Fox's Glade scream at the top of your lungs

It would've been easier to just stay in the flow of being happy-and-pretending, but it was too late now -- her ploy had fallen through and Valette had heard her grumping about anyway. She'd seen the real Laurel. Laurel was actually kind of glad that Valette agreed with her that Xan was pretty much an intolerable jerk, because the last thing she needed right now was someone jumping to his defence.

It surprised Laurel that Valette didn't remember what it was like to live with Xan. Hadn't they grown up together? The answer probably lay somewhere in the fact their parents had split up. Just like Xan and princess dumb-ass had. At least Laurel had never been Xan's mate, which she decided to tell herself was better than believing in his goodness for too long. "Maybe that isn't the worst idea," Laurel admitted. She'd often fantasised of running away. Maybe it would make everything better if she just left. No more Xan, no more hope, no more nothing. It wasn't like he was giving her a lot of attention as things were, anyway. He'd pretty much ignored her since she had her pups, and whenever she'd seen him it was mostly that he wanted to see the pups, not her.

As for what he had done, oof. "Where do I even start?" Laurel said rhetorically and with a touch of drama to her voice. "He's never been there for me, ever. I told him I loved him and he basically just didn't respond at all. And he's ignored me since then, whenever I see him it's only because he wants to see his kids." He just didn't get it, and he especially didn't get her, and Laurel was pretty through with being ignored and ditched.