Page 5 of Dare To Break

“Don’t be fucking stupid.”

I yank open the car door, climb in, and slam it shut, sealing myself inside. I tip my head back against the seat and close my eyes. There’s a throbbing behind my eyes, a tightness to my skull, and I’m so fucking tired.

I’m eighteen years old. I shouldn’t have to behave like the fucking parent, yet here I am. The only fucking voice of reason standing between my father and poverty. My fingers drum against my thigh.

Okay, so maybe poverty is exaggerating a little. But that isn’t the point. Who the fuck goes to Vegas for a business meeting and comes back with a wife?

I snort.

My dad, that’s who.

Finding out I had a new stepmom when I got back from my friend’s house a couple of days ago was annoying enough. When I discovered said stepmom came with a daughter, that was the fucking icing on the cake.

My dad means well, and he loves me. I know that. But fuck me, I don’t know how my mom lived with him. He’s an amazing businessman, but emotionally he’s a fucking mess. Has been a mess since she died. At fourteen years old, I had to become the responsible one, making sure all the household bills were paid until my dad learned how to function without the woman he loved.

And now he wonders why I am the way I am.

Chapter 3

Arabella

I try to swallow the sour taste on my tongue and swipe away the tears threatening to fall. The boxes on my bed blur. It’s barely been a week since my mother announced we were moving. Everything was set in motion faster than I expected.

The hate I feel for my mother continues to bloom, eating away at the security I’ve lost. Not content with fucking up her own life, she’s now intent on ruining mine.

“This sucks,” Amanda, my best friend since I was six, grumbles. Her auburn hair is tied back in a messy bun, and she’s dressed similarly to me in loose yoga pants and a t-shirt.

I clutch the pile of books she’s just unloaded from the bookshelf and dump them on the bed.

“I can’t believe Elena is making you move.”

Sniffing, I brush the dampness from my cheeks with the back of my knuckles. “I can’t believe she’s selling the house. She wouldn’t even listen to me when I begged her to rent it out.”

The bitch is tearing away the only home I’ve ever known. She doesn’t think we’re going to need it now that she’s found Elliot. I think she’s a fucking fool.

My gaze wanders over the yellow wallpaper printed with canaries. Amanda helped me put it up one summer. We made a mess getting wallpaper paste in our hair. I can still remember our laughter and singing along to one of Imagine Dragons’ latest songs.

My heart thrashes inside my chest, mourning the loss of happier times. Why can’t I press rewind to the past? Go back and live in one of the happier moments. Forget the trauma of being Elena Travers’ daughter.

“At least we can Facetime and call each other.” Dropping more books into one of the empty boxes, she closes the flaps. “And we can visit during school holidays.”

My watery gaze flicks to hers, and I give her a wan smile. “Of course, we will. Besties forever, right?”

“No matter where we are.” Amanda touches the beads of the multicolored friendship bracelet on her wrist that match the one I’m wearing. “Even when one of us gets to move into a mansion.”

“I’m not going to be there long.”

My fingers seek out the three charms hanging on my bracelet. I’m never going to take it off. It will be my talisman, reminding me I always have someone to talk to. That I’m not alone no matter where I am.

“A few days to store my stuff before I’m shipped off to boarding school.”

“Churchill Bradley Academy is a school set among acres of private, sprawling grounds, where young minds can be molded and thrive.” Amanda recites in her best impression of a posh accent, before breaking off to giggle. “I checked out their website. Their school mascot is a white and red rooster.”

The ache in my chest tightens painfully. “It sounds like a nightmare.”

She shrugs and picks up a box of tissues from my desk by the window. “Mean girls, jocks, rich nerds, and anti-social freaks. No matter how they pretty it up, the hierarchy of a school isn’t going to change.”

I catch the tissues she tosses at me, tug one out and mop up my face. “I just want to keep my head down and graduate. My twenty-year plan is in place, and I’m not going to let Elena take that from me.”

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