by J. J. McAvoy
She looked back at the crowd. “What? We’ve been through a lot.”
They just laughed more.
I shook my head, but I couldn’t help but grin. Even now, she had to be dramatic.
“Ethan,”
For some reason, all of me stiffened, and she had all of my attention.
“…You glare a lot.”
I paused. Of all the things I was expecting, that was not it, and it just got worse from there.
“You snore in your sleep, you either wake up too damn early in the morning, or you sleep for too long. You like going for runs, even when it’s raining or snowing. It takes you forever to text me back. You text or work during movie nights. You are the king of the silent treatment, and you lecture me about my wine consumption. Almost like magic, you hit every one of my pet peeves with surgical precision. And each time I open my mouth to say something, you look at me with those emerald eyes of yours and say my name and I forget exactly what I am mad about. So I stand there like a crazy person, staring at you as you stare back. All I can do is change the subject. But now I’m using this opportunity to bring up every last thing you do that annoys me, to tell you…” She looked up at me, the smile softer on her face. “You can keep doing them. You don’t have to change in any way. You are perfect for me exactly as you are. And I love you as you are now and as you’ve always been. And I always will. I promise.”
She was merciless.
She never played fair.
“Ethan,” the priest said as if he didn’t realize it was impossible for me to top that. What could I possibly say?
“Everything you said…me too,” I whispered, reaching over and bringing her lips to mine, kissing her. And for the first time since I had stepped outside…all of me relaxed.
CALLIOPE
“Me too?” I repeated, glaring at him as we walked over to take photos.
“Congratulations,” others called as we walked.
I forced a smile, holding Ethan’s arm tighter.
“I mean, you could have at least recited poetry or something,” I muttered under my breath.
“That’s what you get for giving me such short notice,” he uttered back, nodding to those who congratulated us on our short little walk.
“The bride and groom will take photos first,” the cameramen said when we came closer. “Mr. and Mrs. Callahan, please stand side by side.”
“I wanted you to spontaneously speak from your heart,” I argued, brushing my dress to the side.
“All right on three…one…two…three.”
I smiled, but I was sure Ethan was more stone-faced than that, seeing as how so many people were around.
“That was your first mistake,” he said when they posed for their photos.
“My first mistake?” I asked.
He nodded. “Who told you I had a heart?”
I rolled my eyes. “If you didn’t have one, I’d steal one and shove it into your chest.”
“You are being very romantic today. I’m flattered.”
I glared up at him, and he smirked, staring down at me.
“Perfect—”
“I wanna be in the picture!” Gigi hollered, breaking out of her Uncle Declan’s arms and running straight for Ethan’s legs.
Ethan let go of me and caught her before she could even reach him, tossing her into the air before bringing her closer.
“Papa, can I have a wedding day, too?” She pouted, and I couldn’t help but laugh, not only at her obvious jealousy at being left out for so long but at Ethan’s face at the thought of the question.
He looked like she’d kicked him in the gut, and he wasn’t ready for it. “I’ll think about it later,” he managed to say. “Right now, you can be in all the photos from here on out, okay?”
She nodded, hugging him.
I reached over and pinched her cheek. “Mommy!”
“You aren’t smiling. I have to make sure your face still works.” She sighed, then gave me a smile.
Nodding, I turned back toward the camera for him to take our photos. He took a few before looking over his shoulder.
“Do you want to the bride's family or the groom's family first.”
“Let’s get everyone, together first, I have no idea how much longer she’s going to be still for,” I looked over his shoulder to my mother, my sisters, and my step-father. “Mom, Dad, Avena, Bellarosa, come stand beside me.”
None of them spoke, but they listened as they walked over. I did notice my mother had gotten rid of those horrid bangs of hers.
“I thought she wasn’t our friend, Mommy,” Gigi whispered, almost completely stretching across Ethan’s chest.
“She’s family. Say hi,” I whispered back. And I looked back at my own mother. “Your granddaughter is saying hello.”
Our eyes met, and I knew I wouldn’t see anything in them but fear. Just like I knew she didn’t come here to support me but to make sure I didn’t hurt her or her beloved daughters again. She leaned over and waved slightly to Gigi. But Gigi turned her head.
“Kids.” I shrugged.
“She’s just like you sometimes,” my grandfather replied.
When he stopped, everyone else in the family moved down, allowing him to stand at my side instead.
“Thank you. I take that as a compliment,” I replied before looking over to see Ethan’s family grumbling and fighting over where to stand, laughing and playfully pushing.
Ethan sighed, shaking his head as he watched. “Do you think you’ll be able to tame this lot someday?”
“Never,” I answered, and he shifted his attention to me with his eyebrow raised. But I didn’t answer…the difference was clear.
My family wasn’t a family. It was a group of scared strangers chained together with no way of ever breaking free. The only reason I demanded they be here was because of how it would look if they weren’t here.
“Okay, on three…one…two…”
“One big happy family,” my grandfather whispered.
“Three!”
