Page 4 of Stripping Little Seraphina
But in my chest, the same old echo pounded:Different. Lost. Not enough. Where is my person?
Inside my suite, I collapsed onto the bed, staring at the ceiling. The suitcase I’d dragged here two weeks ago sat half-unpacked in the corner, a silent reminder that some part of me had never fully arrived. Maybe I hadn’t believed in this as much as I’d thought I had.
I squeezed my bear to my chest, the one I’d tucked under sweaters at the bottom of my bag. My dirty little secret. If my family or anyone else knew… no, I couldn’t even think it.
My mind dragged me back to Emerson’s hunched shoulders in my passenger seat, the way he whispered,They don’t listen when I talk.My heart squeezed. I knew exactly what he meant. I’d lived it every day of my life—my parents’ eyes sliding past me to land on Josephina, their voices smoothing her future while mine withered under expectations I could never meet. Now Mistress V ignored me too. Maybe it was the universe’s way of saying:You don’t matter enough to take up space.All I seemed to do was exist without purpose. Everyone saw it but me, so why couldn’t I fix it? Make it better?
The thought burrowed deep, raw and ugly.
I curled tighter on the bed, blanket cocooning me, tears stinging hot in my eyes. What if Master E couldn’t fix this?What if no one wanted me—not as a mentee, not as a daughter, not as… me? I didn’t know how long I lay there, breathing in the faint lavender from the pillowcase, fighting back sobs that threatened to undo me. I knew if I gave into them, I wouldn’t be able to stop myself. I couldn’t lose myself in something I didn’t know how to rectify. Besides, Master E had specifically asked me not to do the very thing that I was doing. My problem was that I didn’t know how to dig my way out.
Then a knock at the door jolted me upright. Sharp, confident, and very much intrusive.
“Seraphina?” A woman’s voice, smooth and commanding, “Are you in there?”
My stomach dropped straight to the floor. I knew that voice. I’d heard it before—cutting, sharp, slamming a door in my face while her son’s words still echoed in my ears.
No. It couldn’t be. There was no way. How had she gotten on the Ranch’s grounds?
The knock came again, firmer this time. I padded to the door, tugging my cartoon long tee straight as though that could disguise everything.
When I opened it, my stomach dropped.
It was her.
Vasiah Jonathan.
The woman who thought I was a fraud, a nuisance, and a scam artist.
And now? She was standing at my door.
“You?” I breathed.
Vasiah froze in the doorway, just as startled. Her eyes widened, her composure cracking for the first time since I’d met her. “Seraphina?”
We just stared for a beat too long. My cheeks burned, and then the words tumbled out.
“What are you doing here? Are you stalking me?” I asked her, afraid to know that she would go to great lengths. Then another thought came to mind. “Is Emerson okay?”
“What? No. He’s fine.” She paused, shaking her head. “I’m Mistress V. I came to introduce myself to you, I think. You’re Seraphina?”
“I am. Of course you’d show up here. Did you ask for this? To be matched with me? Is this some kind of revenge because I told you the truth about Emerson’s driving?”
Her brow furrowed. “Absolutely not.”
“Don’t lie to me,” I snapped, my voice trembling more from nerves than fury. “You hated me from the moment we met. And now suddenly you’re my mentor? You expect me to believe that’s a coincidence?”
Her lips pressed into a thin line before she exhaled slowly, her shoulders dropping. “I didn’t know,” she said, her voice quieter than I’d ever heard it. “I didn’t even know who my mentee was until I got here tonight. I’ve been traveling for work the last two weeks. That’s why I haven’t reached out as much. On my phone, the images on the Mentor site aren’t very clear. I figured that I’d wait and handle it once I got here.”
I folded my arms across my chest, clutching at the only shield I had left. “So you didn’t care enough to show up for your role either? That tracks. And had you asked me to send you a picture I would’ve. When I asked you to send one of yourself since you hadn’t bothered to upload one, I thought this entire situation was very Catfish like. Now I know it definitely is.”
Her jaw tightened. “That’s not fair?—”
“Fair?” My laugh came out bitter. “You don’t even realize, do you? I see the way Emerson shrinks around you, like he can’t get a word in. And now you’re doing the same thing to me. Do you even care? About him? About this? Me? Doesn’t this mentor role come with responsibility and accountability?”
The flicker of guilt in her eyes was real, but I couldn’t let it matter. My heart was already in my throat. Plus, I couldn’t exactly stop the words from erupting from me. It was very much unlike me, but I’d had enough of this entire situation and she couldn’t just walk all over people and think that showing up in her crisp, black suit, red button-down, and black-and-white Nike’s were going to make this any better. Her long dreadlocks were neatly coiffed, highlighting her striking cheekbones and those beautiful hazel eyes of hers. She was a beautiful disaster and I wanted her out of my doorway. Sinful as she looked, she was the kind of woman that would undo every resolve you had and then leave you in a puddle on the ground. Then like the arrogant witch that she was, she’d walk around you, not wanting you to soil the soles of her crisp shoes.
“I don’t need this.” My hand curled around the edge of the door. “And I definitely don’t need you.”
