Page 12 of Reaper

Pants after pants.

Set after set of shoes.

They’re all tossed out onto the bedroom floor.

When I’m done, I look around more critically and throw a few more items onto the pile before I step out and close my closet. I’ll eventually wash everything of mine in there because who knows if they did anything to my stuff, but that’s a job for another day.

A part of me relishes in seeing Aiden’s expensive clothes and shoes in a heap on my floor and I smirk as I picture his face when I tell him he isn’t getting any of his things back that he left here. Not that he’ll probably care. I know this small pile wouldn’t even put a dent in his bank account.

I’m brought out of my thoughts as someone puts my bedspread and sheets on top of the pile and I look up to find both Khloe and Miracle grinning at me.

“That’s the spirit, Babe! Let’s cleanse this room of everything that was the cunt licker’s!” Miracle says before pointing at my dresser. “Now, which drawers do we need to empty?”

A few hours later, the hallway is full of trash bags and boxes containing my bedding, pillows, towels, all of Aiden’s clothes and belongings he left here, plus a red thong that I’m almost positive Kelly left here on purpose.

All of which will eventually be turned to ash.

Any pictures that had Kelly or Aiden in them were taken down.

They’ll be used as target practice.

There were a few group pictures that I was able to save since either Kelly or Aiden were on the edge of the picture. For those ones, I just cut them out of the picture and set them aside since I’ll need to get new frames or a mat for them before rehanging them. There were a few group pictures where either Kelly or Aiden were in the middle of the group, but they were still good pictures. Instead of cutting them up or using them as target practice, I tucked them into the same keepsake box where I put Aiden’s ring.

And the picture Ma took of Aiden and me as I showed off my new engagement ring?

I tucked it into that same box with a note written on the back to always remember his betrayal. So I never let anyone try and make me into someone I’m not. To not let someone take mydreams away from me. To wait until I’d found someone who loved me for me and not what I could do for them.

Looking back now, it’s obvious that Aiden was trying to change me little by little. He made comments here and there about what I wore, how I dressed, and that I didn’t drive a new, expensive vehicle. I’m not someone who cares about high-end clothes and always being dressed to the nines. I don’t want to trade in my car every year just so I can flaunt my money. My car isn’t brand new, but it runs perfectly fine, and I like it.

Another thing he kept trying to do was get me to go to fancy functions with him. I went to a few, but I was never comfortable. I always felt like I was putting on a mask because I had to act how Aiden and his parents wanted me to. Not that it really mattered in the end. All the ladies snubbed me when they learned my name. They saw me as beneath them because my family doesn’t flaunt our wealth. We don’t go to tea at high noon or go shopping every day. We don’t take luxurious vacations. The fact that I worked, and that I wanted to keep working, appalled them. They couldn’t understand why I would work when I didn’t have to.

As they say, hindsight is 20/20. It’s so much easier to see things now than when I was in the thick of everything.

Shaking my head, I got back to work. Once everything was out in the hallway, we deep cleaned my room, making sure nothing was missed. Now that we’re done with the cleaning, I’m already starting to feel more settled.

“What are you thinking?” Miracle asks as she perches her hands on my shoulder and leans her head down on her hands before tilting her head slightly so that the top of her head is almost completely laying in the crook of my neck.

“That I’m a few steps closer to reclaiming my space. I think once I get new bedding, wash all my clothes and reframe those pictures, that might be the last steps, but time will tell. At least Ididn’t succumb to him and redecorate in here. I really do prefer my style over what he wanted to do.”

Arms wrap around my waist and Khloe lays her head on my other shoulder. I tilt my head and rest mine against hers.

“I’m proud of you, Babe. However, just know that you can always talk to us if you need to vent or if you feel like you’re falling apart. We’ll always have your back. Those two are dead to us, and we’re back to the original KLM group.”

I can’t help but laugh a little at that and I shake my head at her old nickname for us three.

When we were in second grade, and before Kelly had moved here, Khloe had nicknamed us the KLM group because of our initials and that in the alphabet, those three letters were right next to each other. I don’t know why, and maybe it was just a little girl thing, but that convinced our second-grade brains that we were meant to be best friends forever. When Kelly joined us, we’d changed it to the KLM² group.

Unfortunately, there were always periods of awkwardness after Kelly joined our group because she didn’t like that the three of us were friends before she came into the fold. Many times, she’d pout or get angry because of how close I was with Miracle as well, but we’ve known each other since we were babies. We’re so close that we consider each other sisters. Our mothers are best friends, so we were always around each other.

Shaking my head again, I turn toward the hallway. “Time for a bonfire, target practice, and I don’t know about you guys, but I could use a drink.”

They both give me another hug as we cross the room toward the hallway.

“I brought some tequila and the makings for an old fashioned,” Miracle calls over her shoulder and I smirk.

Of course she did.

It’s her favorite drink.