Chapter 45

Rush-hour metro rides were more colorful than you could imagine. At the end of the aisle, there was a singer collecting coins while hitting all the wrong notes. Behind me, a baby was crying its lungs out, and in front of me, two old men were arguing about politics.

And then there was me, clutching a grab handle, dead tired, with another big nuisance to my right: Jenna giggling like a preschooler. I was the reason for her laughter.

“It’s Thursday already. You’ve been mocking me for three days straight. Don’t you ever get tired?” I complained, pulling my purse higher on my shoulder.

“You think this is mockery? It’s not,” she lied, gripping her handle as tightly as I was. “These are gestures of support disguised as nervousness. Which just so happens to look like laughter.”

I bit my tongue at her grandiose response. She’d been like this ever since I’d filled her in about Lucius proposing to me, giving me that engagement ring, and how she’d seen us disrespecting her couch.

“Save your ‘