Page 2 of The Other Princess

A shocked gasp escaped my lips before I could pull it back as I felt white-hot tears spill down my already overheated cheeks with his words. “Your fucking alligator tears aren’t going to fly with me this time, Princess. You fucked up good. I had other bitches try to tell me about your bullshit before, and I always took your side. Looks like I fucked up. Looks like you were more fucked in the head from watching your whore of a mommy die all those years ago than any of us realized.” He looked like he was finally going to leave me there with that parting shot that killed a piece of my soul, but no. He wasn’t quite done with me. He scoffed out a hate-fueled laugh as he glanced back. “And next time you tell a bitch I’m fucking that she’s just a placeholder for when you’re old enough, I want you to remember that you will never be good enough to ride my dick. No matter whom I’m with, you can attempt to ruin it, but it won’t matter. I’ll never be yours.”

Jay clearly didn’t realize that the venomous words he had just spewed at me were the things that would seal that fate more than any actions I had ever taken, because I certainly hadn’t been guilty of the ones he accused me of. Actually, I hadn’t done a single thing he was accusing me of. I was late to this particular assembly because his bitch-ass girlfriend had cornered me in the bathroom on my way here and informed me that I was going to regret remaining friends with Jay after she’d warned me off twice before. I guess she got her wish, after all. I definitely was regretting ever having been his friend, all the wasted years crushing on him, and the heartache I was going to have to get through after this experience burned everything into my soul.

He sneered at me one more time before speaking again. “So, you really have nothing to say? You’re just going to stand there and refuse to apologize, or even say a fuckin’ word?”

“Mr. Donovan!” A teacher was finally cluing in and coming our way. “Office, now!”

It didn’t matter. I took one last look at Jay through my blurry, tear-filled eyes, and I turned on my heels and walked away while an entire gymnasium full of students laughed at me as I went. I caught sight of Tiffany smugly giving me a little princess wave as I walked with my head held high straight out of the gym, out of the school, and then all the way across town until my aching feet carried me home.

When I came through the door of the house Lucy was standing in the living room, just hanging up the phone. “Ever, what the hell happened today? I just got a call from the school saying you ditched…” she glanced up, took one look at the state I was in, and her attitude about me skipping school fell to the wayside as she came forward and pulled me solidly into her tight embrace. “Oh, sweet girl, what in the world happened to you today?” Lucy and I had gotten off to a rocky start, but it wasn’t long before she came around and became the mom to me that I’d been missing since my own had died. Lucy never treated me any differently than her own kids after that initial shock of finding out about me. I was thankful for that in this moment, because I didn’t know whom else I would turn to. Jay might not have been a full patch brother of the MC, but he was a prospect already since he’d turned 18 three months ago. My dad had already said that Jay and Toby would get their full-patch rockers after graduation. So, Jay was his brother. I was smart enough to know that meant that Jay would have my dad’s ear, and I would not be believed over him.

“Baby girl, you have to tell me what happened.” And so I did. I blubbered out the entire story to my step-mom and she sat rocking me on the couch the entire time. Once I was finished she hugged me close again.

“I don’t know what to do, Momma-Luce. I never did those things. I wouldn’t. How could he think that? How could he say that about me being fucked in the head? He did it in front of the whole school!” I was wailing again as I asked her the questions that were on repeat in my head. Jay thought he’d been angry when he’d been led to believe I betrayed him, but I was heartsick and devastated. I hadn’t gotten to the anger portion of my feelings yet. It would come. It just wasn’t going to be today.

Before Lucy could answer any of my questions the front door was flung open and both my dad and my brother came rushing through, gunning for me. “You know better than to mess with a man’s…” the angry tirade on my father’s lips was silenced as Lucy stood like the angry momma bear she was, put herself in between where I sat cowering and where my dad stood shouting and she smacked him right in the face. His eyes went wide with shock, and he actually took a step back from his old lady before glancing back and forth between her and me.

“Don’t you fuckin’ dare come in here screaming your shit in my daughter’s face when you know fuck all about what just happened to her today.”

“Oh I know what…” he started to say, and my mother’s hand went up, not to slap him again, but to stop him from speaking.

“We aren’t at the clubhouse. We are at home. You will listen before you pretend to know something simply because a brother – a prospect actually – told you so.” Lucy then turned to Toby, who was just as tense with anger as my father. “Where in the hell were you today? Why weren’t you there to stop this from happening?”

“I sure as fuck couldn’t be in the girl’s bathroom where she was running her mouth. What do you want?” My brewed spewed out his angry, venom-laced words in such a disrespectful manner that it was shocking. He must have truly believed what Jay had said to mouth off like that to his own mother. I think that hurt worse than standing in front of the entire school while Jay yelled about how I would never ride his dick.

“You stupid little shit! I raised you better than this. I know I did. That girl has had your protection and love since before I was too messed up to give it to her, and you think this is something she would do? You think she has a conniving bone in her damn body? Dig deep, son of mine, and tell me you believe that she has personally set out to destroy every bullshit relationship your friend has attempted to start with a girl. Jay runs through girls like water runs through the creek out back, and that’s no fault of your sister’s. It has more to do with the fact that he can’t keep his dick in his pants for every new shiny thing that pops up to catch his attention.”

At that my dad actually chuckled. My brother looked between our mom and me, but he still didn’t trust what she was saying. That just stabbed the knife of betrayal a little deeper.

“Do you have any idea what your best friend…” she stopped mid question and turned her attention from Toby to my dad before continuing. “What your future club brother, said to her today in front of everyone?”

“Yeah, he chewed her out for running her mouth to his girlfriend,” Toby told her.

“Were you there?” Our mom asked only to have Toby shake his head. “I was in the locker room,” he mumbled.

