I spun. “Me?”
“It’s your fault I threw down that fucking coin in the first place.”
I ripped a sucker from my suit jacket and shoved it into my mouth so I didn’t beat him into the fucking floor.
“So, you always had issues taking responsibility for your actions then, West?”
He took a step to me. “You taunted me.”
“I didn’t know shit about you and Story.” I took a step to him. “But if I had, you can bet I would have done more than taunt you.”
“If I hadn’t thrown down that fucking coin, my dad wouldn’t even know about Story. I never would have followed her. Never would have been forced to marry her or make her my mistress. The house wouldn’t have burned down. None of this would have happened; the world wouldn’t know.”
“Careful, your poker face is slipping.” I gritted.
“Years ago, I made a mistake—”
I dragged my finger across my bottom lip. “Is that what you’re calling it?”
“You did the same thing to my sister.”
I saw red. “I might be the worst thing to happen to your sister, but I never did what you did.”
“You ghosted her! You ghosted my sister for decades.”
It took me a minute to breathe back the rage. “The only reason I’m not beating you bloody right now is because that mistake you made is now front-page news. She needs me more than you need a broken bone.”
West stared behind me, at the door Story had just gone through, a distant look in his eyes. If I thought he were human, I’d think this affected him.
Maybe it was a reminder of what he’d done, and how he couldn’t erase it.
But I didn’t think he was human. He was a narcissist, a control freak, and his image had been tarnished.
I opened the door to find Story, slamming it shut on West.
STORY
The eyes of socialites in their spring dresses were glowing red monsters in the twilight garden. Everywhere I looked, someone looked back. I stumbled over cobblestone—I didn’t know where I was going, just that I needed to go somewhere.
The fading sun was too bright.
The twinkling lights Tansy hung blinded like a sun flare.
West was the victim, because why would a victim marry her rapist? Why would she stay with her rapist?
I shouldn’t have gone online. That was the worst mistake. I wanted to know how far it had spread, and instead…my fairy tale slammed back in my fucking face.
It’s over. Grayson could never love her after this. Why would she do this?
They were in my head—everyone who thought they knew me, who thought it was their right to use my life as their story—they were in my head.
A few feet beyond, visible through falling nighttime petals, the garden’s tall hedges separated.
The ocean.
I covered my head with my hands, ducking through whispers that built around me like small spider bites on my skin.
She could have run to a prince, instead she ran to her fucking rapist.
It wasn’t the people calling me a liar that made knives form in my chest. It was the ones who’d previously appropriated my story as their fairy tale. They knew enough to yell the fears I whispered to myself.
I was Team Story, now I’m Team Fuck Her.
I fell against a hedge, grasping my chest until I twisted it into tight rosettes.
It was darker here. Silky petals fell in the shadows, catching the moonlight. The salty, soft smell of the ocean was a siren’s call. Shadowed beneath tall hedges on the edge of the garden, with everyone at least a few feet away, I felt safer—then two women in pink and orange cocktail gowns stepped in my way.
“Called it.”
Aundi and Pipa. Pipa held a plate of the small cakes Tansy had prepared for the party, filled with various frostings and jams.
I sat up straight, instantly on guard. I wasn’t sure if it was a good or bad thing that I’d hidden myself from the rest of the party.
“Didn’t I?” Aundi looked to Pipa. “The day we saw you buzzing around Grayson, I said that girl is a lying, social-climbing whore.”
Pipa nodded. “You did.”
“What do we do with lying, social-climbing whores?” Aundi asked.
“Expose them.” Pipa shoved the plate onto my head.
They smeared jam into my hair, laughing. But their laughter soon faded from my ears, as every moment over the last few months played before me in my mind.
From the first time these two girls had thrown food on me and pushed me to my knees, to every humiliation after, every time I’d buckled and given in, to now, when I’d run from a room full of vultures picking apart my worst secret.
This time, I didn’t fall to my knees. This time, I stayed standing. Even as the jam fell into my eyes.
My uncle had a vision of my future. My child was almost done growing. How much longer was I going to let this happen?
When they were done, I wiped cake out of my hair, tossed it to the ground, letting out a sigh.
“Oooh shit, is Cinderella finally fighting back?” Pipa laughed.
I looked at the frosting on my hands.
I did itch to do something to them, to rip at their dresses and make their fake smiles fall, but I looked them in the eyes instead.
“None of you like me,” I said. “None of you will ever like me or ever accept me. And…” I sighed. “Thank you. What a relief to know I did something right. Because who wants to be respected and adored by someone like you?”
For the first time, Aundi and Pipa were speechless. They reeled like they’d been slapped.
“Throw cake on me, rip my dress, whatever you do to me, I’ll never come down to your level.”
I walked away from them, not waiting for a response. I went through the hedges, onto the beach, cake dripping from my eyes, until I was on the sand and hidden from view.
Where I could hide and cry.
Because despite what I’d said to them, I felt like I was going to vomit.
Everyone knew.
Everyone.
I’d never felt more naked in my life.
“I’m afraid I’ll never be able to see him as the villain,” I whispered into the dark, ocean air.
“I’m afraid…” I raised my voice. “I’m afraid that makes me the villain.”
“I’m afraid—” I gripped my stomach, raising my voice to a scream. “I’M AFRAID IT’S MY FAULT.”
It came out of me in a cathartic wail, but it was gone so soon, disappearing into the salty, dark air. I stared into the dark, like I could still see the words.
“What are you doing?”
I jumped at Lottie’s voice. “Oh, fuck.”
Behind me, Lottie watched from a few feet away, her hair blowing in the wind.
I shrugged. “I didn’t think anyone was around.”
“I didn’t think anyone would be here either,” she said.
I waited for her to leave, but oddly, she came to me and sat beside me on the sand. For a while, we sat shoulder to shoulder. Then, one by one, she picked jam and cake from my hair, dropping it to the sand with a plop.
“Grayson is looking for you,” she said softly. “He looks like he’s about to start a fight.”
I chewed the inside of my cheek.