Chapter 1
Chapter One
NINE YEARS LATER
It took me two years to learn to appreciate the quiet of my house. After Gram’s passing, I struggled with how empty it felt, especially after the courts evened out the will dispute by giving Calvin all the furniture. For a time, I resented the feeling of emptiness.
Now, I didn’t mind it too much.
Over time, I’d used my meager earnings to fill the house with vintage furniture again. I had a dining room table, a couch, and a few side tables taking up space. It wasn’t everything I wanted, but it was enough to make my house feel close enough to home that I didn’t feel sad every time I woke up.
Lately, my life had been so monotonous that it was close to boring. I had my usual morning routine of coffee, work, and then living vicariously through either reading or watching my neighbors through my windows. My newest yet closest friend, Lily, helped ease it ever since I met her, but I couldn’t help but wonder if this was how my life was going to be until the end of time.
I worked a boring job at my family’s company, and they didn’t have anything for me to do. The weather was cold, so the neighborhood was quieter than usual, and most days, I was trying to find a book to read by noon to carry me through my shift that ended at five.
And this day was proving to be the same as all of the rest.
I checked my email one last time before pulling out my current book. It was like all the others I’d read, but there was something about watching two people fall in love that made me smile every time. I knew it wasn’t real—Gram’s ghost would haunt me if I believed it for a moment—but the escape was something I desperately needed.
After ten minutes, I’d made it to an adorable first-kiss scene when a message popped up on my phone.
V
I’m never reading fantasy again. Rohanda’s mom just came back to life and then DIED AGAIN. Cruel. Why are you making me read this?
I laughed and quickly typed out a reply.
BECAUSE I need someone to talk to about it. The only other person I know LOVES fantasy, and I can’t exactly tell her that this was nightmare inducing.
So you chose me???
You’re brave enough for it.
I am … but I’ll hold this against you for the rest of our friendship. This has a happy ending, right? If it doesn’t, we may need to reevaluate things …
Just kidding. I’ll forgive you if you give me an actual happy rec after this.
My friendship with V defied all odds, yet it was one of my greatest treasures. He didn’t get bored of me, even when I had to hand over the book club to Becks because of my health or when the first messaging app we were using announced that they were shutting down.
Both times, V had suggested a solution rather than to drop me. The first was that we talked about books whenever I could, even though he didn’t know health was the reason I was too busy for it. And he’d also suggested we move to Discord instead of paying a subscription fee.
I still had the letter V had given me, stored with the very few things in my house that I’d kept for years.
Back in college, I’d always hoped that he would show up to one of my weekly sessions, but he never did. I’d always told him he was welcome, but I was pretty sure Becks had done some damage. She was fun with all of the women in the group, but obviously her thoughts had leaked out into her actions when V had met her in person.
Over time, I figured out that it was best that he didn’t come in person. About half the time, people joined the club to hear more about my brother, not to read books. And if I lost V to Calvin like I did everyone else, I knew that was something I wouldn’t recover from.
I knew within the first week that V was special. And he stayed special, even to this day.
I’ll do whatever to earn your forgiveness.
Actually, your forgiveness is coming early. It’s getting romantic now.
I wanted to tell him that Lily had written this, and why it shifted so much near the end. When she had been forced into a contract to marry someone, her writing had been dark and twisted. Then, as she connected with her husband, she added more and more romance to get to the happy ending her series, The Fair Originals , had.
But Lily closely guarded her identity since her parents would try to take away her success if they found out how much they’d inspired the series. And while I didn’t think V could be connected to that life in any way, it would be my luck if he was.
The ending is so worth it.
I managed to do some of my actual job for a few more minutes before I got another message. I looked at my phone, eager to see what he said.
Instead, it was a message from Dad.
As much as I liked to think it was directed at me, I knew it was copied and pasted and sent to everyone who wanted to attend their parties. Most were in Calvin’s honor, and this was no different.
Dad
Come and celebrate Calvin’s promotion to CEO! On his birthday no less! My retirement is now fully effective.
I rolled my eyes. My relationship with Calvin had only soured after Gram died.
The first will I found had given him the house, which made no sense because she’d insisted she would leave it to me . I later found a handwritten one that matched what she’d told me and I changed the date. I kept the old one in memory of what I’d done, but I needed somewhere to live. In true Calvin fashion, he took me to probate court to settle the dispute.
Somehow, I’d won.
Calvin didn’t take it well when he didn’t get what he wanted. Everyone in the family suspected that I’d forged the will, and Calvin didn’t hesitate to remind me that I didn’t deserve the house. To be fair, according to the latest will and in the eyes of the law, I didn’t. But I’d spent my childhood here. I couldn’t bear to let it get sold off to a stranger and leave me homeless. And that was exactly what Calvin planned to do.
These days, the only communication between Calvin and me was either corporate emails sent to everyone or invitations to his increasingly glamorous parties.
