2. Lily

My sister has always been a bitch. One of the only three people that I have held disdain and hatred for from the time I can remember. My parents divorced a few months after I was born because my Mom found out that Dad was having an affair, and the woman was also having his child.

He begged Mom to stay with him, but she filed for divorce right away and kicked him out of the marital home. He went on to marry the other woman and proceeded out of spite to fight for fifty-fifty custody of me. Mom tried her best to stop it but it was no use.

From the age of two, I spent every other week at his home, being tormented by his wife and daughter. Then, when I was old enough, the courts cut the custody down to every other weekend, which was even worse because now they hated that I chose Mom over them as if there was any doubt.

I knew why his new wife hated me and Mom, but I could never understand why their daughter hated me as much as she did. Until it dawned on me that they were never at my grandparents’ house at the same time I was.

For some reason, when I was younger, I always thought they just went at different times since my Mom was usually with me when I visited, but once I got older, I found out that my grandparents had almost disowned Dad for the affair and had forbidden Janice, the wife, from ever crossing their door and refused to acknowledge Lacey as their granddaughter.

I’m not sure what any of that had to do with me or why I was the one who had to pay the price for the decisions the adults in my life made, but when I was younger, it used to hurt like hell.

Every time Lacey took something or broke something of mine, and my Dad ignored it or yelled at me for crying; I died more and more inside. His wife would always threaten that if I told my mother what was going on in their house, I would be taken away and put into foster care, so I never said anything when I was younger.

It was only when I turned fifteen and was a little more aware that I started to speak up about the abuse I endured in that house for the last thirteen years that Mom went back to court and got Dad’s custody time cut down tremendously.

It didn’t affect child support because Dad still worked for the company owned by his parents, and they threatened him once again with expulsion if he even thought about hurting Mom or me.

Their anger and hate turned into passive aggression, which was a step up from being locked in my room for the weeks I was there in the past. Lacey was pissed because she could no longer get away with tormenting me, and since I only had to see her four days out of the month instead of two weeks, I was able to ignore her most of the time, which only seemed to piss her off more.

Her mother hated that my grandparents still favored Mom and invited her to all of their important events; we still went on vacation with them twice a year, while Dad and his family were never invited.

When I was old enough to discuss these things I asked my grandmother why they never forgave Dad. Their answer was that when he cheated, they saw it as a bad reflection on them and their parenting.

They hadn’t raised their son to be so unfaithful as to cheat on his pregnant wife, and accepting him and the woman he cheated with would be the same as saying they accepted his behavior, which would have been a slap in their daughter-in-law’s face.

To them, Mom was the daughter they never had, and when they accepted her into the family, that’s the way they intended to treat her and since she had done no wrong, they weren’t going to punish her. They even encouraged Mom to get married again, but she never had any interest.

I never asked her about that, but I’m pretty sure she was traumatized by the whole thing and never wanted to endure such pain again. Anyway, Lacey and I never had any kind of relationship because she was a terror growing up, even though we were only two months apart in age.

Of course, her mother favored her, which was fine, but all the added abuse was not and will never be forgotten. After the custody change, my grandparents had another meeting with Dad where he was warned that if the abuse continued, he would no longer have a job. And I guess that was the eye-opener he needed to get his act together, but by then, it was too late.

I don’t hate him; in fact, I don’t hate any of them. I just don’t care for them as people and would never choose to be around them if it wasn’t necessary.

When we were about sixteen, Lacey was always going on about her boyfriend, some childhood friend whose dad worked for ours. I’d heard her mention the kid before but never paid too much attention because it had nothing to do with me.

Then, one day, I overheard her talking to her friends about how she was seeing his friend behind his back, and for some reason, whereas I had ignored whatever went on in that house for years, this rubbed me the wrong way.

It wasn’t just that she was cheating; it was the way she talked about it, and the fact that her mother had done the same thing to mine just flipped some switch in me, and I knew I had to do something.

I waited for one day when her parents were out of the house, and she had gone into the shower to go into her room and grab her phone. She had no idea that I knew her password, which was something that just happened because she uses her birth date for everything, which I once overheard her say because it’s easier to remember, and she was tired of forgetting her passcodes.

I found the boyfriend because by then, I’d heard his name mentioned and then found the images of her and the other guy together that she’d stupidly taken and bragged about with her friends. I sent the images to the boyfriend anonymously and that was that.

I never imagined that I would one day meet the guy, seeing as we’d never met and I didn’t live in their neighborhood, so imagine my surprise when he approached me on my new college campus.

I can’t say I was surprised that he was hot. Lacey, for all that she’s a witch, is very pretty on the outside, though she’s rotten from the core. I wasn’t sure what kind of person he was seeing as they were friends for so long, so when he approached me that first day I gave him the brush off.

