Total pages in book: 184
Estimated words: 186756 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 934(@200wpm)___ 747(@250wpm)___ 623(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 186756 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 934(@200wpm)___ 747(@250wpm)___ 623(@300wpm)
I’m engaged.
I’m engaged.
Holy fuck, I’m engaged.
To my best friend. To the man who loves me, but I don’t love him back.
What if this is the wrong decision?
I mean, it has the makings of a wrong decision. People should be in love when they get engaged. They should be enthusiastic and happy and filled with joy.
They shouldn’t be like me.
They should not be looking at their ring and wondering if—when—their fiancé is going to regret it. What if he tries to fix everything but things can’t be fixed? What if I can’t be fixed?
What if I’m doomed to love him—the wrong twin—for the rest of my life?
So in the midst of all this, I forgot that my mother was here as well. My dad too. But my dad’s way of dealing with me is to let my mom deal with me, so I don’t think he’ll personally be approaching me. He’s already engaged in a heavy discussion with Shepard and Coach Thorne.
My mother reaches out for my hand and strokes the ring. “That’s a big diamond. Wonder how much he spent on it.”
I try to take my hand back, but she doesn’t let me go. “Thanks. I’ll let him know you like it.”
Still stroking the ring, she looks up. “Please also give him my condolences.”
I stiffen. “I’m… I’m sorry?”
Keeping her face neutral and pleasant, she squeezes the ring into my finger. “He’s marrying a girl who’s going to ruin his life.”
I grimace from the pain. “M-mom, you’re… I’m not going to r-ruin him.”
She increases the pressure, making me almost hiss with the pain. “I think you are.”
I try to pull away from her. “Mom, please. I—”
“Because you’re fucking his twin brother behind his back”—she mashes the ring into my finger—“aren’t you?”
I’m so shocked, so fucking jolted at what she just said to me that the pain doesn’t even register for a second or two.
I go numb.
“What?” I ask in a small voice.
“Does he know?”
“I…”
“I bet he doesn’t.”
“There’s nothing—”
“Because if he did”—she keeps twisting the ring into my finger, her sharp nails digging into my skin—“he probably wouldn’t have spent this much on a ring.”
Pain slams back into my body and tears well up in my eyes. “I-I’m not… I haven’t done anything with h-him.”
Her eyes flash with hatred. “But you want to.”
I shake my head, trying to break free from her grip. “N-no, I don’t… I’m—”
She leans closer to me and hisses. “This is why. This is exactly why I wanted you to stay away from the team. I wanted you to stay away from the players. I knew you’d pull something like this. I knew it.”
“I promise I’m not doing anything. I won’t do anything. I—”
She tugs at my hand, pulling me closer, her eyes heated. “If you haven’t, then you will. Because that’s who you are. Because you’re an attention whore. You crave attention. You steal attention. You stole it the day you were born. From me. I was lying there, barely alive and bloody, and my husband—the man I loved, the man I finally thought would love me back—was more concerned with you. He was more concerned with your cries and your freaking coos. And it only got worse from there. Every time you’d cry, he’d come running. Every time you threw a tantrum, he’d give you everything your heart desired. It took me years to pull him away from you, years to show him your true colors. To show him that we made a mistake. That we never should have had you. That I’m supposed to be the love of his life, not you. Because you’re exactly like my mother. Everyone was so enamored by her too. My father lived for her. He loved her more than he ever loved me. My husband was supposed to be my person. He was supposed to love me the most but then you came and ruined all that. You come between people. You came between your father and me. And now you’re going to come between brothers. You’re going to ruin both their lives.”
“Is that… Is that why”—I lick my lips, my voice sounding so childish—“you don’t love me? Is that why Daddy won’t speak to me?”
“Your daddy won’t speak to you because he knows what kind of a daughter he has. And now you’re going to show the entire world what kind of a slut you are.”
I shake my head. “Mom, listen, I—”
“No,” she snaps, her nails feeling like needles now, that ring almost fused to my skin. “You listen to me: it’s done. You’re engaged. To the captain of the team, no less. Do you know what that means? It means more press, more media. You’re in the public eye, more than you ever were. And if you screw up, if you create a scandal and make a joke of our family, you’re not the only one who’ll regret it. I’ll make sure that your lover boys regret it too.”