Read Edge of Love for Free Online Page A

could teach you,”
my father said. “I’m not going anywhere anytime soon.”
    I rolled my eyes. “Let’s save this
business talk for another night.”
    My mom looked at him. “What would you
rather discuss? How about Penelope?”
    I rolled my eyes again. My mom was
like a treasure hunter. She wouldn’t stop until she found what she
wanted. “Drop it.”
    I could tell how annoyed my mom was by
my resistance. “Why won’t you just tell us, Sean? We’re your
family. We aren’t going to judge you. Did she break up with
you?”
    Mike smiled at me. “Yeah. What
happened, Sean?”
    I wanted to punch my brother in the
face. He already knew what happened because Christian, the man
Penelope cheated on me with, worked with him. He was just trying to
cause me problems. He was stirring the pot.
    My mom continued her assault. “You
tell your brother everything and he doesn’t know? Come on, Sean.
Spill it.”
    I set my glass down and rose to my
feet.
    My dad already knew what I was going
to say. He sighed. “Dear, look what you did.”
    I ignored his comment. “Scarlet and I
are tired from our trip this afternoon. We’re going to bed.” I
grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet.
    My mom sighed. “You don’t have to
leave.”
    I held Scarlet’s hand within my own
and pulled her across the living room, heading to the grand
staircase in the other room. “Goodnight.”
    It was already late here in
Connecticut, but it was only nine in our time zone. Neither one of
us were tired, but I wanted to get away from my family. I never had
such a bad family trip and I just needed to get away. I felt like I
couldn’t escape, however. When we got back to our room, I knew
Scarlet would start arguing with me. Still, it was the lesser of
two evils.
    As soon as we walked into our bedroom,
she started the assault.
    “ Sean, I’m sorry, but let
me explain myself.”
    I grabbed a sweater from my bag and
threw it on. I held up a hand to her then glared at her. “Just shut
up, Scarlet.”
    Her eyes lit up in flames. I could
tell how angry she was. “Sean, don’t be a fucking asshole and just
listen to me. When I turned around—”
    “ Save it.”
    “ Sean—”
    “ I asked you to do one
thing. One fucking
thing . And you couldn’t even do that?” I
walked toward the door and placed my hand on the
doorknob.
    “ Where the hell are you
going?”
    “ I’m getting away from
you.”
    She grabbed my arm and pulled me
toward her. I yanked my arm away and stared her down. I was furious
with her. I had never been angrier. It was a situation that could
have been avoided easily. I made one simple request and she
couldn’t honor it.
    “ Stop being an asshole and
just listen to me.”
    “ No.”
    “ Sean, I’m sorry. It won’t
happen again.”
    “ It doesn’t matter if it
doesn’t happen again. It shouldn’t have happened at all.” I turned
back toward the door.
    “ You can’t just walk away
every time we fight. Marriages don’t work like that.”
    “ Well, thank god we aren’t
married.”
    She slapped me across the face. The
collision of her palm against my cheek stung, and I felt my anger
increase tenfold. She was lucky that I refused to hit
women.
    “ Don’t ever talk to me
like that.” Her eyes softened in pain. I knew her reaction stemmed
from the fact that I removed her ring. She was afraid I was going
to leave her again. That just pissed me off even more. I admit that
I fucked up before, but I had proven myself to her already. She
could trust me. Right now, she wasn’t the trustworthy
one.
    “ Fuck you,
Scarlet.”
    “ Do you want me to slap
you again?”
    I knew she wasn’t bluffing. “I’m
leaving. Don’t follow me.”
    “ Well, I’m going to. Where
you go, I go.”
    I marched to her and grabbed her by
both arms. “Stay in this room. If you want to make up for your
earlier behavior, then do as I ask. Don’t leave this
room.”
    She twisted her arms away. “I’m not a
dog.”
    “ I mean