Even now, the details are blurred, but seeing Gabriella’s life had tipped me over the edge.
During the years spent with Blake, I’d clung to the hope that she was working on getting me out, as she told me when I was younger. Though, as I walked through the door and saw her dressed in a form-fitting silver gown, so beautiful and radiant, something had shattered inside of me.
Because I’d been holding onto a lie.
While mingling with guests, her hand proudly placed in the crook of Lawrence’s arm, her smile dropped when she saw me. Excusing herself from Lawrence and his friends, she rushed over and grabbed my arm.
“What the hell are you wearing?” she hissed venomously, pulling me upstairs and down the hall. “You look like a whore.”
I was wearing a black dress with heels. I knew it was short, but it was the best item in my wardrobe of other terrifying outfits. We ended up in Elise’s bedroom, leaving me standing in the middle of the room, she yanked open the closet.
“I’m sorry,” I muttered, not able to comprehend how much of a stranger she was to me then. How…distant.
She wasn’t trying to get a life for me. Us. She was living in it by herself and had been for a while. “Wipe that lipstick off your face and put this on.” She shoves something at me, but I can’t look down to see what, my heart shattering. “When you come downstairs and meet Lawrence and Elise, do not tell them about the…way you live or who you live with. If they ask, you were living with your father, who kept you from me as punishment for leaving him.”
She was about to walk away when I asked, “What about Nicole?”
She stopped in the doorway and glanced over her shoulder at me, her response was so detached I wondered where the hell my mother had gone. “Who is Nicole?”
With that, she walked out, leaving me staring after her with my heart on the floor. And I knew she was no longer the mother I knew.
As I was about to unzip my dress, there was a knock. A young man with hair the color of sand and light eyes barged in before I could tell him I was in there.
“Oh.” He stopped when he saw me standing in the middle of the room. “I’m sorry. I was looking for my girlfriend. This is her room.”
I swallowed, my throat closing in, not knowing what to say or do. “Um…”
His eyes searched my face, as if he were trying to figure out something. “You look familiar. Have we met?”
“No,” I replied, my heart beating in my chest as he took a step into the room. “I’m…I’m Gabriella’s daughter. I lived with my dad.”
“Right.” He clicks his fingers. “You’re the girl Elise was talking to me about. Hannah, is it?”
“Heidi,” I replied, cheeks flaming.
“I’m Scott, Elise’s boyfriend. Have you met her yet?”
“N-no.” I shook my head. “I only arrived. I was just changing.”
“Why?” His eyes skimmed my body in a way that made my stomach coil. “I think you look much better in that dress.” My head bowed to focus on the ground. I didn’t hear his footsteps on the soft carpet until I saw his shoes. Then his finger was beneath my chin, lifting my head. He licked his lips and smiled again. His eyes were so light. So blue. “In fact, I think you look rather sexy.” My face seared. “But I suppose we don’t want the birthday girl’s new little sister showing her up. Here, let me help you get changed.”
I pulled away. “No.”
“Why?”
I couldn’t swallow, knowing this was wrong. “I should go—”
“Wait.” He grabbed my arm before I could walk away. While his grip wasn’t tight, it stopped me from leaving like I should have. “It’s okay. We’ll be family one day, and family helps each other. You wouldn’t want to upset Elise after kindly inviting you tonight, would you?”
“We can’t,” I whispered, wanting to tell him it would be dangerous if he touched me. Wanting to tell him that there would be a target on his back. Consequences.
But I didn’t.
I tried hard not to think of Elise, a stranger to me, as he took my hand and pulled me out onto a balcony. I tried not to think about what I was doing as he pulled the curtain across to hide us if someone were to walk into the room. I knew what was about to happen, yet I didn’t run. Didn’t stop it.
His hands found the straps to my dress, his touch sending shivers down my spine. I was cold; the cool, nighttime breeze ghosted my skin on the secluded balcony. He took his time taking my arms out of the straps, and once they were free, pulled down the top of my dress, exposing my breasts.
He sucked in a breath. “Where did you come from?”
My shoulders trembled as he placed his hands on the tops of them. It wasn’t a nice feeling when he squeezed them, tweaking my nipples until they were solid.
He pushed me down to my knees, and I let him. Watched him as he undid his pants, eyes clouded with desperation.
Gabriella called me a whore, and this is what whores did. This is what she thought of me when she looked at me. Maybe it was time I acted like one.
“I promise I’ll tell Elise how nice you are being.” He breathed out, stroking his cock inside his boxers. He thought I was naïve. Stupid. That I didn’t know this was manipulation. He had no idea that I had surpassed any stage
