Page 1 of Ravished By Her

Chapter One

Some days when I woke up, I still didn’t know where the hell I was. Instead of sunlight filtering in from the floor-to-ceiling windows in my beautiful apartment outside of Boston, I looked up to a low ceiling covered in reclaimed wood and a white fan that spun slowly above my head.

“Fuck,” I said as I realized what my life had become. Waking up never used to be like this.

I lay in the surprisingly comfortable bed for as long as I could stand before I had to walk the several steps to the bathroom that was the size of a broom closet. It made sense that it was small, seeing as how I was currently living in a van. With a composting toilet.

Annoyance filled my veins as I shuffled around the small space, trying to get dressed and brush my teeth and wash my face before making myself some coffee.

This was never how I saw myself living life, yet here I was. Someone knocked on the side of the van and I peered behind the window coverings to see the smiling face of my twin sister, Sterling, holding up a plate of breakfast for me.

I slid the door open and gave her a grim smile.

“Breakfast?” she asked.

“Thank you,” I said, taking it from her. Sterling had worked briefly for a food truck that specialized in eggs and she’d picked up a lot of skills she enjoyed showing off.

“You got big plans today?” she asked, pushing her black-framed glasses up her nose. Even if people couldn’t tell us apart due to Sterling’s skin being covered in tattoos and me having none, our glasses choices would have done the trick. I alternated between several different frames. My current favorite pair was a bright clear pink.

“You don’t need to do that,” I said, setting down the plate on the small counter. There wasn’t enough space in here for me to even breathe.

“Do what?” she asked, tilting her head to the side. I knew I did the same thing, so it annoyed me seeing her do it.

I rolled my eyes. “Check on me to make sure I’m still here. That I’ve gotten out of bed and am not wallowing my days away.” I had never wallowed for an entire day. When I lost my job a few months ago, I’d allowed myself a ten-minute cry in the bathroom before I’d washed my face, cleaned out my desk, and gone to take myself out for a drink at my favorite wine bar. A few hours later, I was already submitting applications and resumes to other real estate agencies. Giving up my apartment had been harder, but I’d still contacted a storage unit and started listing some of my furniture online before the end of the day.

“Gwen, I’m just trying to be your sister,” she said with a sigh. “Can you let me do that? There’s nothing wrong with needing some support.”

My jaw clenched at that word. Support. I didn’t need support. I just needed…the universe to stop fucking me over. I needed to get my business up and running so the only one responsible for failing would be me. Other people were too unreliable.

“Thank you for the breakfast,” I said.

“Gwennie,” she said, and I cringed at the nickname.

“I’m fine,” I said. “And I’m busy today so I can’t hang out.”

Sterling’s face fell, and I almost apologized for being such a bitch to her. It was a reflex of mine.

She crossed her arms and sighed. “Have a good day then. I’ll just be working in the house if you want to take a break for lunch. Let me know if you want me to set you a place.”

I wouldn’t, and we both knew that, but I still nodded.

She went back into the single-wide she shared with her girlfriend, Kai. They’d moved in together almost immediately upon Sterling coming to Arrowbridge and I still thought she might have made a massive mistake, but Kai did love my sister, and they were good together.

Sterling living with Kai was the only reason the van was even free for me to stay in it.

Everything was so fucked up.

* * *

By the time I remembered the breakfast she’d brought me, it was cold, but I ate it anyway because I wasn’t going to turn down free food that I didn’t have to make. Cooking in the van was an exercise in frustration, and I avoided it as much as I could.

Thankfully, I still had my own car, so I didn’t have to haul the van everywhere. It also stored most of my clothes that wouldn’t fit in the storage areas of the van.

Doing my hair required a little bit of effort, but it was worth it. I never went anywhere without looking my best, even when I was living in a van.

I carefully did my makeup and realized that I would need to find someone to fill my eyelashes soon.

Since I felt so suffocated in the van, I tried to spend as little time there as possible. My refuge to work was Common Grounds, a coffee shop near the bank where Kai used to work. The baristas were lovely and sometimes even gave me free drinks for being Sterling’s sister. I’d balked at first, but they just kept refusing to let me pay sometimes so I’d given up. I had other battles to fight.

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