Each photo pierced me like a needle.
And just as I lifted my gaze, there they were, standing in the doorway.
Stanley had his arm wrapped around her as he ordered, “Give me a hand. She’s drunk.”
He ordered me around as if it were the most natural thing in the world, as if our fight earlier had never happened.
So I didn’t move. Instead, I pointed at the stack of boxes behind me.
“You’ve got five minutes to clear out this trash,” I said coldly. “Including her.”
Darlene, her face flushed from alcohol, clung to his chest with a wounded look.
“There’s no need to be so harsh,” Stanley scolded. “Those portraits were for her mother. Before she passed away, her only wish was to see her daughter get married.”
Avery's POV
“It was just to make her mother happy? Then why take it so seriously?” I snapped.
Darlene’s eyes were red as she nodded pitifully. “I only wanted my mom to leave this world feeling at peace. I remember listing my home address on it, but somehow the photos ended up being delivered here, to Mr. Haynes’s house instead. Please don’t be angry. It wasn’t his fault…”
Her voice trembled, weak and tearful, dripping with grievance. Standing across from her, I looked like the unreasonable one, like I was just picking a fight.
I snapped. “You graduated from a top university, and you can’t even write down your own address correctly? What’s in your head, nothing but water? Fine. If neither of you can bear to deal with this, I will.”
I spun around, grabbed a pair of scissors, and slashed through the wedding posters and albums. One by one, I smashed the framed photos and displays against the floor, cutting the images to shreds.
“No! Avery, please! I can take these with me!”
Barehanded, Darlene tried to shield the photos, but my scissors caught her hand, leaving a long cut across her palm.
Her sharp cry sliced through the air, snapping Stanley out of his drunken haze.
He rushed forward, fury burning in his eyes, and shoved me aside. As a result, I lost my balance and fell back, and my hand landed in shards of broken glass.
“Avery! Enough!” he shouted. “You're always throwing things, smashing things, and hurting someone! Do you even know how to act like a woman?”
Then came the dagger.
“Darlene’s mother just passed away. You’ve lost your mother, too. Can’t you show her a little compassion?”
His words pierced straight through me.
My mother’s death was the greatest regret of my life.