Page 40 of Divine Obsession

“Just open it.”

I flipped the Tiffany’s package open, and gasped.

Diamond earrings.

Tiffany’sdiamond earrings.

Maria giggled while I stared, mouth open.

My eye caught onto something that was poking out from underneath the cushion supporting the jewelry.

“Who is Amanda, and why are we congratulating her?” I asked, pulling the personalized card out.

“Shit.”

I pressed. “Well?”

“I may have stolen it off some guy at Sacks on fifth…”

“Maria!”

“What? It’s not like he couldn’t afford the replacement. You should’ve seen this guy’s car and watch. Loaded.”

“You can’t just go around robbing people.”

“Why? The rich do it to us all the time.”

It was true. The system was trash.

Regular people worked day and night, their whole life, for a paycheck that barely supported them. All while the rich made their wealth off our backs, just to pay their kids’ way into private and Ivy League schools, only for them to snort cocaine the whole semester before partying it up in Miami on a yacht.

It wasn’t fair.

But that was life.

“You don’t like it?” Maria asked me, slightly nervous.

I breathed in deeply, before smiling. “I love them.”

She smiled back and reached across the table to interconnect our hands. “Twin flames?”

“Forever. Just promise me you won’t steal anything for me again.”

She sighed. “Promise.”

“Good.”

“I just had to go out for you this year, you know? It’s your sweet sixteenth.”

I squeezed her hand. “You have to be careful, Em. You don’t want to end up fucking with the wrong person.”

Chapter 10

Present

SKIN AGAINST SKIN.

Breathing the same air.

---