Page 1 of Divine Obsession

PART 1

Chapter 1

Present

18 years old

Manhattan, New York City

I HAD ALWAYS PUT A lot of effort and time into my looks.

It was one of the only good things my mother taught me:it doesn’t matter who you are, but who people think you are.

The applicator smoothed over my lips with pink gloss.

I’d always been a ‘put-on-a-show’ kind of girl. Shifting between personalities and social masks depending on who I needed to be. I found strength in pretending to be someone I could’ve been if my life had gone differently. Almost like zipping myself up in a suit of confidence. Once the curtains opened, I could play any role: the perfect student, the perfect employee, the perfect candidate. It was how I’d gotten everything in my life; by lying.

Con artists seriously didn’t get enough credit; manipulating was a lot of work.

Pressing my lips together, I smoothed out the gloss before popping them. Pulling away from the mirror, I ran my hands down my pink gown.

I looked beautiful. Perfect hair. Perfect make-up. Perfect posture. Perfect manners.The perfect smile.

But my face ached from years of faking it. And the tag of the dress dug into my back, reminding me I had to return it tomorrow.

“Are you ready? The car’s waiting downstairs,” My roommate’s voice came from the other side of the door.

“Just a second!”

“Meet you downstairs in five?”

“Okay!” I shouted from the bathroom.

I met Kali at the start of fall when we both began our freshman year at NYU.Another thing I got by lying.

We immediately clicked and became close over the past three months. So, when she invited me to the annual Christmas charity gala hosted by her family, I agreed. I was hesitant at first, considering her family was theSu family; as in theSu Dynasty, billionaire elitists of Japanese and Cuban descent. But when Kali told me how much she hated those types of events and how she didn’t want to be alone for the night, it was a no-brainer.

Kali was the rebel. The Sus had built their fortune on cybersecurity and software engineering. She went against tradition when she decided to go to NYU for something creative, instead of Columbia like the rest of her family and study something computer-related.

Maybe that was why we got along so well. Neither gave a fuck about what was expected of us. We did what we wanted. We were who we were.

After quickly gathering the rest of my essentials in my clutch, I hurried downstairs. As soon as I stepped out of our accommodation building, I spotted Kali leaning against a limo parked on the curb. The moonlight sparkled in her dark blue dress, while her usually curly hair flowed down her back pin-straight. Kali never straightened it.

“I know,” She replied when she saw me eyeing her hair. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

We got inside and the limousine took off through the busy Manhattan streets, towards the Su mansion in Queens, where the event was being hosted.

Reaching into my clutch, I opened my phone and took another look at the last text I sent Maria.Undelivered.

Maria and I grew up together in foster care. We weren’t blood, but we were family; sisters.

She was two years younger, but she’d always been the one to protect me. Goosebumps spread over my skin at the reminder of how many people she beat up to defend and keep me safe. She’d always been the fighter; fighting for a better life, respect, money…

I was the one who turned a blind eye. I didn’t fight; I let it roll off my back and pretended it didn’t hurt.

But it did.

Every time I lied and cracked my bones until I molded myself into what I needed to be to get what I wanted – the ache in my chest intensified.

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