Page 28 of Vengeful Guard

I lift my head just enough to peer over my arm.

A shot glass is looking right back at me.

“What is this?” I perk up a bit and pick up the drink.

“It’s—”

I down it in one go.

“—vodka.”

I almost cough my lungs out. My throat is burning like I’m about to breathe fire. I try to talk, but all it comes out is a croaking sound. “Why didn’t you warn me?”

“I tried! You didn’t give me time, just chugged the thing before the dust even settled around the glass!”

Okay, that’s fair. But fuck, it still burns.

I breathe through my open mouth for a while to soothe the burning.

She’s busy preparing our drinks and gets a vodka with orange juice in front of me. “Here. That’s what we’ll be having. There is no way I’m preparing those aberrations you call mimosas. So, either drink up, or it’s water for you, lady.”

I laugh, a throaty sound more than my usual bubbly giggle.

Damn vodka almost killed me.

I take a sip from my glass, and the cold from the drink helps a bit.

She comes around the island, and I get up to follow her to the living room where we throw ourselves onto the couch, careful enough not to spill a drop.

We sigh at the same time, then look at each other and burst out laughing.

I love Sophie to pieces. She’s my sister from another mister. I tell her things I don’t share with anyone else.

She’s the only one who knows my shameful secret. She doesn’t judge me, doesn’t baby me. She doesn’t think I’m less than.

With her, I can just be myself, free to be the drama queen I was born to be, or to just sit in front of the TV and veg out all day long.

“How have you been, Paige? Really. Have you been sleeping at all?”

“Not really. Not that I’d want to anyway.”

Her arm comes around my shoulder, and I lay my head on hers. It feels so nice to be here with her, to know that she’s got my back.

“Nightmares still not leaving you alone?”

I shake my head.

It pains me that I can’t get past what happened to me.

Why am I such a baby about this?

It’s not like I was even kidnapped, like my sister-in-law. She was taken from her home, woke up to find my idiot brother looming over her, got dragged to our house and forced to marry said idiot.

Did she spend her days cowering? Crying around the corners? Did she have trouble sleeping at night? No, no, and hell no.

And here I am, not kidnapped and checking all those boxes. Pathetic. Pitiful.

That’s why I don’t want anyone but Sophie to know how damaged I really am. How weak.

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