Page 113 of Angels Are Falling

I was surprised when the doorbell rang, and I found Matt, Marcus, Will, Lucy, and Ruby standing at the door.

“What are you guys doing here?” I asked, unable to keep the irritation out of my voice. Why would they come over uninvited and on such an important day, no less?

Ruby blinked. “Kai invited us to brunch. You didn’t know?”

Kai invited them. Of course, he had. It had become abundantly clear that my new life and friends were causing a rift between my wife and me. He knew it and was exploiting it. Anger wove through me, but I tamped it down. I refused to let him spoil today.

They moved past me and made themselves comfortable in the dining room before I could protest. I stood there holding my own front door open like a doorman.

“Have you seen the bench ads?” Lucy was already pouring herself coffee. “Placement’s even better than the mock-ups. The whole town’s going to know your face by next month.”

“Great,” I said, and couldn’t locate a single feeling to go with it. “So, Kai invited you?”

Matt was holding up the cinnamon rolls and giving them a sniff. “Yup. Since you’re too rude to invite your friends.”

I knew he was teasing, but my insides were frozen. Things were still raw with Amelie. She would react poorly to Ruby after what happened in Beirut. I didn’t want to rub salt in a fresh wound and worsen things between us.

“Actually, now isn’t the best time,” I started carefully. “This is my first meal with my wife and siblings in weeks. I want to keep it to just family.”

I thought they’d apologize for interrupting time with my family and make themselves scarce. Instead, Matt and Will merely raised their eyebrows. Marcus pretended not to hear me and left to use the restroom. Lucy went back to her coffee, entirely unbothered.

The most shameless response of all came from Ruby. “Take it up with Kai,” she said easily. “He invited us. He should be the one to tell us if he no longer wants us here.”

I frowned. What kind of friends blatantly disregarded your request to spend time with your family? None of them had the decency to care that this was my home, too, and I didn’t want them here. For the first time, I questioned their sincerity. It was dawning on me that other than partying and doing drugs, my friendships with these people were entirely superficial.

“Today’s just not a good day,” I tried again. “I’ll invite you guys to the next brunch.”

“But Kai texted us, asking us to come over,” Ruby countered. “He just wants to get to know your friends. It’d be rude to leave.”

Great. I couldn’t even kick them out because they were Kai’s guests, not mine. He invited them, and I knew he had done it on purpose. It hadn’t gone unnoticed that he often used my friends and work to distract me from my family. Did he think I was stupid and wouldn’t catch on?

Then again, catching on changed nothing. Technically, Kai never took a single thing from me. He just kept handing me things—the magazine, the private jet, celebrity friends, my picture on the bus bench—until my hands were too full to hold anything that mattered.

I considered confronting him to ask why he invited them. Then I told myself to focus on making the best of it with my family instead. Unfortunately, they were late.

The kids finally arrived, but only after I sent the nanny three times to make sure they didn’t stay on Kai’s side of the house.

Kai and Amelie arrived last, holding hands. The temperature in the room dropped several degrees when my gaze landed on their joined hands. It was a display of his possession. A declaration that she was to stay by his side. He had only come to brunch to establish that she belonged to him.

Resentment for Kai bloomed in my chest, but I knew I had to keep my cool. Antagonizing him would only work against me when the entire household was Team Kai. I had taken my family’s love for granted, and now I was walking on eggshells to win it back. Pissing off their favorite person wouldn’t earn me points. Their love for him was blatantly evident. Jamie’s whole face opened when Kai approached the table. August straightened like a soldier whose general had entered. And Bella shrieked—an actual, joyful shriek, the kind I used to get—and launched herself at him and was caught and swung up into the air like she weighed nothing.

I recognized the feeling that went through me then, and I didn’t like what it said about me. I was jealous of a man for catching my sister. Not for his money, his name, or his stature, just for the catching. For being the one she ran at without braking.

Bella’s arms locked around his neck. “Why weren’t you home when I got back from school?”

I hated that she expected him to be home when she no longer demanded that of me. The irony wasn’t lost on me. Once upon a time, I felt weighed down by my family’s expectations. I’d dreamt of a life where nobody was waiting on me for anything. I had gotten exactly what I’d wished for, and it was killing me.

“I had to go to LA for work,” Kai told her lightly.

“Did you bring me back a gift?”

“Of course.”

I watched Bella beam at him and felt something in my chest tear.

Unable to watch them, I turned to face Amelie. I desperately wanted to ask why she left last night, though I feared I already knew the answer. It was because he had come home and she preferred his company over mine.

I clenched my fists at my sides even as I filed my inquiries away. Now wasn’t the time to tackle the issue. Today was about showing Amelie that I could be a great husband again. Then she’d want to stay the night with me.