I Swear I Still Hate Him (Atlas Lawson) novel Chapter 200

Chapter 200

Emery’s POV

If eyes could kill, I’d have been dead before the eggs hit the table.

Daisy had been glaring at me all through breakfast, and I mean all through from the moment Sophie set down the orange juice to the last piece of toast, and at this point, I was genuinely concerned she was going to strain something. Dad was going on about some new car he’d been looking at, completely unbothered, and Atlas had his hand under the table, rubbing slow circles on my thigh, which was honestly doing more damage to my concentration than Daisy’s death stare ever could.

Which was probably why I wasn’t the least bit bothered by it.

Daisy cleared her throat.

“Em, honey…” The switch to sweet was instantaneous. She set down her coffee cup with both hands wrapped around it, tilting her head with a smile that belonged on a Christmas card. “Would you want to come with me to pick up some seedlings for the garden? I’d ask the gardener, but you know how I get about my specific picks.”

I looked at her.

She looked back at me.

Sure. Like she wanted seedlings. Like this wasn’t her angling for thirty minutes alone with me somewhere she could bury me in a flowerbed and tell everyone I wandered off and got eaten by a coyote. Whatever story suited her best.

“I mean…” I picked up my glass. “Sure.”

Atlas glanced at me sideways, and I gave him a small smile so he wouldn’t read into it.

Here’s the thing. A younger version of me would have said no. The version that was nineteen and terrified of saying the wrong thing and desperate to be liked and good and perfect would have backed down the second she felt the pressure. That version of me lost ten years because she was too scared to hold onto what she wanted.

I was done being that girl.

If Daisy wanted us alone, then fine. We’d be alone, and I’d look her dead in the eyes and say what I should have said at that restaurant. I love your son. I’m going to be with your son. And I really hope you can find a way to be okay with that, because I meant it. I genuinely wanted us to get there. I wanted to walk into this house and not feel like I was navigating a minefield every time she looked at me.

So yeah. Seedlings. Let’s go.

The garden store was bright and smelled like fresh soil, and I had maybe three seconds of thinking okay, this might actually be fine, before Daisy turned around near the back of the store and said….

“Oh, Em…this is Lucy.”

A brunette stepped forward from behind a display of hanging baskets. Pretty girl. Big smile. The kind of smile that was working very hard.

“Lucy is my friend Dana’s daughter,” Daisy said warmly, hand going to Lucy’s arm like they were old friends. Then she turned that smile on me. “Lucy, this is Emery…Atlas’s sister.”

She let the last word sit there.

Chapter 200

4.59

30-vouchers

Just sat it right down between us and left it.

I felt it hit somewhere in my sternum but I kept my face completely still. Didn’t flinch. Didn’t blink. Just held her gaze for one flat second before turning to Lucy with a smile that matched Daisy’s energy for energy.

“Hey, nice to meet you.”

“You too!” Lucy’s eyes were bright and genuine, completely unaware she’d just been used as a prop. “You’re so much prettier in person.”

“Thanks,” I said simply.

“Okay!” Daisy clapped her hands together lightly, already turning toward the flower displays. “Let’s find our seedlings.”

The next fifty minutes, and yes I am saying fifty minutes because I counted – were filled with giggling.

And no, not from me. From Daisy and Lucy.

They floated around that garden store like they were starring in some mother-daughter feel-good commercial. Whispering. Laughing. Leaning in close over tiny plants like the seedlings were telling them stand-up jokes.

Meanwhile, I was left to trail behind them holding a basket and pretending I wasn’t deeply unimpressed. Honestly, that part was fine. I had no interest in fake-laughing over tomato starters and basil leaves.

And their jokes?

Made no damn sense.

At one point, Lucy laughed so hard over something Daisy said about lavender that I genuinely wondered if I’d blacked out and missed the funny part.

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