Chapter 17 Seventeen

• JAYDEN’S POV
• I sat in my cousin’s bar, staring into my glass of whiskey, letting the alcohol slowly numb the frustration that had been eating at me for days. I was still in my work clothes, my tie loosened, and the last thing I wanted was to go home. Home didn’t feel like home anymore. All I got there was my mother’s nagging about pressing charges against Flora for supposedly stealing her jewelry. I had already told her a thousand times to drop it. Pressing charges would be a PR disaster, and honestly, it wasn’t worth it.
• Then there was Melissa. She had a new request every five minutes, each one more ridiculous than the last, and she blamed everything on her pregnancy hormones. I didn’t want to admit it, but my life had been spiraling out of control since Flora walked out. It felt like a part of me had gone missing, and what really pissed me off was how everyone else seemed to move on like nothing happened—except me.