1. Chapter One: You May Be The Darling Daughter, But I'm The Trophy Wife
*
"Miss Riley," Tinkerbell exhaled, shaking her head. "Mrs. Hastings will be so angry."
Tinkerbell was the closest thing I had to a mother, she had been there with me through thick and thin. She filled up the gaps that the absence of my mom had left behind.
She watched me grow up from the girl who thought monsters slept beside her to the spoilt brat I am today. Despite all my flaws, she loved me. And it showed.
"Come on, Tink," I grinned picking up Judith's camera. "Its not like she uses it anyway. Besides, what are cell phone cameras for?"
She sighed. "If Mrs. Hastings finds out, she will not take this lightly"
Judith took nothing lightly. From trampling on her tulips, to paintball fights in the garage. She took nothing lightly. Dad had married her a couple of years ago, and more than him- I thought it was a mistake.
"Just relax, Tinker. She won't find out. She doesn't follow me on Instagram." I stretched out my hand, giving her my phone.
She went to the window and eyed the gate. Upon realizing that Judith's car was no where in sight, she sighed out of relief and took my phone.
"Fine, Miss Riley," she grimaced. "Just this one time."
The thing about her was that Tinkerbell wasn't her real name. Martha was. But when she first arrived, I had just read Peter Pan and her features- petite face, green eyes, blonde hair and tiny frame- reminded me instantly of Tinkerbell and the name stuck.
Now she looked like how Tinkerbell the fairy would have looked, had she aged. A lot can happen over seventeen years.
Putting the camera strap around my neck, I faced the window. Holding the camera in my hands, I posed as if I was taking a shot of the world outside.
After a couple of snaps, I saw Judith's car coming through the gates.
Quickly I took the phone from Tinker, and glanced through the pictures. Some were horrible. Some needed a little bit of tweaking- filter, vignette, slight editing and it would be instaready.
Satisfied with the results, I grinned.
"Oh, Tinker," I added without looking up from the screen. "The monster's here."
She gasped. "Why didn't you tell me that before?" All tensed up, she walked swiftly out of the room.
"And, Miss Riley, don't forget to clean up before you leave," she shouted from the hallway. "You wouldn't want another tantrum."
Yeah, I wouldn't want that.
Over the years, I had grown tired and frustrated with Judith's incessant need to shout and scream at every little thing. And dad's absence didn't really help.
The thing was, he was never really around to witness them. He was always busy with his business trips which took him across the globe. I missed him, terribly. And him not being there, added to my list of frustrations.
He would send the occasional emails- he still hadn't learned how to use Facebook or Twitter.
But his absence mattered. I could never bring myself to tell dad that the woman he married was, in fact, a nightmare come to life.
Her petty complaints and easily annoyed antics was wearing me down.
I thought I would get accustomed to it.
I didn't. Not even close.
Instead, it was becoming more than what I could bear.
She didn't get on my nerves.
She snapped them.
I just needed a catalyst.
And I'd do what I have been planning for ages.
The reason why Tinker had scurried off to meet her was because Judith had ego issues. She wanted to feel powerful and in control at all times. So whenever she came back from anywhere, she expected all the maids to wait by the door as she walked in.
She thought she looked like the queen when she walked through the door.
All I saw was a spoilt gold-digger who went for botox every other month. Among other cosmetic surgeries she spent my dad's money on.
But that gold digger wouldn't be happy with me snooping or even remotely touching her stuff. Which by the way, was bought with my dad's money.
I realized that I stood there, with the camera dangling from my neck when she could walk in at any moment.
Slowly, I removed the strap around my neck and put the camera where it had been placed.
I turned and began walking out the door.
Crash.
I prayed to God that it was Judith crashing into a wall and dying. But, God stopped listening to me a long time ago.
Looking behind, I saw that it wasn't Judith. Sadly.
But it was definitely something that belonged to the step monster.
What I wasn't expecting was that my hand would get tangled inside the strap and it would be followed with a loud crash.
