Page 155 of Lace 'em Up

Right.

This isn’t going to be good.

“You’re going to leave him,” Cathy says. “Tonight.”

My brows drag together. “Leave who?”

Stacy’s suddenly an inch away, winding up and I flinch back from her fist.

Only, it doesn’t make contact with my face.

It flies so close to my skin that I feel the whoosh of air, one I’m still processing as it makes contact with the bodice of my dress and?—

Rip!

I gasp and stumble back, my fingers clenching at the material, trying to hold my beautiful dress together. “What the hell are you doing?” I gasp.

Smack!

This time a hand is making contact with my face—Cathy’s hand. “You’re such an ungrateful little bitch!” she snaps as I stagger back, clamping my palm to my stinging cheek. “Kingston deserves better than a pathetic little orphan like you. You don’t even know what the hell you’re doing, what the hell you have, what kind of jumping-off point it can be, do you?” she sneers. “Of course you don’t. You’re not smart enough for that. Otherwise you would have married the other one who was far too good for you.”

Phillip too good for me.

That’s a fucking joke.

“You know that he beat me,” I grind out.

Her brows lift. “I know that you deserved it.”

“No one deserves that.”

Stacy darts toward me, hands connecting with my chest, shoving me back hard into the sink, tearing my dress further. “You do.”

“Why do you hate me so much?” I ask. “I did nothing to you. Wanted nothing more than to have sisters, have a mother, and you’ve always treated me as less?—”

“Because you are less,” Cathy says. “Born from that whore of a mother, taking resources from my daughters. Your father always focused on you and?—”

Be brave and kind.

My father’s voice slides through my mind.

And…I stop.

Still.

Think.

Why do I have to be kind to these women who were nothing but cruel to me growing up?

“He was my only living parent,” I say. “Your ex is in the picture, and he paid child support?—”

“Not enough!” Stacy shouts, the words bouncing around the space.

“My babies deserve the best,” Cathy says, and I see the unhinged look in her eyes, have seen it time and again.

This is the same.

Always the same.

---