My Weakness (The Forbidden #2)

Prologue

Ava

I don’t like to use the word hate, it gets thrown around a lot. People will say ‘I hate that food’ or ‘I hate that place’. Do you? Do you really? Or do you just dislike it? Because hate is a strong word; hate conveys an emotion that there’s not really any coming back from.

What I can tell you — with absolute certainty — is that I hate my stepbrother.

I hate him with a passion that matches nothing else in my life.

For five years I’ve hated him. For five years I’ve watched him parade girls around like they’re an accessory, wheedling his way into my life.

We were fine before he and his mom showed up; at least I thought we were, but apparently dad didn’t agree.

That’s why at the age of seventeen I got a stepmom and a brother — a stepbrother.

River.

I didn’t have to live with him for long, he moved out a year after moving in, and to be fair for that first year he was away at college.

But the few times he came home, into my home, he would make my life a living hell.

And the same goes for every time since: every visit, every family dinner, every time he ‘stops by’ — my hate for him is cemented.

He’s the worst person in my life, and I know that will never change.