Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 78093 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78093 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
My body tingles, my heart jack-hammering in my chest. Her fear is like my own personal brand of heroin and I’ll do anything I can to get another hit.
“Stay, and I'll make you wish you never met me. One way or another, I’ll send you back to your daddy. I’ll make you pay...”
The song ends right then, and I release her like she’s a venomous snake that’ll strike at any second, refusing to give in to the need burning through me, the need to make her hurt, to feel my pain. Turning around, I stalk off the dance floor and back over to Clark, who is smiling like a fucking asshole. I hate her, but I also want her.
I grab my beer from him and down the entire thing at once. I don’t want to see her face again. I can’t handle seeing her play the innocent little girl when I know all too well that she’s a liar. A beautiful one at that.
Chapter Three
Ava
What the hell was that?
My whole body is shaking as I watch Vance walk away. I’m not sure what I expected our first interaction to be like, but it certainly wasn’t like that. My hand is still warm from where he was holding onto it and I think he burned a hole in my dress where he was touching my hip.
Why is he so angry with me?
I’ve been watching him from afar all day. Too scared to talk to him after so long. It didn’t take but one look for me to know that the boy I had known since I was a young child was no longer a boy, but now a man.
A dark, broody, man that apparently had it out for me. His warning rung inside my head. Disdain dripped from his words, there was venom in his eyes and he wanted to inject me with it, but why?
I couldn’t take my eyes off of him, or forget the way he looked down at me during our dance. The image will forever be ingrained in my mind, and I don’t understand why. He’s handsome as sin, his hair the same russet brown, but cut shorter on the sides and longer on top. His jaw is sharp, and his cheekbones are high. And those green eyes of his, seem darker now, holding secrets that I plan to expose. Obviously time has been good to him, he looks like he walked off the cover of a GQ magazine.
Shaking my head, I will the images away. Trying to forget how it felt when he touched me. Those butterflies I got in my stomach all those years ago, it felt like there was an entire zoo of them taking up residence inside me. His sudden hate for me is nothing but confusing. It should be me who is mad, not him. I’ve lost everything, and he...he got it all. Just like Henry and my mother, he got everything he wanted.
The poor boy he used to be, the one with nothing had everything now, and the roles were reversed. The girl who once upon a time, had it all, had nothing.
People start to flood back onto the dance floor, and I realize that I’m still standing in the middle of the room. Everyone joins in to celebrate the happy couple and I force my lips to pull into a smile as I smooth a nervous hand down the front of my dress.
I feel dizzy, drunk, and all from one simple dance.
It takes me a moment to compose myself and get my legs to start moving again, but once they do, I find my way out of the crowd, walking toward the bridal party table. I look around, trying to find my mother in the sea of bodies, but all I see is hundreds of faces that I don’t know.
All my fears start to trickle into my mind. A knot forms in my throat. I’ve never felt so out of place in my life. Like a flower in a sea of weeds, I stick out, drawing unwanted attention.
I heard some of the guests whispering about me, about how my mother only married for money, and how my father was a drunk. Their words stung even if they weren’t directly said to me. It almost hurt more that they said them behind my back.
Trying to soothe the ache in my chest, I remind myself that I’m not here for anyone else, but still Vance’s warning isn’t something I can just shake off. Surely he didn’t mean what he had said? Maybe he was joking? Yeah, I don’t think so...
I glance around the room again, silently searching for him, but he’s nowhere in sight. And suddenly I’m reminded of why I never should’ve agreed to come here.
Everyone around me seems to be having the time of their lives, drinking, dancing, and singing while I’m standing in a corner of the room alone. I don’t need anyone to tell me that this isn’t where I belong, that this isn’t where I should be. Vance and my mother have already proven that tonight. And yet I have nowhere else to go, nowhere else to be. And somehow, I wish my past was my present. Where Vance and I were friends again. Where my parents were still together, and I had never discovered the one secret that shattered my world.