IVY'S POV
"What was he doing here?" I muttered more to myself than to anyone else.
Nicholas mother stood up instantly, her chair scraping against the floor with a sharp finality that cut through the silence like a blade, and her eyes found Nicholas immediately as she pointed toward him in restrained fury,
"This is all your fault, Nicholas… you should not have brought that girl home," she began, but then corrected herself sharply as if even the mistake of naming him incorrectly was beneath her control, "Nicholas… you should not have brought that girl home," and the way she said it made my stomach tighten because there was something in her voice that sounded less like concern and I almost choked on my meal at the spot.
