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“Wow, that looks better on you that I ever imagined,” Aunt Emmie gushed as she stood and came over to stand beside me as I turned to face the mirrors. “You look exactly like a princess now.”
I gritted my teeth. Princess. I didn’t want to be a damn princess. From the moment I had become Jesse Thornton’s daughter, people had called me the Rocker Princess. It was a title I’d always hated, and it was kind of like a slap in the face that Aunt Emmie didn’t understand that. She, of all people, understood the life we lived better than anyone else.
“I look fat,” I grumbled.
“Yep,” Lana said matter-of-factly from behind me.
“Agree,” Kin said, nodding her head in the mirror.
“How much tulle is on that dress?” Jenna asked with wide eyes. “I’ve never seen so much on one single dress in my life.”
Aunt Emmie’s bottom lip pouted out. “You don’t like it?”
I shrugged. “It’s not something I would have picked for myself.”
“You heard her, Em.” Natalie was on her feet now. “I knew she wouldn’t like this one. Lucy, try on mine next. It’s going to look fabulous on you, sweetie.”
“Yes, try on Nat’s,” Mom agreed. “That leaves mine for last, which is perfect.”
Swallowing my groan, I lifted the itchy skirt as best I could and headed back to the changing room. Ten minutes later, I was once again in front of the trifold, my discomfort even more apparent. Nat’s choice, like Aunt Emmie’s, was a ball gown. But this one was even bigger. The cathedral style bottom was dipped in crystals and actual gold flakes. The bodice was nothing but expensive crystals on top of satin, and my boobs literally felt like they were in my throat from how high the corset was pushing them. The neckline was cut down between my breasts, showing off even more of the girls than the last dress.
If my dad saw me in this dress, he would lose his mind.
“What do you think?” Nat asked from beside me, so excited to have my opinion that she was practically dancing.
“No.”
Her entire face fell. “You don’t like it at all?”
“Not even a little,” I told her point-blank. Maybe I was being harsh, but she needed to know I hated the dress and couldn’t—wouldn’t—walk down the aisle to marry her stepson in it. “I can barely breathe in this damn thing. I’m not a fan of gold, which you knew. And if I dared to get this dress, my dad would go apeshit the second he saw me in it.”
“Yup,” Lana agreed. Natalie shot her sister-in-law a pout, but my sister didn’t even blink. “What? It’s a beautiful dress, Nat. But this is something I could see you in, not Lucy. Like the last dress, it swallows her whole from the waist down. She looks like she’s pregnant. While the girls up top look like they are one sneeze away from flashing more than a little nip.”
Mom was already pushing me toward the changing room. “Now mine. Hurry, honey. I can’t wait to see you in my choice.”
I glanced back at my sister and my best friend. Lana and Kin both gave me encouraging smiles, but I couldn’t return them. Back in the dressing room, Paul helped me take off Nat’s choice and then opened the bag that held my mom’s.
The instant I saw it, I deflated. This dress… It wasn’t me in any shape or form. Not one single thing about it would have said to Mom: this is what your daughter will love. And for some weird reason, that hurt. Hurt more than anything else she could have said or done. From the moment Lana and I had become her responsibility when I was only four years old, we had been close. Even before she had adopted me, I had looked up to her, considered her more my mom than my sister. We had known each other to the core—to our souls.
That had changed when she found out about the cutting, though.
And now, it was like she didn’t know a single thing about me.
I swallowed my tears as Paul quietly helped me into the dress. I held them back as I stared half blindly at myself in the mirror. This wasn’t a ball gown like the other two had been, which was a small relief because I wasn’t sure I could have put on another voluminous dress today. The top was low-cut, but not so much that Dad would freak, and satin with only a single strap, which gave it a kind of Grecian feel. The fabric molded to my hips in a way that let the world see every one of my curves.
It was one of the most gorgeous dresses I had ever seen, ever worn.
“Take it off,” I whispered in a choked voice.
“Hmm?” Paul murmured and saw I had lost the battle of containing my tears as the first two fell. “Oh, dear—”
“Take it off,” I repeated, trying and failing to make my voice a little louder. “I…I can’t do this. Please, just take it off.”
He rushed to help me out of the dress, and I didn’t even give him time to put the dress back in the bag before I was pulling on the clothes I had arrived in. Swallowing my sob, I grabbed my purse and threw open the door. I couldn’t do this. It wasn’t fun anymore. Fuck, it hadn’t been fun all day. But after realizing my mom knew nothing about me now, I just couldn’t face trying on another single dress.
I ran for the exit, startling the brightly smiling receptionist as I pushed through the front door and out onto the street where I sucked in one lungful of fresh air after another. Tears poured down my face, and people walked widely around me as they went about their own business. I couldn’t do this right now. Not today. Mom had ruined it with the dress choice she had made.
Needing to be as far away from her as possible, I hailed a cab and jumped in just as the door to Paul’s shop opened behind me. “Lucy!” Lana called out.
