Maddox
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95
A
5 vouchers
Tiffany’s first words made it pretty clear that she’d been behind the whole thing, but Harper was so much in denial that she pushed Tiffany aside.
“Where’s my sister? What have you done to her?” Harper’s voice cracked with panic as she frantically looked around.
Tiffany ced her manicured hand over her mouth to hold in herughter, her eyes wide with mockery. “Aww…is this you ying dumb? I got you real good, didn’t I?<b>” </b>
She moved closer to savor the sight of Harper’s eyes now glistening with tears.
Anna wasn’t my sister but I felt my chest splitting in half at the sight of Harper being crushed. She had been looking forward to meeting Anna but it was all for nothing.
“Care to exin what’s going on here?” I asked, my tone sharp as I tightened my grip around my phone while I was still filming, even though I just wanted to hurl the phone against the wall.
She looked over with a smirk. “I thought you’d never ask.” Her gaze then shifted back to Harper. “I have something for you. Wanna take a guess<b>?</b><b>” </b>
Harper was at a loss for words as she just stood there, her chest now rising and falling rapidly.
Rummaging through her handbag, Tiffany said, “Just a moment. It’s right… here!”
She pulled out a phone, holding it up to Harper’s face. “You can already tell that this isn’t mine. It looks like crap. That’s why it belongs to Anna! I didn’t kidnap her or anything. I just executed the perfect n at the perfect moment. I had someone snatch it and give it to me. That’s right, you’ve been talking to me the whole time.”
“No.” Harper managed to say in denial, tears now streaming down her face.
“Oh, yes!”
I tried to put the pieces together of how we arrived at that moment and I shut my eyes, instantly ming myself. I was the one who informed Grayson about Anna being spotted in London. He must have run his mouth to Tiffany without realizing she’d use it to tear Harper apart. I should’ve kept my damn mouth shut.
“So here’s the thing<i>,” </i>Tiffany said, circling around Harper. “I’ve been wanting to get back at you ever since you tried to destroy my marriage and I wanted to hit you where it hurt the most. That’s why when Kate told me she spotted Anna here in London. I knew that was just perfect. It was a beautiful afternoon, a little robbery and then poof, Anna’s phone was in my hand. I’ll admit that I didn’t know what to do with it. That was until you texted first. You gotta admit that I did pretty good.”
She flicked her gaze to me, like she expected apuse.
I should’ve been relieved that her n began way before I told Grayson, but everything just made my blood
boil.
95
B 5 vouchers
Then, Harper’s knees buckled and she dropped to the floor, her trembling hands failing to keep it together.
The thud caught Tiffany’s attention, making her look down at Harper like she was nothing.
“That’s right, your sister never wanted to see you,” she rubbed it in her face. “Did you really think this was going to be your big reunion? I had to pay $3,000 to rent this house for today just to watch you break and it was totally worth it.”
Tiffany went on and on about her n and it was only when I tightened the grip on my phone so hard that my knuckles hurt that I realized I was still filming. I shut it down, stepping forward until I was between the two of them and faced Tiffany.
“I admit that you’re capable of a lot of things, but how could you do this?” I couldn’t hide my disgust.
“Looks like someone didn’t hear a word I said.” Her eyes narrowed with a sneer.
Behind me, Harper’s soft and broken sniffle made me turn around to face her and I crouched down. Her eyes were tightly shut while still in tears, but there was movement in her throat that told me she was still holding in so much. I just wanted to wrap my arms around her.
“Well, this was way more satisfying than I thought it would be, but I’m bored now, so I’m leaving.”
Tiffany hummed happily as she made her way to the door and for a few seconds, I just stared at her. She really was Margot’s daughter.
It was only when Harper sniffled again that I looked back at her. I had to do something.
I reached out with my arm, resting my hand at the back of her head. “Come here.”
She loudly burst into tears as she buried her face in my chest, gripping the back of my shirt so tightly that it felt like she might tear it apart.
I didn’t even bother lying to her with empty words about how everything was going to be all okay because the truth was that it wasn’t.
Her cries only got louder and even as I gently stroked the back of her head, it didn’t help calm her down, so I stayed with her on the floor for a while. But there was no use being in that house any longer. It was only going to make her feel worse. I got up, pulling her up along with me.
“Let’s go home.” My voice was gentle.
For a brief moment, as I was looking down at her, she shifted the position of her face and right there on my shirt, I spotted the ck streaks of mascara and powder. She was in so much pain that I held her even tighter. Fuck the shirt. Nothing else mattered. She was robbed of something so important to her that I couldn’t imagine what she was going through.
Her shoulders trembled as I guided her to the car and seeing her in that state made me want to still hold her close, so I put her in the backseat, got in as well, then threw my arm around her as she sobbed into my chest. It actually took me a while to get to the driver’s seat. Her hopes and dreams were shattered and it broke something in me.
5 vouchers
Harper
A few hours went by and I still couldn’t get over what Tiffany had done to me. There was no way I could. She was right. She hit me where it hurt the most and the ache didn’t fade.
I reread the thread with Anna the way people reread old letters, line after line, trying to find any hint that I’d missed in the most recent messages. I didn’t even question it as Tiffany’s tone in the texts sounded just like the distant sister I knew.
Grayson called me once again and I declined his call. He’d been calling me for the past four hours but I didn’t feel like talking to him.
Aunt Patricia and my friends were eagerly waiting, constantly sending me messages to hear the good news and that only hurt even more because there was no good news.
I was curled up on the bed with my back against the headboard when Maddox walked in. He had left me alone for a few hours, just as I had requested.
Joining me on the bed, he said, “Hey, you okay. That’s actually a dumb question. Don’t answer it.”
In any other situation, I would’veughed a little, but I was far from feeling cheerful.
“Sorry about all this,” he said.
“It’s not your fault. I’m sorry about your shirt.” My gaze dropped to the mess I’d made on it.
He chuckled lightly. “Don’t worry about it. It’s no big deal.”
“Says the person who was bragging about how special the shirt is,” I reminded him. “Why do you still have it on? Trying to remind me that I’m responsible?”
“Forget about that. It doesn’t matter. There are more important things to worry about, like you.”
He looked at me as he said it and my heart skipped the beat.
“I know how much you were looking forward to this and Tiffany took that away from you.”
I sighed in defeat. “What hurts me the most is that there was never a moment when I was actually talking to
my sister. She wasn’t looking for me. She didn’t want to see me. She’s here in London, living her life like I don’t exist. And then there’s Tiffany. She’s going to get away with this like nothing happened.”
“I’ve been doing some thinking and this will never end.”
I scoffed. “There’s nothing she can throw at me now that’s going to be worse than this.”
“You’re right about that, but I think it’s time to get her off your back for good.”
“How?” <b>I </b>nced at him, my eyebrows raised with curiosity.
With a smirk, he said, “Go out with me.”