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TWISTED SNOW
A TWISTED SNOW WHITE RETELLING
MEASHA STONE
CHAPTER 1
Seraphina
The ice sculpture is melting.
Droplets of water fall from the tip of the swan’s beak, and the party planners rush to keep it from thawing any further.
Vivian will lose her mind when she sees this.
“Right this way, ma’am.” One of the staff Vivian hired for tonight’s party gently directs me away from the growing crowd in the dining room. “Your mother has asked you to join her before she joins everyone for dinner.”
Stepmother, I correct him in my mind. And even that moniker is a stretch.
“Right.” I do my best to sound sure of myself, as though I know what’s going on, but the truth is, I’m as lost as I can be in my own home.
“Seraphina.” My name drips from her lips like poison. The gentleman escorting me nods to her, and scurries away like a rat trying to get off a sinking ship.
I wish I had the option.
“This is the gown you chose for tonight?” Vivian rakes her cold glare over me. I roll my shoulders back, trying to keep her judgmental eyes from penetrating my mind. I’m wearing a simple blue-and-white gown with a high waist and a soft neckline.
“Something a bit more elegant would have been preferred,” she finally says, her heavily painted lips curling away from her teeth, exposing a small red fleck of her lipstick stuck to her front tooth. “I suppose it will have to do; we don’t have time for a change.” She tugs on the end of one of my curls, frowning. “It’s even shorter curled like this.” Disappointment hangs on her words.
I cut my midnight black hair clear up to my chin just before graduation last month. I was done maintaining all that hair when it was nearly to my ass.
Vivian hates it. I knew she would, but this next chapter isn’t about her. Or anyone else. It’s all about me.
I finished my degree and am ready to start my life. After my father died four years ago, I’d left for college, just wanting to get away from this place, away from Vivian, and drown myself in my classes.
While I was away, Vivian took over Dad’s company, Snow Enterprises, a bundle of other smaller businesses he ran under the same umbrella. He never wanted me to go into business; he wanted me to find my own path. I was happy to let Vivian take over those things.
She seems to have kept up with his associates. Many of the guests here tonight were close friends with Dad. I’d hoped to avoid these social gatherings, but she insisted people would want to see me.
Only a few more months, I remind myself, whenever she starts to worm her way under my skin. In a few months, I’ll have a job, my own place to live, and I can say goodbye this suffocating place.
“Vivian.” Joey Catrone joins us just outside the doors the of the dining room. He worked with my father. Rarely, a week would go by where Joey wasn’t at our dinner table. It seems Vivian has kept up the relationship.
Dad always had a group of men around him. When I was little, I’d fantasized my father was the ruler of a large kingdom. I’d romanticized his position to the point of picturing myself being married off to some rugged, tall, dark-haired, insanely hot prince from some far-off country. A union to bring two families land and end a feud, bringing peace to our nations.
But then I grew up. The castle I’d fantasized about with horses and rose gardens turned out to be a fortress nestled on the outskirts of the city, guarded by men with guns tucked into holsters beneath their fitted suit jackets.
Turned out my father was a king, but it was no kingdom I wanted any part of. Thankfully, he felt the same. Whatever his sins were, he didn’t want them to touch me.
“We need to discuss something, Seraphina.” Vivian presses her thin lips together. “Now that you’re home from college, it’s time for you to do what’s right for our family.”
“What does that mean?” I ask curiously. She hasn’t used the term ‘our family’ since Dad died.
“We’ll talk more after the announcement. I just want you to know that I expect your full cooperation. Don’t embarrass me tonight,” she warns before walking ahead of me into the dining room. The chatter dies as we enter, and the room falls eerily silent.
I look over the crowd eyeing me as I join her at the head of the table. I catch Aaron Princeton staring at me from the far end of the table. His gaze wanders over my body. Even with the space between us, it makes my skin itch.
I’ve known Aaron since I was in middle school. He’s five years older than me, and his father owns a string of bars. Aaron’s handsome and rich, making him one of the most eligible bachelors in the room. According to some, anyway.