I usually tried not to go. After everything went south, I’d hoped he wouldn’t invite me, but Calvin had a bad habit of inviting those he didn’t like in order to show off his successes, including his own twin. He knew I didn’t have a lot of money. But this was the only job I could get, considering my last name was on the company sign.
Hey. I can’t make it tonight. I have some plans with friends.
The response was immediate.
Then invite them too. Everyone should be there.
That was the last thing I’d do. I trusted Lily with my life, but I wanted her nowhere near Calvin. I still thought about Ava’s betrayal years later. I couldn’t do it again. It was hard for me to even befriend Lily, but I took the chance since Calvin and I never saw each other these days.
And after what her parents did to her, I wasn’t even sure she would like Calvin.
The more realistic ending would be that she would put him into one of her books and murder him. Hell, she’d even write another fantasy book just to do that. But after losing too many people to him, it wasn’t a risk I was willing to take.
I switched the text chain to Emma. We talked far more than Calvin and I did, and I was the only one she came to for advice.
Are you going to the BS party tonight?
Emma
I wasn’t told there was one.
Oh wait. There’s the invitation. Ummm, no. I’m not driving four hours to see Calvin get his proverbial dick sucked by everyone.
Is there no other way to describe that?
Happy birthday, by the way. I would be there, but I have to work to support myself.
Same. It’s the worst.
I went back to my computer and blinked in shock when I saw an invitation for a meeting starting in two minutes.
Since when was I included in such short-notice meetings? Maybe they were finally switching me onto a different team so I would have something to do. I would miss my reading time, but even I felt bad about being paid to do nothing—no matter how low it was.
I grabbed my phone and checked my appearance, eyes going wide when I saw how frizzy my curls had gotten. I shoved it into a ponytail and tried to tame the flyaways.
I joined the meeting one minute later.
Immediately, I wanted to leave.
My brother’s face was the first thing I saw, along with the Nashville skyline. Calvin had a fancy high-rise, and his meeting background was so perfect it looked fake, but I knew his office overlooked the city and was so well lit that it was picturesque.
When his eyes met mine, I paled. Why was he on this? He never talked to me directly during work hours.
“Amy,” the HR representative started. I scrambled to look for her name and found it at the bottom of the screen.
“Hi, Cora. What can I do for you?”
“This will be a short meeting. Unfortunately, I’m afraid there isn’t much you can do for us at this time. We’re letting you go.”
An awkward laugh escaped me. “I’m sorry, what?”
My eyes flicked to Calvin, who was typing something, undoubtedly getting other work done. I knew he was still mad about the house, but he’d perfected treating me with painful indifference.
“Due to a decreasing workload, we have had to make some difficult decisions?—”
“I’m the CEO’s daughter,” I said. “You can’t fire me.”
This time, Calvin spoke. “Technically, you’re the CEO’s sister now. And I need to play fair. Dad kept you on despite you having nothing to do, but we have shareholders to answer to and your salary is losing us money.”
“B-but you could transfer me.”
“Do you have an HR degree that I’m unaware of or something else useful? Last I checked, you got your degree in English.”
“It’s still a degree.”
“It’s not enough. You’re the one with the least amount of work. You have to be let go. It’s fair .”
I heard his words, but I didn’t believe them.
He didn’t have a lick of guilt on his face, and I knew there was nothing I could do to get him to change his mind. Our parents would be on his side. HR was literally on this call. I was getting fired.
“O-okay. Is there any severance?”
“I consider the last few months you were employed without doing anything as severance. As of today, you will be paid out for your last paycheck, and your health insurance coverage will end.”
“Shouldn’t it go to the last of the month?”
“It will not.”
Fuck. I had medicine I needed to be on, and it had been over six months since I last saw my specialist. According to their policy, I was due for a visit. I hadn’t planned it yet since it was expensive, even with insurance, but without it, I was fucked.
“What about extending it past my last day? Cobra, I think it is?”
“Cobra benefits and your package are expensive,” Cora said grimly. And then she said a number that was more than quadruple the amount of my current premium.
Oh, I was double fucked .
This was the worst-case scenario. Not only was being without health insurance going to make my medication impossible to get, but I also had way too many bills to count. Owning an old house had expenses, and my only option was to take out loans to be able to fix it up when something went wrong. Not only that, I had expensive land taxes and day-to-day bills.
I needed a job.
And it had already been nearly impossible to get this one.
“Calvin,” I said softly. “You know what this will do to me.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t have pursued homeownership, Amy.” His voice was cold and calculated. “It’s obviously too much for you to handle.”
Cora cut in to tell me to turn in my stuff by the end of the day, and that she was sorry to see me go.
I was in a state of shock. I had no idea what I was going to do, and the hurt festering in my chest was worse than when Levi Hensen kissed me to get back at my brother. Sure, technically, I’d screwed Calvin over by getting the house, but he was a millionaire . He didn’t need it. He’d bought his mansion when he was twenty-one with the help of Dad.
After my screen cut to black, my breath turned shaky. Numbly, I packed my laptop into a box and then sat on my couch.
I had no idea how I was going to get out of this kind of trouble.