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Now that I was eighteen and an adult, there was no reason for them to parent me, but the reality was, they never did. Various nannies and housekeepers raised me, but mostly, I raised myself. I spent more time at Haven’s house than at my own. She was the only family I had, and with the loss of her mother, we relied on each other.
“We’ll be back next week,” Mom stated, smiling wide. “Your father is accepting an award for surgeon of the year in Miami. We decided to make a family vacation out of it.”
“Family vacation, huh?”
“Cove, don’t frown. It causes wrinkles.”
I simply nodded.
“Oh, I know! We’ll bring you back a gift. How does a Prada bag sound?”
“Great, I’ll add it to the dozens of Prada bags you’ve brought me home. Maybe I can be included on the family trip next time?”
“Honey”—she giggled—“you don’t want to hang out with your parents when you could be hanging out with all your friends. You’re one of the most popular girls in your school. What you need to be focusing your time on is finding a boyfriend at an Ivy League university before your beauty starts fading. You won’t be young forever, Cove.”
“For fuck’s sake,” I whispered to myself.
She kissed the air. “Be a good girl while we’re gone, okay?”
I simply nodded. It was easier to deal with her when I just agreed with everything she said. I was once again left to fend for myself. You’d think I’d be used to it, considering they neglected me my whole life. I was only useful to them when they needed to show me off to their friends or at their parties. I was nothing more than a toy they could play with whenever they wanted.
I’d be graduating in a few short months and moving out. I couldn’t help but fear the reality that I’d truly be alone.
Would they have me over for holidays? Would they even notice I was gone and wasn’t living there with them?
My cell phone rang with Haven’s picture on the screen. I answered, but she sounded panicked before I could say hello, announcing, “I need you.”
I was immediately worried. “What’s wrong?”
“So much. Can you meet me at my house?”
“I’m on my way.”
As I was driving, I had a sneaking suspicion it had something to do with Hayes, the guy she was hopelessly falling for. I’d only seen him a few times, but it was obvious my best friend was falling in love for the first time. To complicate matters, he was her boss at the bar where she waitressed.
We didn’t live far from one another. It didn’t take me long to arrive on their property. Since there were no cars, I assumed no one was home. I waited for her in my Jeep in her driveway. I was surprised I didn’t see her brothers’ vehicles. Haven’s house had always been a revolving door for her five older siblings. She was the only one who still technically lived at home, but you wouldn’t think that with how often they were there.
Each one was a pain in the ass in their own way, though none of them held a candle to Jace. Now that he was retired from the Navy, he was at their house more than I cared for. The last thing I wanted was to run into him without her being home.
I couldn’t stand the asshole. He was worse than ever when it came to her. They all treated Haven like she was still a little girl despite her being eighteen and graduating from high school soon. They didn’t give a shit.
It seemed as if Jace was trying to make up for lost time. The Navy had always been his life, and I only saw him a couple of times a year in the last decade. Thank God for that. Just thinking about him pissed me off.
From the moment he treated me like shit when I was eight years old, I kept my distance from him. We barely spoke to one another, and when we did, it was filled with animosity and hatred. I never knew why he hated me. All I knew was that I despised him.
“Haven, where are you?” I rasped to myself while grabbing the pack of cigarettes from my purse.
Between her guy drama and my parents’ absence, I was feeling anxious. Haven hated that I sometimes smoked, but it helped take the edge off. Out of the two of us, my best friend was definitely the angel, and I was the devil on her shoulder.
If her brothers truly knew the things I’d made her do over the years, they’d never let her leave their house. She was hiding her relationship or whatever Hayes and her were to one another from her family. It was the only way she’d be able to have him in her life, and we both knew it.
