Page 2 of Serpentine

I don’t realize I’ve said it aloud until she turns her face toward me.

She doesn’t stop. Her hands reach up and cup her breasts as she moans again.

It takes a moment for Carter to follow her line of sight. His reaction is genuine when he finds me standing in his doorway, having pushed the door all the way open to make sure I wasn’t losing my fucking mind.

“Fuck, Aella!” He pushes Charlotte off him, and she lies on her back, still rubbing her hands over her body as she eyes me with not an ounce of remorse.

She meant for me to find them.

It’s a realization that has anger overtaking the need to cry. Which I’m thankful for. Crying right now would make this even worse.

Carter grabs a blanket off the bed. It’s the first time I’ve seen him naked, and it’s not for the reason I thought I would.

He and I have danced around falling into the arrangement our parents made for us many times, but we have never sealed the deal.

“It’s not what…” He trails off, realizing what I’ve seen.

I shake my head, tears burning the back of my eyes as I fight them. “Spare me.”

Charlotte laughs, and it’s full of malice. “Awe, Carter, she’s going to cry. Look at her.”

“Shut up, Char!” Carter yells at his whore.

I can’t stand here any longer.

I turn and head back downstairs for my things. Carter’s footsteps are right behind me.

“Aella! Come back, let’s discuss this. We need to figure out where to go from here!”

I turn back as I get to the table, hands on my purse and keys. “Figure what out? You’ve been fucking my best friend, and she clearly isn’t my friend, but that’s something else entirely…”

I close my eyes as I steel my insides to the betrayal.

“There’s nothing to figure out, Carter.”

“Well, what are you going to tell your father?” he asks, and it cuts me deeper than anything else he could say.

It’s all he cares about. He’s never had feelings for me, and inwardly I knew it. He’d have made a move before now. Fuck, we’re in our mid-twenties. We’ve been promised since we were teenagers.

“That this is done. I can’t fucking do it, Carter. I deserve better.”

He scoffs, and I open my eyes and swing them toward him. “Better than me? Good luck, Aella. You know, I might not fuck you, but you’re pretty damned spoiled.”

My mouth opens to deny it, to fight back, but I don’t have the fucking strength.

My world is crumbling around me; everything is finally coming to a head, and there are no words I can give him. Even though I want to cuss him out, get him back somehow, sting him as he has me, I don’t have it in me.

I’ve been a broken girl for a long time, moving only when her puppet strings are tugged. And I’m so fucking tired.

I am so done.

“Goodbye, Carter.”

I clutch my things as I move out of the house. The door slams behind me. I realize halfway down the sidewalk that I don’t have shoes on, but I don’t have the strength to turn around and go back inside that house.

So, I keep steady and head to my car.

The first tears trickle down my cheeks, but not in sadness or anger. I’ve wasted so much life I could’ve been living. While being Dad’s good girl and Carter’s betrothed, I’ve been slowly dying. The world has been passing me by.

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