“I don’t even want to know why,” Lucy stated. Dad chuckled again. “Well, let me set the two of you straight, because what he said had that girl so upset she ran all the way home from school.” At that news my dad bristled.

“Joker’s territory is between here and there.” My dad sputtered out, angry once again. The Jokers were a start-up MC that was made up of pure thugs. I knew better than to go through there on foot, and especially by myself, but I honestly hadn’t been thinking.

“Yeah, she was so upset it didn’t even occur to her how much danger she was in. Let that sink in while you’re busy judging her based on what some jealous high school cunt told your brother.” Lucy huffed. “I don’t care how mad Jay was. I don’t care if Ever did say something to try to sabotage his relationship. What he said to her…” Lucy was shaking. Literally shaking with anger. “He told her she was fucked in the head from seeing her mom die. He told her she would never ride his dick. He screamed it in her face in front of the whole fucking school, and here you two are running in to yell at her some more.”

“What the fuck did you just say?” My dad roared then he turned to Toby. “Get that little prick over here now.”

“No!” I demanded. “It’s done. I don’t want him here today. I don’t ever want to see his face again, actually. I didn’t do any of the things he accused me of. Not that either of you will ever believe me over him. He’s a brother, and I’m just your daughter and sister. I’m not even supposed to be either of things, as I’ve been so kindly reminded by the rest of your MC family ever since I was brought here.” I laughed humorlessly. “I know I don’t matter in this scenario. Jay made that painfully clear earlier when he told me he was going to have you spank me and ban me from the club forever if I ever fucked with his life again. Message received by my entire school and me.” With that, I moved to go upstairs to my room.

“Ever,” my dad croaked out to stop me. I didn’t bother turning to look back at the people who were supposed to be my family. These were the same people who had once professed how they’d always protect me. Jay hadn’t just broken my friendship with him. He’d managed to break my family today, because I would never have faith in the men who were supposed to have my back again.

“I can’t do this anymore today. Please, just leave me the hell alone. Give me that, because if you don’t…” I sighed out. “I have nothing. I had nothing. Now, it seems like I have less than that. I have no threats for what will happen other than my heart breaking even more than it already has today, if that’s possible. If you have any mercy in you at all, you’ll just leave me alone. Please,” the last word was a plea even as it came out on a whisper.

“Go ahead, but we will be talking tomorrow,” my dad informed me. It was obvious from his tone that he still didn’t believe me, even if he might have been pissed about the things Jay said in front of an entire assembly of people. I wondered if he would care if Jay had said those things in front of just the club? I wondered if he would have joined in, or laughed with his brothers at my expense. In that moment, I felt like he would have, because he clearly wasn’t thinking of me at all. He clearly never knew me at all since he believed this nonsense to begin with.

I spent the rest of the night in my room ignoring everyone. Not that there was a lot to ignore from my household. My little sister was clueless about the drama. Neither my father nor my brother bothered to check on me. Whether it was them honoring my wishes or because they didn’t care since I was apparently a disloyal bitch to their brother in everyone’s eyes, I didn’t know. Lucy came to try to get me for dinner. I refused. I didn’t want to be around anyone else in this house. Besides that, I didn’t have an appetite to speak of. Who could really think of eating when their whole world just fell out from beneath them again? The first time, I’d managed to make it eight years before my mom died and my life was turned upside down. Now, it had been almost another eight. Maybe I was doomed to repeat horrible events every eight years?

All I knew was that I was done with Jay. Things would never, could never, be the same again; because the trust I’d had in him was broken. The things he said couldn’t be unsaid, and I was not the only one to hear them. I had no doubt that I would walk into a brand new fresh hell when I got to school tomorrow. So, even if he saw the error of his ways overnight, things would never be the same for me. I was also done with my father and brother. I’d forgive them all eventually, but our relationships would never be what they once were, or what I’d hoped they could be. The fact that they both came in, storming the castle, fire in their eyes, and righteous indignation burning from their pores without a concern for obtaining my side of the situation first… Yeah, that spoke volumes to me. The brother by club was more important than the daughter or sister by blood. Actually, that wasn’t entirely true either, because I had zero doubt the same scenario would have gone vastly different if it had been Anna instead of me. She would have received the benefit of their doubt where I didn’t deserve it. The fact that they all believed I was a person of such abysmal character without even stopping to question it stamped my soul with a taint that I didn’t think I could ever scrub off. The taint they manufactured themselves, even while they apparently all thought I’d carried it with me from birth.

I’ve learned a lot about where I came from since I moved in with my father and his family. My mom apparently cheated on her husband with my dad while at a wild MC party one night. Then she tried to pass me off as her husband’s baby. He didn’t fall for it, because he had been sterile since before they got married. He’d never bothered to tell her that, and let her think that they just had reproductive issues every time she cried about wanting a baby. In the end, her husband had moved her two states away before finding out she was pregnant, and since my mom was already so far from the man who had actually knocked her up, she chose to keep me a secret so she wouldn’t have to share me. She’d wanted a baby for so long, and was already in her mid-40s by the time she got pregnant, that she didn’t want to deal with shared custody or another man trying to tell her how to be parent, or possibly trying to take her child from her.

I get it. The entire club thinks my mom was an evil, conniving, cheating whore. They’ve said as much around me. Only one of them had said it to my face in a mean way, but the rest of them never bothered to filter their opinion when I was around either. Now, I understood why they were always more than a little standoffish with me. I was literally known as “the other princess” meaning my little sister had the official title of the “MC Princess” out of all the kids who had been born to the older brothers. She had been the only girl before I came around. That left me obtaining the title as “the other princess”. It had always left me feeling less than, of course that was probably because the words were never said with kindness.

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