Page 98 of Sweetest Revenge

“... break up?”

“...bastard… hurt her…”

Showing up at Piper’s house probably wasn’t my best idea, but I didn’t want to go home to an empty house and feel the weight of my loneliness.

The house, one I had been to many times over the last few years, was about the size of Warren’s. It was a hard reminder that we were now in two different worlds.

Maybe coming here was a mistake.

Their voices now echoed in the gold-accented bathroom.

“If that’s true… contract… lost it?—”

I placed my hands over my ears, using the hit of each water droplet on my back to center me. I didn’t want to listen anymore. My head was pounding, and my skin was pruning. I knew I should get out, but my body wouldn’t get up, so I stayed stuck on the shower floor as water poured down on me.

He just kicked me out. After everything, Warren kicked me out.

The weight of losing the two million dollars was heavy.

I needed that money, and it had been so close, but I lost sight of it.

But his rejection hurt more than anything else.

I had banked on him wanting me, whenever, wherever, and somehow it had turned into a conversation I didn’t want to have. One I couldn't have.

I didn’t want to confide in him. Didn’t want him to see the mess I had become.

And I couldn’t deal with the things he was saying. Like he had… feelings for me?

Warren is not what he seemed to be. What I thought he was.

Yes, I was still hurt about what happened to my father. His suicide was a permanent scar on my psyche… but the stuff he’d done? Like my mom, I started to feel like I should have stopped him. Should have seen just how bad it was instead.

But I had been blinded by the money. By the lifestyle. Naïve.

I saw what my father wanted me to see. Even when he was trying to pimp me out to his friends’ sons.

The most shocking was how similar Warren and I were. Two people, out for revenge. For their fathers. Willing to do anything to get it.

Except, in the end, my father killed his.

The muttered whispers continued, and I figured I couldn’t stay in the shower much longer before one of them decided to break the door down.

When I finally got a towel around myself, I opened the door to see Piper and Violet huddled together just outside.

Piper was holding not one, but two bottles of wine, while Violet had a bunch of candy in her arms.

God, what did I do to deserve these two?

I couldn’t help but crack a smile.

“Hey, girl,” Violet said with a hesitant smile. “Tough night, huh?”

Finally, the weight of it all came crashing down. I couldn’t stop tears from falling from my eyes.

“Why did you do that?” Piper hissed, shoving her lightly. When the sob finally tore itself from my chest, they both rushed to my side, trying their best to console me while having their hands full.

I’m not alone.

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