with your little helper mandated a ciggie.”
Finn breathes in and out from his nose. Smoke is virtually coming out of his flaring nostrils. He looks like he may implode. “I thought I told youneverto smoke in my house.”