Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 67355 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 269(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67355 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 269(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
“My father’s family have been staples in this community since the 19th century. So with the Champion name, comes come the burden of being great and setting yourself above others. I felt that weight from the moment I was born. My father was in his 70s when he married my mother. She was in her 20s and she worked as a receptionist at his law firm. Keep in mind, my father was already married to his third wife at the time. At the time he met my mother he was still childless and I think he wanted someone to carry on his legacy.”
“I found out he’d had a son with his first wife but the boy drowned. I think that’s why he made sure I could swim from an early age. Anyway, my mother saw and opportunity and got close with my father and became pregnant with me. Because he wanted a child, he divorced his wife and married my mother. Once she had the Champion name, she cultivated an image for herself as some grand lady even though she grew up in a trailer park.”
“My father doted on her and basically allowed her to handle all the decisions regarding me. I was supposed to be a reflection of her. I can’t remember the last time I was allowed to choose my friends. If she didn’t approve of someone I was told to have no contact with them and when I defied her there were consequences. I had a best friend named Pedro in elementary school whose parents were immigrants. She told me to stop hanging around him but I didn’t listen. She found out that Pedro’s father didn’t have the correct documents to stay in the country and contacted INS on Pedro’s family.”
Zora gasps. “That’s awful.”
“That’s not the worst things she’d done. She had my dog killed, fired staff that I got too close to, messed with my friends’ parent’s livelihoods if she didn’t approve of me getting close to them. And she would always find out who I hung around. She had spies everywhere. So when I met you, I knew she wouldn’t approve. But that first day of orientation, I spent as much time with you as possible relishing that day and knowing it would be the only chance I would get to be close to you.”
Zora furrows her brow. “I remember that. You were really cool and I never understood why you switched up on me.”
“When I found out your father owned the diner on the other side of town, I’d ride my bike there for a chance to catch a glimpse of you.”
“I…I didn’t know.”
“I tried to be discrete about it but somehow my mother found out. She asked me about you and I made up some excuse about me liking the food there. I think she knew I was lying and she just casually mentions how she has some developer friends looking to build where your father’s diner was. That was my only warning. I would have hated myself if something were to happen to you or your family. So I distanced myself from you. But all it did was fuel my obsession.”
“It drove me crazy not being able to be close to you and whenever I saw you get friendly with another guy, I snapped. I was so fucking jealous I couldn’t breathe and that’s probably where you got the idea of me isolating you from other people. I didn’t mean for you to be shunned but I clearly didn’t think things through. Some people around me interpreted my behavior as signaling that you were persona non grata. That wasn’t my intention. If you think back, I never acted that way if you were interacting with other girls. Just the guys.”
Zora plops back down in her seat. “You idiot,” she whispers. Maybe you didn’t realize how catty high school girls can be most of them started picking on me to impress you.”
“And I take responsibility for that. I couldn’t outright defend you without raising suspicion because like I said, my mother has spies everywhere. I’d get my revenge in other ways. When Darren Hicks sprayed soda on you, I got him back later in gym class. We were playing basketball, I pretended to go for a rebound and I ended up bringing my elbow down on his face. Broke his nose. And I found out that Barbie Smith was the one who started the rumor about you eating out of trash cans. I made sure the entire school found out that she was sucking the math teacher’s dick to get a passing grade.”
She grimaces. “I remember that. That teacher got fired and I think Barbie was so embarrassed she was sent to boarding school.”
“That teacher deserved to get fired and go to serve jail time.”