The Bridal Agreement

Chapter 14

*✩Tampa, Florida

❀ Keith's POV

I down my third glass of scotch and pour myself another glass, all the while turning Noelle's wedding ring in my hand.

She took it off.

“You know, all you need to do is ask and Yuri will gladly put you out of your misery” Noelle's brother chuckles beside me.

I ignore him. It was bad enough that I couldn't hit him. Now it's like he was using it against me.

“What? Cat's got your tongue?” he chuckles again.

“What are you, five?” I finally ask, not even bothering to look at him. “My daughter wouldn't even act as immature as you are right now”.

He laughs and I ignore him.

“Why are you even still here anyway?” I ask again, finally facing him with a scowl.

“Woah, relax!” he lets out, hands up in surrender. “I'm not the angry brother-in-law. Yuri is”.

“You know I can hear you, right? I'm seated right here” Noelle's cousin calls out from across the living room.

I roll my eyes.

“And the real question is... why are you keeping us around?”.

I give him a look.

“I'm not”.

“Really?”.

“Yes really” I frown.

“Because if you really didn't want us around, you would have thrown us out. But we both know why that hasn't happened”.

My mother would kill me.

“Please enlighten me” I say to him.

He smiles.

“Because you have no friends”.

My face slightly falls and I turn away from him.

“You drove off the last person who considered you a friend”.

I put the ring inside my pocket and step away from the wet bar, slowly sipping my scotch this time.

“And how is that your problem, Remington?”.

He shrugs.

“I'm just being observant”.

“Well if I need to see a psychologist, I'll go to a professional” I let him know. “Now can you leave me alone?”.

“Whatever you say, man. But scotch isn't going to bring my sister back so if you think drinking yourself to death is ideal, you might wanna go with something stronger”.

I frown at him as he walks away.

“What's your problem anyway?!” I cry out.

He turns.

“Oh, I'm not the one with the problem, Keith. You are!” he shouts back. “Look at yourself! And you're supposed to be making an effort to look for my sister? This is the level of responsibility my niece and nephew deserve from their father?!”.

His loud voice rings in my ears and I shut my eyes.

“Don't yell at me” I warn.

“Oh, why? Is that going to make you a man enough to accept your responsibilities?! Is it going to make you see that all of this is your fault and no one else's? And it is not okay to pin the blame on Kimberly when all she did was what you were supposed to do with my sister the second she arrived. But you're not man enough to make your marriage work. No wonder my sister wants out!”.