Page 1 of The Other Princess

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~ Ever – 8 years old ~

They didn’t think I could hear them speaking from the other room, but I did. “What do we do if this doesn’t work out? I mean, she’s a stranger to all of us,” my new stepmother asked Donna. Donna was the social worker who had brought me here to South Carolina to find the man who was supposedly my dad. I was afraid of him, because my mom had always told me he was a bad man and that was why I couldn’t know who he was or go see him. I wondered why Donna would bring me to stay with a bad man, but she assured me that he had other kids my age and a wife who would be a good mom to me. It didn’t sound like his wife wanted to be my new mom though.

“She is Mr. Brothers’ biological child,” Donna explained to her. “We understand that this is an extreme situation since you didn’t know about her. If for any reason it doesn’t work out you can contact me and I will try to find her different placement. I will warn you now though that finding placement for an eight-year-old child isn’t easy. She’ll likely go into the foster care system and be bounced around there until she ages out. There was no other family on her mother’s side to take her that we could find. You are that little girl’s only option for a stable home at this point.”

“What if she’s a monster? I’ve heard horror stories about things like this,” my dad’s wife whined.

“Really, Lucy?” My father’s voice boomed sternly.

“She’s been nothing but a sweet girl since I picked her up. She’s sad right now because her mom died, and the poor thing was there when it happened. She called 911 and then held her mom until the ambulance got there. It will take a while for her to move past that. She’s a bit more quiet and withdrawn than I would like to see, but considering what she’s just been through and knowing she’s being left in the care of strangers, I can’t say that I blame her.”

“Great!” My stepmother huffed exaggeratedly. “So she’s going to be a mute, depressed kid. What if she tries to hurt my children?”

“That is enough, Lucy! We are done with this bullshit. This is MY daughter we are talking about, and you are going to stop trying to make excuses for why she can’t be here with us.” My dad’s harsh sounding words made me feel a little better while also startling me. I wondered if he would yell at me like that too. “Thank you, Donna. I’m sure we’ll adjust once all the dust settles. This has been a shock to all of us.” His voice was calmer when he spoke to the lady who had brought me here.

“I understand,” Donna started to say, but I didn’t stick around to hear anything else. Instead, I moved away from the door, my head lost in thoughts of what I would do if no one wanted me here. The foster care thing Donna talked about didn’t sound like it was going to be a nice place. Maybe I could get a job. Did jobs hire kids? I didn’t know. I wished my mom were here so I could ask her. Sadness swept through me as I thought of my mom again. I missed her so much. I got lost in memories of my mom as I walked away so I couldn’t hear the adults talking anymore. That was why I ran face first into a boy who looked to be my age, maybe a little older.

When I finally got my head on straight again I figured out that the boy was my new brother, Toby, and he had a friend standing beside him grinning down at me as they pulled me up from where I had been knocked to my butt in the collision.

“You saw your mom die, huh?” Toby asked, obviously having been eavesdropping from some other part of the house too. I merely nodded my head at him in answer. “That sucks!” He exclaimed as tears started welling up in my eyes and threatening to spill over. I did not want to be the crybaby in the house. The woman in the kitchen was already mad that I was here. How would she react to my tears? “Wanna know a secret?” Toby’s question cut through the panic that was ramping up inside me. Again, I nodded my head, because maybe whatever he had to say would keep the sadness away.

“Dad didn’t know about me at first either.” He laughed with his buddy then. “Guess pregnant women don’t much like to tell him nothin’.”

“But Lucy is your mom, right?” I asked quickly, sniffing back the stinging saltiness of the tears that escaped despite my best effort to keep them inside.

“Yep. They got back together when I was three,” Toby told me. He seemed proud of that fact.

“Oh,” was all I could manage to say.

“It will be okay, Ever. My mom’s not mean or nothin’. She’s just freaking out ‘cause my dad had another kid with another lady is all.”

