Hers To Take

The Scars She Hid From The World

REGINA MCBRIDE

The heavy iron gates of the Wilderness Correction Camp groaned as they released me after three years of state-sponsored hell. I stood on the dirt road, clutching a plastic bag that held my entire life, waiting for the family that claimed they sent me there for "rehab." My brother, Brady, picked me up in a luxury SUV only to throw me out onto a deserted highway in the middle of a brewing storm. He told me I was a "public relations nightmare" and that the rain might finally wash the "stink" of the camp off me. He drove away, leaving me to limp miles through the mud on a snapped ankle. When I finally dragged myself to our family estate, my mother didn't offer a hug; she gasped in horror because my muddy clothes were ruining her Italian marble. They didn't give me my old room back. Instead, they banished me to a moldy gardener’s shack and hired a "babysitter" to make sure I didn't embarrass them further. My sister, Kaleigh, stood there in white cashmere, pretending to cry while clinging to her fiancé, Ambrose—the man who had once been mine. They all treated me like a volatile junkie, refusing to acknowledge that Kaleigh was the one who planted the drugs in my bag three years ago. They wanted to believe I was broken so they wouldn't have to feel guilty about the "wellness retreat" that was actually a torture chamber. I sat in the dark of that shed, feeling the cooling gel on the cigarette burns that covered my arms, and realized they had made a fatal mistake. They thought they had erased me, but I had returned with a roadmap of scars and a hidden satellite phone. At dinner, I didn't beg for their love. I simply rolled up my sleeves and showed them the price of their silence. As the wine spilled and the lies crumbled, I sent a single text to the only person I trusted: "I'm in. Let them simmer." The hunt was finally on.

Modern Revenge Scheming Kickass Heroine Comeback Revenge

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Lily stared at herself in the mirror with a small smile on her face. She had hurried into the bathroom after making his dinner to play her little dress up game. She knew that he would never look at her for longer than 2 seconds, he never has. Throughout the 5 years of their marriage, he treated her like an eyesore, it felt like looking at her for longer than 5 seconds would cause his eyes to bleed, yet she always played dress up for him, it was a fantasy game. Maybe if I dress up well today, he would look at me, he however never did.

Her eyes trailed over her lean frame, and she felt the bitter taste of rejection in her mouth. She wasn't exceptionally beautiful, but anyone could glance at her twice at least so why... She clenched her hands tightly on her red robe, and she forced herself to subdue the bitter thoughts rising in her mind. He made it clear to her five years ago that she was nothing but a token for a successful business deal, nothing more and nothing less. He had told her to shatter whatever expectations of love she has because it'll never happen.

She deluded herself into thinking if she tried hard enough, he would come around... He never did, but she couldn't bring herself to stop trying. He was an asshole, but at the end of the day he wasn't just any asshole, he was an asshole she loved.

The sound of his car pulling into the driveway forced her out of her thoughts and a big smile lit up her face. She immediately cleared her dressing table, and ran downstairs to the door to welcome him. It was a ritual she has religiously followed for the past 5 days.

Lily's heart dropped to her stomach and soon enough it felt like butterflies, millions of them were fluttering in her belly when Asher walked in with a smile on his face. That has never happened, not even when he closed deals worth millions and billions of dollars. Her hopes immediately skyrocketed the second she sighted him, is this it? Is this the day he finally falls for me? She thought.

Her thought were immediately dashed the minute she saw the person latched onto his arm, a big smile on her face as well. She immediately lost her footing at the sight of them and had to grab onto the door for support.

Beside him was a face she hadn't seen in years, a face that had a striking resemblance with hers but was nothing like her, the same face that Asher was meant to witness on their wedding day but chose to flee. Charlotte, her younger sister and Asher's ex fiancé and one true love was latched onto his arm. A big smile on her face.

"Lily!" Charlotte's high-pitched voice rang in the room, causing Lily to wince. "It's been so long!" A small silence accompanied by a scrutinizing gaze collapsed and Lily prepared herself for whatever vicious thing she was giving to say next, she knew that look all too well. "Did you get fatter? You look it."

A deep chuckle followed her statement and hurt sliced through Lily's heart when she realized it had come from Asher.

"Come, let's have dinner. I'm sure she prepared something for us." He said, looking at her with so much awe, and Lily sucked in a breath. Five seconds, that was all she asked for. For him to look at her for 5 seconds, but he never did, yet here he was, staring at her sister with so much awe... The same girl that outrightly rejected his proposal even when they'd been dating for a while.

"Do you think that's the reason she's getting fat?" Lily heard Charlotte ask as they both walked to the dinning. Her hands immediately enclosed tightly against the hems of her gown, her bottom lip quivered ever so lightly as she tried to hold in the tears that has welled up in her eyes.

Five years ago when her father announced to her that she was to be married to Asher, she had felt a mixture of emotions; surprise, shock, fear, embarrassment, but most of all, excitement. She had liked Asher for a while. A long while even, but the second her sister discovered, she went off and started dating him.

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