Page 12 of Cruel Dominion

“Oh my God, Anna?”

I turned around, hearing my name. It must have come from the woman who was looking expectantly at me with a smile on her face. She was familiar, but in the way that you knew the melody of a song but none of the lyrics.

“Summer?” I tried, recognizing something in the shape of her nose and the set of her eyes. She laughed excitedly.

“Oh my God, it is you. When did you come back to town? How long has it been?”

I couldn’t answer any of her questions before she engulfed me in a hug.

“I’m sorry. I literally got back yesterday.”

“It’s been way too long. Are you busy today?”

My kneejerk reaction was to tell her fuck yes I was busy from now until Forevuary, but the daughter of Hudson Vaughn wouldn’t be so rude.

“Um, not this afternoon,” I said, choking on the sweetness of my tone. “But if you’re free for dinner, I might?—”

“Perfect!”

Her animated excitement made me feel like a total asshole, especially when my sluggish mind began to fill in the antiquated memories. The feel of our old friendship.

Summer Rockwell. We’d gone to the same private secondary school. We were the kind of friends who were close until it was time to graduate. At first, she seemed so different but the more that I looked at her, the more I saw the girl I went to school with. Her hair was short now, freshly blown out. It suited her heart-shaped face well. She was a saint for not mentioning how bad I looked.

But then, she’d always been that way. Kind and sweet and excited about everything. Never noticing anyone’s flaws. It was why I liked her so much. And also why I never really ‘clicked’ with her even though we spent years lunching and getting our nails done and watching the boys’ rugby tournaments after school.

If I was a dark storm cloud personified, she was the sun, and I could use a little more of that right now.

We exchanged numbers and I went to my stylist’s chair, feeling lighter, her effervescent energy floating me up along with her.

I reminded myself that my father and memories of Carter weren’t the only things I was coming home to. There were some people in my life who weren’t terrible, Rosie being one, and there was the ocean and the beach.

There was the opportunity for a fresh start. A clean state. No matter what Daddy dearest said, nothing had to be the exact same as it was before… starting with the disaster on my head.

The stylist let me sit and threw the apron over me before getting a good look at my hair.

“So what are we doing with this mop, doll?”

I almost wanted to apologize to her. My hair was dry and frizzy. When I left, I got the bright idea to dye it lighter to disguise myself which had only damaged it. And with my life imploding over the last couple months, I hadn’t bothered to try to tone the soft beige strands so they were brassy now, my natural color stretching an inch or two from my scalp.

“Darker, I think.”

Truth be told, I didn’t have enough energy to come up with anything more than that.

“Yeah?” she said, running her fingers through the hair at my crown. “Back to your natural, maybe? Looks like it could use a break from all the lightening.”

I must’ve made a face because she amended. “How about something in between? A nice rich balayage that will grow out with grace while your hair heals?”

“Sounds perfect.”

4

CARTER

“Here alone, Cole?”

I raised my brows at the man speaking to me. Nathanael Hsu, heir to his father’s shipping company and a Harvard-educated douchebag. We had nothing in common, yet he was trying to talk to me like I was a peer.

Once upon a time, when I was a poor kid and he was the star at his prep school, Nathanael would have spit on me before he attempted small talk. I wanted to rub that in his smug little face. To make him choke on the fact that we were equals now, both invited to the same charity gala.

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