I knew nothing about dads, let alone dads with hidden kids so I just stood there trying to swallow around the lump that was tuck in my throat. That’s when Toby pulled me close, wrapped me up in a hug, and told me, “Everything will be okay, Ever. Me and Jason will protect you. You’re my sister, and that’s my job. Jay will do it because he’s my best friend so it’s his job too.”

Lucy’s gasping sob at the sight of us, or maybe at her son’s words, drew our attention. It was the first I had noticed that the adults had joined us in the living room. The fake smile Donna had been wearing during our trip brightened and actually looked real for a minute.

“It seems the kids, at least, know what to do to make things work.” Donna spoke the words softly to Lucy who ended up blubbering harder and running for another part of the house. I would later find out she ran to hide her shame over how she had behaved, but at the time I thought it was because she hated seeing her son touch me.

“You’re a good man, Toby,” our dad said to him while ruffling the short brown hair on his head. Toby’s chest puffed up with pride as he finally released me from his hug. Then he turned to Donna and told her, “Don’t worry lady, I’ll make sure she’s happy here and at school.” All the while my new little sister, who was five years old, just sat and watched everything with fascinated interest.

“I’m gonna help make her happy too,” Toby’s friend agreed. It was the first time I’d heard Jay speak, and that sound would stay etched in my heart for a few more years before he found a way to wipe any lingering fondness it once held from what remained of the little hopeful girl residing in my head.

My name is Ever Lee Brothers – a cruel joke my mom played on me, apparently – and I was just finding out what it meant to be the other princess in a motorcycle club family, because once Donna left I was taken to a barbecue party where I got to meet the rest of my new family. At least they were happy to meet me, unlike my new mom who stayed home to take care of her real daughter, Annalise.

~ Ever – 15 years old ~

There is a distinct feeling in the air, maybe it’s the bitter tang of defeat and sorrow, that hovers around you like a cloud on a rainy day when your life is about to plummet head first into life-altering change. I knew that feeling well. It clung to my eight year old memories like a second skin as I relived the nightmare of seeing my mom clutch her head and drop to the floor out of the blue. She never woke back up. My life changed drastically that day, and as a result I will never forget that feeling as long as I live.

It’s important to note that as I stood in front of the bleachers in the school’s gymnasium, searching for my best friend, Erin, that the same peculiar, life-altering zing was in the air. I almost panicked and left the crowded, noisy space. Hell, if I had known exactly how much the next few moments would impact the rest of my high school days I would have fled that moment and never looked back. Too bad hindsight is a bitch for a reason.

I finally locked eyes with Erin whose face crinkled in confusion at the same exact moment a hand landed squarely on my shoulder, holding me in place, so I couldn’t go sit with my best friend. I turned my head to see Jay Donovan standing there and I beamed my trademark bubbly-sunshine smile up at him. Jay was my brother’s best friend already when I came to live with my dad after my mom died. He also became one of my best friends, and my protector. He was also my secret – or not so secret to some – crush. Not that I would ever tell him that. He never saw me as anything more than a friend and surrogate sister. That is exactly why the deep scowl painting his face in anger had my sunshine smile disappearing from my face in the blink of an eye.

“Who the hell do you think you are spreading rumors about Tiffany?” He yelled in my face. “You cornered my girl in the bathroom, and tried to get her to break up with me? You thought that shit would fly? You know you’re nothing but a princess and I’m about to be a patched brother after graduation and you’re trying this shit? I ought to get Double-D to spank your goddamn ass for pulling a stunt like this.”

His rapid-fire, angry, verbal shots were only confusing me more as embarrassment over the fact that he was screaming at me in front of the entire student body was burning through my face. I had to be a disgusting shade of red by now. I just blinked at him, because what could I say to someone who was berating me, telling me he was going to get my daddy to spank me, and doing it all in front of the whole school.

“You fuckin’ step one foot near Tiff, let one more bad word about her come from those lips, and I will personally see to it that you are banned from the club forever.” He shook his head angrily at me before adding the worst insult Id ever heard out of his lips, because he’d never spoken to me in that way before. “You disloyal, ungrateful little bitch,” his words were spat with pure venom and were strong enough to shatter my rampantly beating heart.

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