Read Online The Rebirth of Sin (Wicked Trinity Book 2) by Courtney Lane - Free Book Online

her eye level. 
    A storm of torment was behind her eyes. She seemed unwilling to unleash it and remained silent. 
    “Did you and Brandy have a talk about me?”
    She shook her head with a sullen smile. “We aren’t going to do the prod and push conversation. When you want to talk to me, you know I’m here.” Extending her hand, she gestured for me. “I think the eggplant bake is done.”
    I took her hand and followed her down the stairs. 
    I, along with Nathan and Craig, helped her prep the table. There were a few former friends in attendance that I hadn’t communicated with in a long time. 
    I glanced at the chair beside my place setting, not yet occupied by the one person who was supposed to be there.
     
    Shortly after the first course, Nathan began to fill the silent space by chatting about his decision to move to D.C. and possibly start up a new practice here.
     “I…never thought you’d be a divorce lawyer.” I chose my words carefully to avoid offending him.
    “I don’t think any of us saw that coming,” Brandy muttered into her glass of wine.
    “I have friends out in Chicago,” said the woman with strawberry blonde hair, who used to be my Zumba partner at one point, “who tell me you’re well known out there. I believe she said something like you were a vampire for the defendants in divorce cases.”
    “I’m very good at what I do,” Nathan replied.
    I thumbed my phone from where it rested on my lap, hoping for a response to my unanswered texts and phone calls. 
    Sonja and Craig had begun to serve dinner and the invitees were eager to dig in, but seemed to be waiting on something…or someone.
    “Go ahead and eat.” I waved at them while simpering. “I don’t want to ruin your dinner.”
    “It’s already ruined,” Brandy snarled.
    “Something must be wrong.” Avoiding the probing stares from the people at the table, I fiddled with my phone. “He doesn’t usually disappear without returning my calls or texts. Excuse me.” I walked away from the table and called Noah in the kitchen; I was met with a call that went straight to voicemail. I informed him the night he came home—after Brandy’s visit—that we were going to have dinner with my friends. While he never outright agreed to coming, he never said no. In fact, he barely said a word to me and went to the bathroom to shower.
    I swiveled around to see Brandy, standing in the doorframe with her arms crossed. The discrimination on her face was so stark and readable. I knew everything she was thinking without a word expelling from her mouth. Tonight was Noah’s chance to prove himself and explain the new scars on my back. He’d failed miserably. Brandy no longer had any reason to accept his presence in my life, if she had an iota of positive feelings toward the man at all.
    “I’m going to check on him.” I dropped my arm and tightly clutched my phone. “There might be something wrong.”
    “Why don’t you take some food with you,” Sonja suggested, appearing beside Brandy.  
    “I’ll help.” Brandy’s voice overflowed with irritation and fury. She stormed around Sonja’s kitchen and wrestled cabinets open, only to slam them closed when she couldn’t find what she wanted. She sloppily packaged up a dinner for two and threw it into a reusable shopping bag. She yanked my arm, walking me to the door, and preempted any chance of my friends saying goodbye to me.
    “I hate him, Keaton,” she barked, her hand tightening on the door handle as she held it open for me. “ I hate him for what he did to you at that fucked up cult.”
    “Okay.” It was all I could say. Clarity to find the perfect thing to say to abate her anger eluded me. I didn’t pity anyone who got on Brandy’s bad side. She inherited her mother’s talent at making her enemies feel every inch of her wrath when she was crossed. I witnessed some of Brandy’s tactics in high school; she knew how and where to hit to inflict the most pain. I could only