Chapter 105: Spaghetti and Payback
Chapter 105: Spaghetti and Payback
Vivian’s POV"You’re killing me! I can’t breathe! Oh my goddess, my baby!" Hannah wheezed through uncontrollable laughter, clutching her stomach like it might actually split from sheer joy.
I rolled my eyes at her theatrics, but a laugh slipped past my lips anyway. I tossed another grape into my mouth and watched her gasp for air like she was about to pass out on the rug.
"You really left him? Chained? Alone in the room with just a laptop?" she managed to get out, barely able to form actual words between cackles. "Beyoncé might be Queen B, Zaliver might be some almighty god, but you, you’re my damn hero. All hail Queen V!"
She bowed dramatically from where she sat on the couch, her hand rising and falling like she was worshiping at my feet.
"Queen V?" I asked, arching a skeptical brow while adjusting my spot on the footstool and crossing my legs.
"Queen Vengeance," she declared proudly, a wicked smirk on her face.
I tilted my head back and burst into full laughter. "That’s actually kind of perfect."
"I thought so." She gave me a sly little wink. "God, I missed you while you were off doing goddess-knows-what. And since you basically kidnapped my brother, I had no one else to annoy except Mark. Poor guy’s redecorated the nursery like five times now."
Her voice softened near the end, and the shift in tone made my smile falter just a bit. It had been so long since I’d felt light enough to laugh like this. Hannah was probably the only person I didn’t hold some bitter grudge against lately. She just... grounded me.
"How’s Mark?" I asked, keeping my voice light but genuinely curious. Her eyes darted away from mine as she grabbed a grape and chewed it slowly, deliberately.
"Hannah," I said in warning, eyeing her closely, "where is Mark?"
She gave me an innocent shrug and a sheepish grin. "Running to get more paint... so he can redo the room again."
I stared at her for a beat, then grabbed a grape and lobbed it right at her head. "You are the worst."
"Correction," she said, catching a second grape deftly with her mouth as I threw it, "I’m hilarious."
Her bright laughter rang through the room like a melody, light and utterly contagious. I couldn’t help but join in, shaking my head at her antics.
"Hey, I torture my mate. You torture yours," she said with a teasing wink.
That made me snort out loud. "Touché."
We both paused when the television volume suddenly spiked. A commercial was playing: one of those prescription ads filled with impossibly happy people doing mundane things in slow motion. I started giggling.