But I’d since done some digging, which is my way, and found out that he’s actually a great guy; I just couldn’t understand what the hell he was still doing with my nightmare of a sister, but that was none of my business.

I took some time to think about how much I wanted to share with him because it was obvious he had questions, and in the end, I’m not sure what it was about him, but for some reason, once I started talking, I didn’t stop.

I told him things that I hadn’t even shared with my mother. I went as far back in my childhood as I could remember and told him about all the abuse I suffered at Lacey and Janice’s hands.

I wasn’t really looking at him as I spoke, but when I did glance at him once I was through, the look on his face was priceless. I laughed because he looked as if he wanted to murder someone, but for me, it was all in the past and not something I chose to let influence me one way or another.

I have my Mom and both sets of grandparents who, if I’m honest, spoil the hell out of me, so there’s really no time to dwell on people who really don’t matter to me anyway.

My Dad has been trying in the last few years, but as I told him on my sixteenth birthday when he couldn’t be bothered coming to my sweet sixteen because his wife wouldn’t allow him to, it was too little too late, and I didn’t need him anyway.

I don’t see why he even bothers anyway since he was never interested before. From what I gather from my Dad’s aunt, my father was pissed because Mom refused to forgive him or have anything to do with him after the affair.

He was willing to leave the ex and their child if Mom would take him back, but according to him, her pride got in the way, and she never loved him blah, blah, blah, and so that was his reason for remaining salty all these years.

As for Janice, she was pissed because she knew that Mom was my Dad’s one that got away, and if she snapped her fingers right now, he’d come running. Lacey’s just mad that her parents weren’t married when she was born, and she’s the product of an affair, all of which had nothing to do with me, and yet I was the one who bore the brunt of it.

My great aunt doesn’t have a filter so while the others tried to keep me in the dark, she thought it was only right I knew the truth. Plus, she was pissed that I was being mistreated.

Now, at eighteen, almost an adult, I’ve learned to look at things from all angles, and I can’t say that I fault Mom for not taking him back, nor do I fault her for never saying one word to him after the divorce.

My parents didn’t co-parent. I was handed off to my dad by my nanny growing up and she was the one who picked me up as well. Mom was in charge of all my doctor visits as well as anything having to do with school, so there was really never any need for those two to interact, and if there was, one of the grandparents handled it.

No one ever told Mom to let it go or that she was taking things too far when she decided that she would never acknowledge my Dad’s existence again, and because he had allowed Janice to mistreat me from a very young age, I, too had grown to resent him and never wished to have them back together.

Grayson and I talked about all of this, and he asked a lot of questions as if he was genuinely interested so I told him. He was having a hard time understanding how it was that we’d never met, and I told him that was easy.

Lacey would never allow the two of us to be in the same room together, just as she never allowed any of her friends to be around me because she was afraid that I would blow her nice girl cover.

All those weekends I spent at their home, she was usually at his house or away somewhere, which was fine. As for when we were younger, that’s when I was locked in my bedroom as soon as I came home from school, so I wouldn’t have known anything about her life.

I’d heard his name mentioned over the years but never cared much about it, like I said because he wasn’t a friend of mine or someone I knew, so why should I care?

“Was it you?”

“Was it me what?”

“Were you the one who sent the pictures two years ago?”

“How’d you guess?”

“Because none of her friends would’ve done it, and no one else I knew fessed up when asked. I’ve always wondered.”

“Yes, it was me. I thought you should know at least and make your own decision. As I can see, you decided to stay. Now you know a little bit more about that family, and I suppose nothing will change, but that’s your business.”

“What lies did she tell to get you to stay with her anyway?” In my mind, someone who looked like him and was as smart as he was could have anyone he wanted. Why stay with her?

It couldn’t be about money because his family isn’t exactly hurting for cash, and from what I’ve seen, he’s doing pretty well, so maybe he was in love. I guess I can’t imagine anyone loving that train wreck, but I’m biased, so there is that.

“Your father threatened my father’s job if I broke up with her.”

“What?” I knew my Dad was a piece of shit, but this takes the cake even for him.

“You heard me. If I wanted to have an easy college experience, I had to play along.”

His smile made the butterflies in my tummy take flight. It was both sinister and adorable because of the dimples that appeared. “What are you planning?” I don’t know why those words left my lips, but they seemed fitting.

There was a light in his eyes that I don’t think I’ve ever seen in a teenage boy before. He looked years older at that moment as if he’d seen some things. What those things were I have no idea.

“Who says I’m planning anything?”

“I don’t know; you just have this look about you.” Maybe I was wrong after all. We don’t know each other after all, and I could be jumping the gun a bit with my assumptions.