I smiled wide for the camera. And I kept that smile on my face for so long that it should have hurt, but it didn’t. With each snap and flash of that camera, I felt myself growing colder and colder. The voices around me slowly became nothing more than background noise. In the foreground were the sounds of my own heart pounding and the air leaving my nose with each breath. I knew what this feeling was, and if it was happening now, it meant it was time.
“Calliope?”
I glanced up to find Ethan, and I stared into his green eyes. The world felt like it had frozen. Or was it just me?
Don’t say my name again. Let me stay like this. I wanted to, but as I watched his mouth open to speak, I exhaled and let go of his arm.
“Calli—”
“If you thought this dress made me beautiful, wait until I get back in my second one.” I smiled, stepping away, and pinched Gigi’s cheek. “Watch over Papa while I change, okay?”
“Yes, Mommy!” She grinned and hugged him as if she were going to hold him still. Nodding, I lifted my dress and walked back toward the doors.
“Maid of honor, are you coming?” I looked at Helen.
Wyatt made a face, but thankfully, Helen followed me without argument, lifting the back of my dress to help me through the doors; there Dino, held the door open for me. My eyes shifted to his, and he nodded.
“Truthfully, I was a little skeptical about this to begin with, but it’s really been a beautiful night,” she said as we walked up the stairs.
“Told you, you can trust me,” I replied, entering the elevator before her.
“Didn’t anyone ever tell you trust takes time? Even in normal families, let alone this one,” she stated, leaning against the elevator walls, looking over my dress carefully.
“No one had to tell me.” I smiled as we went down the hall. I’ve trusted no one since I was a child.
“Well, seeing as you want me to be close, excuse me while I say this,” she paused and turned to me.<
br />
I turned to look at her smooth, painless, unmarred brown face. “Go on…”
“Give us time,” she asked. “All of us…all of us have been through…a lot.”
“You don’t think I’ve been through a lot?”
She froze, paused, honestly thinking over her words carefully. How unlike the man she apparently loved. “I don’t know what you’ve gone through. I won’t pretend to, either. I just know what it’s like being a Callahan. Being raised as one, living as one…trying to stay one. You are family now, so you’ll see it eventually; you might already even know. But the rest of us, we are adjusting. Wyatt is abrasive because, well, he doesn’t want to lose anyone else. Give us time and—”
“What makes you think I can do that?”
“What?” Her eyebrows rose in confusion.
“Time waits for no one, Helen, so how can I give it to you?”
“I mean—”
“You mean that while the rest of the world has their guns and knives pointed at this house, at my husband, at me, at my daughter, at this family, I should somehow take out time from the little time I have on this earth to protect what is important to me. So, you all can sort out your feelings?” I chuckled, shaking my head and walking toward the guest room. “You’re funny, Helen.”
“I…”
“You’re serious, I know.” I exhaled deeply. “We really did grow up differently.”
“I can’t tell if you are upset or not.”
“Upset? Why would she be upset?”
We both turned and found Coraline there.
“No reason,” Helen lied, obviously. “What are you doing?”
She lifted an ibuprofen bottle. “Your father had a headache, and the maid couldn’t find the ones he likes.”
“He’s so picky,” Helen snickered.
“Right.” She shook her head. “Calliope, do you need help?”
“I’m fine,” I said, moving to open the bedroom door. “Actually, I lied. I left my other heels in my and Ethan’s room. Can you get them? I’ll start changing.”
“I’ll get them,” Helen replied, already rushing.
“They’re on the bottom shelf. Don’t touch anything else.”
“Of course.” She nodded.
I thought about what Ethan would do if he ever found anyone snooping around his personal things. Of course, she knew better.
“Your daughter is smart,” I said to Coraline as I reached behind myself to unhook the back of my dress.
“Of course she is. She’s my daughter,” she said proudly, helping me.
I brushed my hair over my shoulder as the dress fell to the ground and I stepped out of it, standing only in the white silk slip. “The necklace, too.”
“You’re changing jewelry, too?”
“The only thing that stays the same is the ring,” I said, lifting my hand and the red diamond on my finger. “Luckily, red goes with everything.”
“I thought that was white and black.”
“Nope. It just the shade of red that matters,” I muttered.
“If you say so. Where is your other dress?”
“Behind the closet door.”
“Hold on.”
Nodding, I went to the dresser, taking off my bracelet, watching in the mirror as she lifted the backless, white-silk wedding dress from the hook and took it to the bed.
“Simple, elegant, and beautiful,” she whispered as I opened the drawer, pulling out a thin sliver pocket knife. “You really are planning to make Ethan’s jaw drop.”
“Isn’t that the goal of every wife?” I asked, turning back to her.
“True.” She snickered, staring down at the dress. “I still have my dress. I tried to pick the most elegant and simple one because I wanted my daughter to wear it on her wedding day.”
“Have you told her that?”
“Helen never wants to cause trouble, so of course, she would do it. But I don’t want her to feel pressured. So, I never told her. I want her to wear the dress she wants to wear.”
“I promise you, she will,” I whispered, causing her to look at me.
