Chapter 34 Thirty-Four

Chapter 34 Thirty-Four
Sydney
“How dare you?” She cried, her face twisting in horror.
“I don’t see why you should be proud of that.” Chairman Stanley scoffed, cleaning his mouth with a napkin. “Because from where I’m sitting, your primary responsibility is to my son and you’ve been failing at that for years now.”
“Dad…” Eric straightened in his usual pathetic way where he pretended like he was trying to defend me.
Of course, it was useless and his father spoke over him.
“No heir. No children. Just excuses and these ridiculous business trips to run a company Eric is already handling. And then you think you have something to be proud of when you can’t even give Eric what he needs.”
I flinched even though I’ve heard this before. In my first life, I’d absorbed every single barb mostly apologetic and blaming myself for not getting pregnant.
“You know what?” I set my bag down on the table. “I can’t believe I had such an exhausting trip just to come home and be harassed by my in-laws.”
“What home?” Yan snapped. “This is Eric’s house.”
I scoffed. “Actually, if you checked the deed, you’d have found both our names on it.”
Eric stood up, his eyes darting between my face and his sisters. There was panic in his face. I couldn’t tell if he was worried about me or just disturbed by the fact that I was speaking back.
“Syd, please, they were just…”
“Oh don’t beg her!” Yan waved him off, still stewing. “You know what I think Eric?” She turned to him raising a perfectly drawn brow. “I think a divorce might be the best option for everyone involved because clearly this marriage isn’t working and Eric deserves someone who can actually fulfil her duties as a wife.” She turned to me, a smirk on her face. “And you can go travel with whatever man you want to and claim it’s for a summit.” She said dryly making air quotes.
I should have been angry or hurt but all I felt was the cold satisfaction that she had taken the bait.
My lips curled in a smile. “You know what? I agree.”
The room went silent. Eric choked on his glass of wine, coughing and dropping the glass so quickly that some liquid spilled over the top.
“What?” He choked, his face going pale.
His mother reached to pat his back, shooting me a glare. I smiled at her.
“Don’t act surprised Eric. We’ve discussed this before. I agree with Yan, you know, a divorce is exactly what we both need.” I turned to her, enjoying the look of panic in those blue eyes. “Thank you for bringing it up Yan.”
“Sydney, I don’t think…” he stood up, his chair scraping the floor. “I don’t think we should be discussing this right now”
I shrugged. “I thought so too. I’m tired, I had a long weekend and now I come to my own home and I get insulted so they will have to leave.” I stared at their faces, enjoying them looking at each other in confusion.
“You cannot do that!” Yan sputtered.
I shook my head slowly pulling my most innocent face. “Oh, no. I won’t. Eric will.” I turned to him. He was slowly going red.
Who knew dangling his entire life in front of him would be so much fun? Smiling at them, I reached for my bags.
“Have a lovely day. I’ll be in the room Eric.”
Picking up my bags, I headed for the hallway, hearing Eric walking behind me.
“Sydney, Sydney, baby, wait…”
I didn’t slow down, hurrying towards the bedroom door.
His steps quickened, his voice becoming a little more frantic. “Sydney! Please just wait for a damn second!”
His hands caught my elbow and I froze. “We need to talk about this.” He hissed searching my face.
I glared at him. He was running his hands through his hair and if I didn’t know better, I would truly think he was worried.
“Talk?” I balked. “Like we talked about your family attacking me the second I walked in or something different?”
“I didn’t know they were coming. I swear!” His hands were sinking into my elbow and I was resisting every urge to swat them away. “Dad called this morning and they wanted to stop by. I didn’t think…”
“You never think, Eric. That’s exactly the problem.” I pulled my arm free.
I was about to turn away when I noticed his fingers curled into a fist and then relaxed. I almost chuckled watching him try to control his emotions. Maybe I could poke him further.
“They show up whenever they want, say whatever they want and you just let them.”
He shook his head. “That’s not fair, Sydney. I defended you…”
“When?” I cried, suddenly feeling weirdly emotional. Maybe it was because of how Bryce had defended me earlier but I couldn’t tell. “When have you ever actually defended me?”
“Sydney…I…” He trailed off, his mouth opening and closing.
“I thought as much.” I moved past him, heading towards the bedroom, and pushed the door open.
Throwing the bag on the bed, I unzipped it to begin unpacking. I heard his footsteps and turned to see him standing at the doorway like he wasn’t sure whether or not to enter.
“Sydney…”
“Name one time, Eric. One single time that you told your father to stop mocking me for not having children or one time you’ve asked your sister to treat me with basic respect!”
His jaw worked, and he rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s not that simple, Sydney and you know it.” He took a step inside, struggling to meet my eyes. I looked away, unpacking.
“Dad is…he has expectations you know like any parent about…”
“And I’m failing to meet those expectations.” I cut in, my chest heaving. “Yes, I’m aware. They remind me every chance they get.” I turned back to my back, dumping the clothes on the bed with more force than necessary.
He sighed and I looked up, narrowing my eyes at him. “Are they still downstairs?”
He froze.