Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 71165 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71165 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Keeping my face expressionless I looked back at her. Then without warning something clicked in my head, and suddenly, I was nine years old again and we were both standing in my bedroom. She was laughing cruelly and holding out my favorite blue blouse with the colorful dogs on it. It was ripped. She had ripped it right in the middle.
And now, here she was, in all her bottle-blonde glory, at it again. She simply couldn’t bear for me to have anything she didn’t, not even the cheap blouse my mom had given to me before she died. And here she was again, holding out my ripped relationship… just because she couldn’t bear for me to have anything she didn’t.
But things were very different now. My beloved dad was gone forever. I didn’t need to protect him anymore. I forced the most confident smile I could muster on to my lips.
“The only person Steven Harriman loves is Steven Harriman, and you’re either stupid or deluded for imagining you’ll be anything more to him than I was.” I threw my head back and laughed. It sounded a bit crazy, but it was a real laugh, because it was true. He was as narcissistic as she was. She had finally met her match. They deserved each other.
“I’ll prove how wrong you are. You’ll see,” Tiffany promised heatedly.
I stopped laughing and stared at her. Her eyes were glittering with a strange light and her fingers were clawed as if she wanted to scratch my eyes out. I finally understood what I had never comprehended before. She was jealous of me. She always had been. Why, when she was the beautiful, loved one, I would never know.
Shocked by the intense hatred and insane rage, I’d glimpsed in her eyes, I jumped to my feet. I couldn’t wait for her to get out of my sight. I never wanted to see her again.
“Get out,” I snarled.
“With pleasure,” she cooed. The mask was back on her face. There was a satisfied smile on her face as she stood, then looked around my small apartment dismissively. “You should invest in some air freshener. The whole place of stinks of dog. Ugh. How can anyone live like this?”
“Get out,” I screamed.
Satisfied she had inflicted maximum pain on her victim, she sauntered out of my home, her head held high.
WILLOW
THREE MONTHS LATER
“I’m so sorry to have to tell you this, Willow, but Tiff and Steven are getting married,” Olivia, my half-sister informed gently. Her voice was full of pity.
I clamped my free hand over my mouth to stop any sounds. Thank God we were on the phone, and she couldn’t see my reaction. My knees suddenly felt like jelly and I quickly sat down. The taste of failure filled my mouth. All kinds of thoughts filtered into my mind unchecked.
Crazy, angry, negative thoughts.
I was wrong when I predicted their relationship would not work out. They seemed so different. He was commitment shy. She was hopelessly flighty. Based on her past behavior, I assumed she would break it off once the novelty of taking what was not hers wore off. She didn’t want my blue blouse; she just didn’t want me to have it.
It was just a matter of time.
But even in my worst nightmares, I’d never thought it would get this far. Tiffany had won again. She had proved me wrong and showed me that she could get and keep my man. They were actually getting married!
Still, to be fair, why wouldn’t she keep him? He was a good catch. Great career prospects, handsome in a boyish way, and there was something else that was very important to her. He came from a good family. A well-to-do family.
It hit me then that he must really want her too.
Steven and I were together for two years and marriage had never come into the conversation. He never even hinted of wanting it. His career came first. Everything was always about him.
With hindsight, I guess, I should have seen this coming when he left his high-powered job and moved to our small town in Wisconsin. I’d laughed when I heard that, thinking he wouldn’t last. Steven loved the city. There was no way he was going to last more than six months there.
I’d even imagined the scenario where he came knocking on my door and begged me to take him back. Telling me he did not realize how selfish she was. How she wouldn’t lift a finger to do any housework, how she always wanted to be waited on. In my head, I saw myself tell him to go fly a kite. Not only did I have my pride to consider, I could also never trust him again. The joke was on me. Instead of begging me to take him back, he was getting married to Tiffany.