It was what I held in my hands a few seconds ago.
Her camera.
Her precious vintage camera.
Which I had managed, so skillfully, to break.
Judith would be so pleased to see me. Not.
Ah. Hell.
*
They say that the brain tunes out what it think is irrelevant. Mine pretty much tuned out everything. My brain was slower and thicker than an average person's. I wouldn't really mind if you called me a retard right now.
I'm really open to criticism.
Just not from Judith.
I was standing there, in the room, as stiff as a rock, holding the camera as if I didn't know what to do with it. Which, honestly speaking, I didn't.
Dabbing some glue on it didn't do the trick. I should have stopped myself from doing that. Not to self: Superglue doesn't work on everything.
That's when Judith had walked in. She almost formed a smile when she saw me. That is, until she saw what I carried in my hands.
"Riley!" she screamed, storming into the room. Her usually plastic pretty face scrunched up in an array of emotions, ranging from- shock to horror to confusion to anger. One remained. Rage. And that, would lead to a full throttle tantrum.
For a woman of thirty, she threw a hell lot of tantrums. This house didn't even need a toddler. We had Judith.
"Hey, Judith," I plastered on a fake smile. My hands held her precious, but broken camera. I was in a very compromised position. Getting caught naked with a guy would be better than this. "How's it going?"
Her eyes were filled with anger. She looked nothing less of a Medusa.
"What the hell happened to my camera, Riley?" she bit out, stressing on each and every word.
I exhaled, and in that moment I thought of all the possible answers I could give. I chose the most basic and simple one.
"It fell."
"How?"
"Gravity, Jude," I shrugged. "Didn't they teach you that in school?"
She glared at me with an intense fury. She looked like a predator and that, in relation, would make me the prey. I felt like a Bambi face to face with an evil Samba. Cause Samba was the king and the strongest of them all. Now, I was rambling.
"So you got your manicure done?" I tried. But failed. Miserably.
Of all the things in the world, I wouldn't let her have the satisfaction of knowing that, at times, she scared the wits out if me.
"I'm not in the mood for games, Riley!" She banged her fist against the wall. I swear that if we peeled off the wallpaper right now, we would find tiny cracks on it.
She took carefully measured steps to stand right in front of me. She stood a head taller, thanks to those stilettoes. We were, in actuality, of the same height. Give or take a few inches. Mostly take.
"One more incident, Riley Hastings," she hissed. Her eyes glowering with contempt and pure evilness which made me shudder. "And I'll ask Freddie to ship you off to a boarding school."
"My dad," I asserted, "would never do that, step monster."
She crackled up a smile. Her face, up close, looked so innocent. But that smug smile gave all of it away.
"You're forgetting something, Riley," she snickered. Bending down so that I could meet her shallow eyes, she smirked. "You maybe the darling daughter, but I'm the trophy wife."
And that's how, ladies and gentlemen, she snaps my nerves.
Putting on the game face I practiced in the mirror for ages, I looked her right in her eyes. Now I realized that standing in front of the mirror for countless hours had, in fact, been preparing me for this day.
The four words I said next would earn me a slap right across the face. Like that mattered to me anymore.
Giving her the best of my contemptuous smirk, I said what I always said in my mind. This time, out loud.
"Fuck you, Judith Green."
Then came the slap.
*
"Well," I exhaled, putting in the last bit of item into the suitcase, "that's the end of it."
I looked around my room. I would miss it. I would miss the comfort of this bed. I would miss this house. I grew up here. Now I had grown sick of it. All thanks to Judith, the step monster.
What followed after a slap was me- all hysterical- shouting at her to get hell away from me and screaming at her stuff I can't really remember now.
Pissed, I stormed into my room and started throwing stuff into a couple of bags. I had planned this so many times in my head. And it was finally here.
I, Riley Hastings, would run away.
***
Hey, thanks for reading till here. Means a lot. I hope you liked it.
-ramencook