"He is the asshole. He is the one who hurt Tess, who abandoned her, who tore her fucking heart out with his inability to pull his head out of his ass. And to keep his dick in his pants. He is the one who hurt her and yet somehow I'm was the bad guy because I won't forgive him? Because I called him out on it? It's bullshit. Total fucking bullshit."

"It's not fair." Adita said calmly, nodding beside her like she'd done for the last twenty minutes. "But none of this is. And you know we-"

"Yes I know we hurt her too." Vivienne snapped, rolling her eyes when her friend passively raised her hands. "But that's different."

"Why?"

"Are you serious?"

"Yes." Adita replied, briefly mimicking the incredulous look she was giving her. "She forgave us. Why can't you forgive him?"

"Because we were there. He wasn't. He didn't even try to be. So why is everyone giving him a free pass?"

"Only David and I did that. The others are just not as aggressive as you."

"He deserves it. He deserves worse."

"What do you care about more, hurting him or loving Tess? She deserves happiness and he brings her that. So for her sake, calm your tits. Starting now."

"Why now?"

Adita just smiled but when Vivienne followed her gaze her lips curled. Because across the courtyard were Kim Burgess, Vanessa Rojas and Hailey Upton.

One of those women she liked.

The other two she did not.

Kim gave them an awkward but still genuine smile, Vanessa a wary but trying to be nice nod and Hailey… her eyes lit up when she saw them and not in a way she liked. And she really didn't like the way the other woman picked up her pace when she picked up hers to get into the tower ahead of them. She supposed it was nice they'd come to see Tess, it wasn't like she didn't have any friends in the city but she had trouble getting close to people, plus most of them were men. She needed more girl friends in her life. Vivienne didn't.

"You can walk as fast as you want but I'm going to find a way to talk to you." The blonde called after her, the usual crowd who hung out in the lobby looking over curiously before they quickly looked away.

"I am not interested in listening to you stand up for dickless."

"I want to talk about Tess."

"I am even less interested in hearing what you have to say about her."

A garbled mess of words that all the dialects she knew couldn't translate had her stopping, turning to look at her with raised brows. "What the fuck language was that?"

Hailey flushed, she was a proud woman but if she wanted to talk to her she was going to have to put her ego aside. Which she realized because she slowly repeated herself and though her accent was atrocious Vivienne recognized the Hebrew and her blood instantly went cold.

I should have just died.

The words ran through her mind on repeat, her rage so strong she actually saw red. There was a very limited number of people she could have heard those words from and only one moment she could think of where she could have been close enough to hear them.

And only one person who would have said it.

"If you-"

"I'm not judging her." Hailey said quickly, putting her hands up the same way Adita had which made her hackles lower- a little. "I get that I know very little about their relationship and even less about what she's been through but I do know that no one deserves to feel that way."

That wasn't true. The world was full of evil people who deserved to feel every ounce of their shame, to be crushed beneath it.

But not Tess.

And to think that something she had done had made her feel that way?

For a second Vivienne felt like she was going to be sick, and then maybe like she was going to punch the woman in front of her, an anger she cooled with a slow breath.

Mostly.

"Do you understand that you are part of the reason she feels that way?"

The blonde woman swallowed heavily but nodded. "Yes."

"Do you feel bad about that?"

She clearly didn't appreciate being doubted but Viv held her stare until she nodded again. "Yes."

"Good. Because whatever issues you have with him, they are not her fault. Got it?"

One more nod and she turned to go, slow enough that she and the others would know they could follow her and flipping her finger when Adita made a comment about narrowly avoiding bloodshed. The truth was that was all Vivienne wanted- almost. What she wanted more was for her friend to be okay and there wasn't anything she wouldn't do to make that happen.

That it might make her life more okay wasn't something she was willing to concede.

Yet.