It all started with a game

Chapter 14

I didn't bother thanking her, my pride too large to admit that I had no idea what I was doing. "You don't need to be here." I tried one last time to get her to leave. "You can go home." I didn't need her to see the train wreck that was my family.

I didn't want her to see it.

Her smile fell ever so slightly, like she already figured this was coming. She took a deep breath, fixing the collar of my suit again in an attempt to distract herself. "Alexia asked me to come, so I'm going to stay. I'm here for Alexia, so if you want, feel free to sit on the opposite end of the table from me and ignore me the entire dinner if it'll make you feel better."

Alexia had other ideas because when dinner came, she placed Beatrice directly beside me. I figured she would have at least sat on the opposite side of Alexia, so that there could be a one person barrier between the two of us, but no, Alexia was sure to make that impossible. So now, Beatrice got to sit directly between me and Alexia. She looked about as comfortable as I was, trying to keep her attention on Alexia.

I watched as a variety of business people and influencers who had no idea who my father was, filed into the room. My mother took the head of the table, of course, standing up once everyone else was seated. "I would like to thank you all for coming this evening. This is a very important day for me and my family." She looked in our general direction, not at us, but in our direction so that to everyone else it would appear she was actually looking at her family and not the back wall behind us. "I would like to dedicate this dinner in the memory of my loving husband, Nathaniel Adams."

Hearing his name was like a punch to the gut, nearly making me hurl. I tried not to think about it most days because maybe if I pretended it never happened, then it wouldn't be real. But that was never the case.

Malik took my sister's hand, giving it a small, loving, squeeze acting like the father figure he always was to her.

Don't get me wrong, Malik's a great guy and he really loves my sister like his own daughter, but the two of us would never have a good relationship. He would never replace my father.

Mother married Malik about four years after dad died. Alexia was attached to him from the beginning, practically going everywhere with him. I was not. I hated the guy, no one could compare to my father. Malik tried about everything to get me to like him but nothing stuck. I ruined any chance of a relationship with him the second I knocked him out. I was thirteen, and drunk out of mind, and he kept going on about how we were family and next thing I know, my fist was colliding with his face and he's out cold for a solid twenty minutes. Now we are simply cordial to each other, but he's always certain to make sure that I know if I ever want it, he's there for me, that we are still family despite the fact that I tried to kill him. I'm glad Alexia has someone there for her, but I am better off alone.

I'll probably end up just like my father, unhappily married and driving my car so fast that I crash into a pole, or something equally as foolish.

My mother continued her pathetic speech. "My husband was a great man, who loved his kids." Probably the only true thing she would say all evening. "He spent every waking moment he could with the twins. He would be so proud if he could see them now." And there starts the lies.

Every guest, aside from Malik and Beatrice, set their eyes on me and Alexia, examining the so-called 'perfect children'. Alexia and I put on our television smiles like we'd been trained to do. The group nodded in satisfaction, returning their attention to my mother. "I loved him to the ends of the earth. When he passed away, my heart shattered. I couldn't leave my bedside for months."

The muscles in my jaw tightened as I ground down my teeth. I was the one who didn't get out of bed for months. Three months to be exact. The maid had to bring me food everyday just in an attempt to get me to eat. I didn't shower for three months. Not my finest moment.