Page 50 of Mine

I’m envious.

She landed him.

She got him to marry her.

She bore him a child.

I pick up a picture of her in profile, smiling into the sunset.

What was it about her that Astor was drawn to?

There’s no mistaking how different she and I are. While my hair is as black as a raven’s wing, hers was as white as snow. While I’m curvy, she was skinny—very skinny. I’m tall, she was small. Even her smile was perfect, like she spent her entire childhood practicing it. Mine, on the other hand, looks manic half the time.

Astor’s late wife was a trophy wife—and this is why I’ll never be his.

“She’s prettier than you are.”

I startle, sloshing the piping-hot coffee onto my hand. I spin around to see Prishna standing too close to me. I didn’t even hear her come in.

The sunlight streaming through the window shimmers on the burns on the side of her face.

“Yes,” I say, swallowing the knot in my throat and regaining composure. “You’re right; I agree with you. She is prettier than me.”

“You’ll never replace her.”

“What makes you think I’m trying to?”

“I can see it in the way you look at him.”

“He’s a hard man not to admire ... I’m sure you’ve noticed too, Prishna.”

“I told you to call me ma’am.”

“I’m not calling you ma’am.”

We glower at each other, two alpha females in love with the same man, while the one who actually got him is forever memorialized in the framed picture that’s clutched between my fingers.

“What was her name?” I slide the picture back onto the mantel.

“Valerie.”

“How long were they married?”

“They still are.”

“What?”

“Not even death could separate them. They were madly in love, Miss Hart. And he still is, with her.” Prishna nods to the candle. “He lights this candle, just for her.”

He lights it. A sick feeling rolls over me.

“He cries out for her in his sleep,” she says, the words drilling into my heart. “But you wouldn’t know that, and you never will. Because Astor never allows his whores to stay in his bed with him.”

Bitch.

I pluck the headless doll from the counter. “Why did you leave this in my room last night?”

Her brows arch, and she appears surprised. Slowly, the anger drains from her face. She clears her throat and deflects from the question.

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