“Calli—”
Her eyes widened, slowly her head dropped to look at the knife I’d just stabbed into her chest, the blood soaking through the champagne-colored dress she wore. When her eyes lifted back and met mine, all I could say was, “Thank you.”
Bang!
I heard the door burst open before the gunfire and immediately flipped, rolling over the bed, reaching underneath for the gun before popping up—gun draw at the one and only,
“Melody Nicci Giovanni Callahan…or should I say, hello, Mom.”
23
“How cruel,
your veins are full of ice water
and mine are boiling.”
~ Emily Brontë
CALLIOPE
Her olive-toned face was almost all red. She breathed in and out of her nose as if she were a wild bear, her brown eyes glistened over with hate, rage, determination…and pain. So much pain that her hand shook, and she grumbled.
“You. Will. Die. Today,” she hissed through clenched teeth as she stepped over Coraline’s body, as if she really thought she could save her.
“I know how I’m going to die, and it’s not today, nor is it going to be by you, Mom.”
Bang!
I ducked under the bed again, firing back once before tossing my gun away. I lunged at her, throwing her body into the vanity mirror. The glass shattered behind her. She kicked at me, and the force of her foot sent me backwards. She lifted the gun. Spinning on the ball of my foot, I kicked it from her hand, sending it flying.
“Let’s handle this like women,” I replied, lifting my fist. “I’ve always wondered how I’d actually match up against you one on one.”
“No need to fucking wonder; you are nowhere close to me, you ungrateful, greedy little bitch,” she sneered.
“We’ll just have—”
Before I finished my sentence, she spun on the ball off her foot just like I had done, bringing up her other leg to kick my head. She was so fast I barely dodged her before her fist connected with my chest. I spun out, punching her face only for her to hit right back. I threw my other arm, but she grabbed me with more force than I expected, shoving me back into the mirror. Shards of glass cut into my arm.
“You really were the best back then, weren’t you?” I snickered. Reaching up, I brushed the blood from the cut on my lip.
She didn’t answer. I could see in her eyes that she was not even close to satisfied. She pulled back her arm and unleashed her right fist, then suddenly changed up and moved to strike me with her left. A Melody special, which was why her eyes widened when I dodged it with ease, copying the same move and landing it so hard across her jaw that she stepped back. But she shook it off, fist for fist. Hit by hit.
She got a few in.
But not nearly as many as I did.
Grabbing her arm again like she had mine, I twisted it, flipped her, and threw her onto the ground.
“Ah!”
I didn’t stop until I heard her shoulder pop! Not that she cared. With her other hand, she grabbed the knife and stabbed my thigh.
“Fuck!” I hissed, letting her go.
Backing up, I yanked out the knife.
“Game over.”
“Do you even know what game you are playing?” I asked, glancing up to see my gun pointing at me, her black hair all over her face.
Her shoulder hung still at her side, cut and bruised all over. But still, she stood proud and cocky as hell. It was funny. I wondered how I looked to her…like everyone else she had ever brought down.
“You aren’t going to ask me why?” I said, lifting my hand.
“Don’t give a shit. You no longer fucking matter!” she nearly spat, and with a cruel smile, she said, “Or should I say, goodbye, daughter.” She fired.
When no bullet came, she finally realized.
“I only had one bullet in the gun.” I smiled, bending down to pi
ck up hers. “How many do you have, I wonder?”
Her eyes narrowed.
Bang!
“She usually has a full chamber.”
I grabbed my shoulder, dropping the gun, and the sheer force of the bullet nearly sent me to the ground. Instead, I stumbled back, bracing myself against the bedside table. The wound burned as it bled into my hand. Turning around, I glanced at the man who gave my Ethan his eyes. He stood tall with black hair graying on the sides, yet still entirely black on top. His face was almost exactly how I pictured Ethan’s to age. He held his gun up to me.
“I believe you owe my wife an apology for being so fucking disappointing,” he sneered, his eyes dropping down to Coraline’s body. “In fact, you owe us all more than a fucking apology! You owe us a life! So I will be taking it—”
Ring!
“You both know what that sound is, don’t you?” I asked with a smile, lifting my hand off the alarm.
Liam stepped forward again.
“I can see you think you’ll still get that shot in, that you can kill me right here. But you can’t. I’ve been dodging bullets my whole life. I’m not fucking dying—”
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
I grabbed the other gun from underneath the bed and fired at Liam’s leg.
“Fuck!” Liam hissed, grabbing her body.
“Kill her!”
“We have to go!”
“Kill her!”
I fired again.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
When the gunfire faded, I rushed after them. Melody fired as Liam fought to carry her. I hid behind the door before firing down the hall.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Running after them, I fired again when I heard it.
“Calliope!”
Spinning around, finger on the trigger, prepared to shoot, I saw Ethan, coming up at me with guns drawn. Dino on his left, Wyatt on the right, Uncle Neal and...my grandfather.
“Go after them!” I screamed at the rest of the hall I stumbled forward, grabbing my arm, before slumping over.
“Calliope!” Ethan grabbed me. “What—”