Page 10 of Final Installment

“I suppose that will do.”She led me out of her bedroom and into the hallway.“I hope you weren’t planning to use my room to get ready.”

“I wasn’t.”

“Mariana set up the couch in Brett’s old office with pillows and blankets for you.We’d offer the guest room, but the old man needs it.”

“I’m staying at a hotel.”

Dafina scoffed.“Of course, you are.”

“I thought it would be best.”

“And no plus one?”

“No.”

“Really?Still not dating?”

“I date.”

“Men that Brett picks out for you?”she guessed meanly.

“Sometimes,” I admitted, thinking of the string of nice, successful and utterly boring men my stepdad had set me up with over the last couple of years.

“Maybe you should look for your next man in a school,” she suggested cruelly.“You had really good luck the last time you dated a teacher.”

Her vicious remark cut me deeper than any scalpel.“Fuck you, Dafina.”

“Sorry, but I’m not interested in fat girls with daddy issues.”

I glared at her.“And here I was feeling sorry for you!”

She sneered.“I don’t want your pity.”

“Good because you can’t have it.”

“Like I care?”She stormed toward the stairs.“Fat slut.”

“Skinny bitch,” I petulantly snapped back.“I hope the rest of your life is as miserable as you are.”

Dafina froze on the stairs and whirled back to glare at me.“Careful, Elona.I’m about to be the wife of a powerful man.One snap of my fingers, and I’ll make sure you know what real misery is.”

My heart pounded in my chest as I watched her leave.I stood there, trying to catch my breath as Dafina encountered our mother downstairs and began to fight with her.Their catty words echoed through the house, and my blood pressure skyrocketed.

“What did you do to upset your sister?”My mother appeared at the bottom of the stairs as I descended.She glared up at me, her face a mask of fury.“She was practically in tears!”

“What didIdo to upsether?”I walked down to meet her, dreading each step as I drew closer and closer.

“Don’t make me regret inviting you, Elona,” Mom warned, jabbing her finger in my face.“I didn’t want you here, but your grandfather insisted.”

“I will happily take my big ass home right now if that’s what you want.”

“What I want doesn’t matter!It hasn’t mattered since the day I was forced to marry your worthless father!”

“He wasn’t worthless!”I didn’t know why I felt the sudden need to defend a man I barely remembered.

“You don’t know a thing about your father.He was a coward just like my brother.”She stepped so close I could smell the cheap vodka on her breath.Her eyes were a bit glassy.

Since when did she day drink like this?