Page 90 of Surprise Baby for Mr. Fischer

To me, it was a symbol that I should stay in Rhode Island and give up my dreams.

The doorbell rang again. Had Dahlia forgotten something?

In a daze I opened the door. I blinked a few times, almost sure my eyes were playing tricks on me.

“What the hell?” Hope screeched from behind me.

“Hi Harper.” Whitney said with a disparaging smile. A smile that whether she realized it or not showed her true feelings about me. I was a means to an end.

“What the fuck do you want?” I bit out. Was she here for a quote she could twist and use for a new article?

“Come on, Harper. Don’t be like that.” She sulked. Did she honestly think I’d welcome her back with open arms? In some weird, twisted way I think she did.

Hope was so close to me I could feel her breath on the back of my neck. A strange calm filled me as I stood there in silence. WhywasWhitney here?

“Don’t be like what, Whitney?” I countered and crossed my arms against my chest. “Angry that you betrayed our friendship or that you totally threw me and Lincoln under the bus? And for what? Your two minutes of fame?”

Her eyes flashed in contempt. “You know it’s all your fault it happened!”

I couldn’t stop my mouth from gaping open. “Excuse me?”

“If you’d just been honest with me from the beginning this never had to go down this way.” She hurled at me.

“So, you’re blaming this one on me?” I stared at her incredulously. How had I not seen how manipulative she had been our whole lives.

“It’s not fair,” she sneered. “You have what I want and you don’t even care!”

“What the hell is that, you fucking sea cow?!” Hope yelled, her voice vibrating in anger. She’d started to call Whitney that the other day and it stuck as our new favorite nickname for her.

Whitney leaned in, anger marring a face I once thought was beautiful, but now looked ugly after her deceit. “You don’t need to get nasty, Hope. I’m only telling the truth. Harper once again got the fame I wanted. That I deserve!”

“You’re fucking delusional, Whitney if you think that fame is what I’ve been going for here.” I shook my head as the rest of her words sunk in. “And what do you mean again?”

“Everyone loved you onThe Greatest Loserand then when you got kicked off they sensationalized it, giving you screen time even after you were gone.”

“Besides the night at the hospital, that was the single most traumatic event in my life.” My breathing sped up at the thought of how awful my life was after that episode aired and all the commentary afterward from TV stations, people online, and in my hometown. “How could you even think I enjoyed any of that?”

She shrugged. “Because it still got you on TV.”

Frustration ate at me alongside the sadness that filled my heart. Whitney’s quest for fame had created the narcissistic person before me. I mourned the little girls we once were, with hopes and dreams that tangled and intertwined. But now, even though my anger at her simmered below the surface, I knew I was right in cutting her out of my life.

“I think we’re done here. Don’t ever contact me again Whitney, or write another exposé about me or I promise that I will use this new found fame you’re so jealous over to destroy you.”

I shut the door in her face, finally ready to close that chapter in my life.