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I wasn’t stupid. Our mother didn’t makethreats. She madepromiseswith ice water in her veins if you pissed her off. Her true wrath was no joke.
Sighing heavily, I realized I’d have no choice but to suck it up and pretend to like Ava’s skank ass to the world at large for one awful day.
“I’ll be in your wedding party, bitch.”
“See if you can’t drop some pounds by then or the dresses I picked will beruined, heifer.”
She started to walk around me and I stepped in her way.
“Ever talk to me like that again and I’ll hit you where it hurts. Your designer clothes, bags, makeup collection, and shoe rack. I’ll douse everything you own in bleach and burn your pathetic life to the ground.”
“You’re fuckingcrazy, Petra.”
“No. I’m the only person who doesn’t stand for your utter bullshit. Grow up or don’t. Don’t talk to me like one of your servile friends.”
I stepped back and after a strained moment, she walked to the room she still occupied in our childhood home.
Mom leaned against the doorframe and chuckled when Ava’s door slammed. “You’re alittlecrazy, honey.”
“All part of my charm, Mom.” Hands on my hips, I said, “You realize this isn’t going to go down the way you hope it will.”
She winked. “Just don’t make any public scenes.” Turning, she said over her shoulder, “Ignore your sister, get your aunts to help with details, and avoid her idiot fiancé. You’ll end up in jail if you don’t.”
My mom knows me so well.
Chapter Three
April 2015
The months leading up to the wedding were everything I expected. Ava was every bride-to-be stereotype from day one.
Her wedding was in June at the Cruz Mansion. I swore she chose the place because I once mentioned it was where I’d marry one day.
Something she took from me that actually mattered.
Through it all, I gritted my teeth. How I stopped myself from murdering my little sister, I honestly don’t know. She asked for it every time I was near her.
Unless my mother called me personally for something we needed to accomplish as a family, I avoided Ava like a flaming case of crabs.
Her friends were skinny girls from the suburbs who acted just like her. As lead Mean Girl, they fell over themselves to impress my sister. It was all so weird.
The expense of everything blew my fucking mind. Wasting so much money on one day was pure jack-assery, in my opinion.
Especially when it wasn’thermoney.
Mom paid the bills, pushing back when she felt things were over the top even for her youngest child, and generally conducted herself with more class than I thought was warranted.
Ava was lucky Mom was loaded.
As the oldest of her siblings, Leda Katerina Andreadis inherited the operation of several businesses when mypappoúsdied.
Though her father groomed her from age ten to take over for him, the rest of the family was shocked he didn’t choose one of the male relations.
The reason was simple. She was smarter than all of them.
She never let him down. Her management of scrap metal facilities, real estate, restaurants, and shipping paid for our lives, our educations, and kept Mom sharp as a tack.
Since my little sister never balked at begging for money she didn’t earn, I made sure I never did.
