Page 8 of Lightning Angel
Betrayal bit her like a poisonous snake, the venom of hatred reaching the places in her heart where she held a care for him despite her dead romance.
“Alexa—”
“Is this true?” she cut him off, gritting through her teeth. Angry tears began filling her eyes, but she blinked at them furiously to prevent from glassing her vision.
Jude held up his hands. “I can explain.”
“Isthis true?” she shouted her question, fuming in rage.
Jude sighed and dropped his hands, his shoulders slumping in defeat. “Yes.”
“Get out.”
His eyes rounded. “What?”
“Get out!”
“Baby, you can’t be—”
“Don’tcall me that ever again.” Alexa’s eyes flared, and she shook a finger at him. “We’re done. I’m done with you.”
She spun on her heels toward the door, but Jude caught her hand and stopped her. “Lex, please, don’t do this. I’ll explain, please let me explain.”
She whirled toward him. “What explanation can you possibly give me, huh? You didn’t know we were step-siblings when you started dating me?”
His face crumbled in guilt.
“Your guilt is my answer, Jude White. You were deceiving me, you were—you were—”
“It wasmyfault, Alexa.” Her mother cut in. “Itold him not to tell you. The blame is mine.Hisguilt ismine. He had always wanted to tell you, but I stopped him. You and Cassie cut me out of your lives the day I decided to leave you. I don’t blame you for that. I know I hurt you with my actions and I deserve it. But I missed you; I longed to see my girls, longed to know about your well-being. That’s when Tom got a promotion. We moved to the city, and I chose your school for Jude so he could help me know about my girls—at leastoneof my girls. Jude was more than willing to help, but I didn’t expect you to become friends, and eventually…lovers.”
The way she said ‘lovers’, as though it was a sacred word, made Alexa want to scoff. She had never once considered or thought Jude as a lover. He was just a boyfriend, someone she romanced—a fling. Despite being a hopeless romantic, a bookworm who read only love stories and the sister of an appraised romance author, romantic love was a fantasy to Alexa.
The kind of love she saw in books wasn’t nonexistent; she knew that. Daphne’s parents were still smitten with each other, after all. But her own parents’ so-called love, how it withered away and ruined them in the end, had been set as an example before her.
If she were to end up heartbroken like her dad one day, when her partner would stop loving her suddenly and go with another woman, she’d rather stay unmarried—a hopeless romantic forever.
Alexa willed her tears back and turned to her mother. “You think your explanation changes everything? That I would feel bad and forgive your step-son and continue dating him? Do you even knowwhyI hated you, Mother? Or did you decide to forget it and take my vulnerability when I let you hold me while I cried at my dad’s funeral as a change of heart? You’re wrong. I hated you because you ran away with a man who couldn’t keep his hands off a married mother of two girls, one who had a son of his own. I hated you, him,andhis son whom I didn’t know would masquerade as a stranger, my boyfriend in the future. So, if you understand what I’m saying, please get out of our lives. We don’t want to see you again. You’ve done enough damage.”
Tears streamed down not only her mother’s face, but Alexa’s as well—tears of hurt, betrayal, and anger that she had concealed within her all these years.
“We loved you,” Cassie began slowly. “But you threw it all away when you decided to go with that man. We hoped for your return, weprayedfor you to come back. It waswhenyou told us that you had chosen your new life, a life without us and Dad, that we finally cut you out of our lives. So you deserve to know the least pain the two girls you claim to have missed suffered by your selfish choice.”
“Cassie, I—”
“No.” Cassie held up a hand, and sniffed to take back her tears. “We don’t want to hear anything more. Just stay out of our lives. And you—” She turned to Jude with a death glare. “Come near my sister again and I’ll make you regret it. Am I clear?”
Jude didn’t say anything. He wasn’t even lookingCassie’s way. His pained, regretful eyes pleaded with Alexa’s. “Lex, plea—”
“We’re done, Jude, and it’s final. I don’t want to see you or talk to you again.” Alexa turned from him and pushed open the door Brandon had unlocked.
“Alexa!”
“Back off, man.” Brandon’s voice growled at Jude behind her. She turned to see him standing between her and Jude, ready to take him down if he put up a fight. “You heard her. She doesn’t want you.”
Alexa didn’t wait to see his reaction or spare another glance at her mother. She stepped into the house, followed by Cassie and then Brandon, and closed the door behind her. She pressed her forehead against it.
A small voice in the back of her brain said she shouldn’t have been so harsh with her mother despite the past scars.