Scarlett’s POVI have never felt so bad in my life.To my “family”, I have always bullied Ava. I broke her stuff, and I said mean things to her. I did. I have broken her stuff before, but mostly replaceable stuff like the pile of shit I threw out of the window today. And mostly because she broke my things first, or that she broke them herself and blamed me.I have never broken something this meaningful for anyone, especially Ava. Maybe it just doesn’t happen often enough so that I’m feeling like sitting on a thousand needles?Ava has been crying -- fake crying -- in front of her room while Alfred cleans it for a while now. I have been sitting on the empty dinner table and waiting for her cry to turn into a real one, for a while.I got really good at telling apart her real and fake cries -- her nose gets stuffed when it’s real. That means she hasn’t realized the apple of her eye is several pieces of an apple now.I feel like I’m sitting on fire.I kept telling myself that it would be o
Scarlett’s POV“Did you know that--”“Sebastian! Sorry about the farce...” Ava’s pitiful yet bright voice cut off my pronunciation class. I pull my wrist hard and of course this time he lets me go.“Scarlett,” Ava calls after me and I almost tremble at her voice. I take a deep breath and turn to look at her. She glances at Sebastian timidly before she hooks her fingers: “I’m sorry I made a fuss about it. I shouldn’t have told you about your mom, and I hurt you. I deserve losing my room if that could make up for anything...anyways, what I’m trying to say is, welcome home.”“Yeah, sure, whatever,” I mumble as I go and sit at the furthest seat.Ava stares at me, a bit surprised. I’m not arguing with her nor trying to expose her lie out of guilt, yes. But I wouldn’t have anyways even if I didn’t break that doll. Like I told her in the hospital, the Fullers are HER family, and the Romeo over there is HER prince charming. I know better now than to demand “fair” from her army.Ava lets out a
Scarlett’s POVHe NEVER sits with me. He is always by Ava’s side at the Fullers, and he is always across the table at our house.“Sebastian...” Ava mumbles, suddenly dropping her face when she was grinning so widely a second ago when Jack Fuller promised to pay for all the stuff I threw, “I, I want to--” She stands up, her plate in her hands.She wants to move over.“Where else should I sit?” Sebastian sits straight with an arm on the back of my chair. He looks at me and not Ava when he points at the empty chair on his other side: “You know who this chair is for?”Ava freezes where she is, staring at Sebastian so nervously in anticipation, her fingers on the edge of the plate are turning white.I roll my eyes. Yeah. Sure. Your princess. The apple of your eye. Like I care for sitting beside you.I grab my plate to move, but he grabs my wrist first: “That’s Anna’s seat and you know why?”Both me and Ava are shocked frozen.“Because a husband should sit by his wife,” He gives me a harmle
Scarlett’s POVI ignore the ice coke.As if I would reach out for it and give Ava a good laugh!I got myself some mashed potatoes and some salad, but nothing on the table lures me like the hot, steamy bowl right in front of me. No one is even touching it, and I can’t, not with something cold to go with. I guess I can settle for a cup of ice water...I glare at the plain, boring water. I don’t want it.My eyes dart to the kitchen. Maybe there is more coke in there? The Fullers don’t drink sodas. Having a daughter fighting death every day does that -- they eat and do everything to the extremely healthy. But maybe--“The coke came with the order,” Sebastian suddenly says, with an innocent tone no less, as if he didn’t just see through my thoughts, “The restaurant? They surely know how to enjoy a good buffalo wing.”I do, too! I begin to regret pushing the coke away. Yes, the jerk got it, but the coke was innocent. I shouldn’t have lashed out on the poor drink.It’s all on him!I glare at
Scarlett's POV“No, thanks,” Noticing Ava’s stare I add, “I have to go and guard my plunder.”Jack Fuller left the table when Ava teared up at her prince gulping in sweat. Anna Fuller sat through the dinner with us, mostly out of manner before she left the moment she was allowed to.But not Ava. She stayed, and apparently, she had words for him, too.It’s been a long day, and I need to make sure I have a bed to sleep in for the night. I wouldn’t be too surprised if Ava bought Alfred to mess up the room instead of cleaning.“I’ll walk you to your room then,” He offers jokefully, adding before I could say no, “Or you’d rather talk about our deal here?”“Seb...” Ava murmurs timidly as she approaches.I swing off his hand, looking at him coldly to wait for his decision. I know what his decision would be. Ava knows too. The only one who doesn’t seem to know is him.Ava nails her eyes on Sebastian, and he nails his on me. I leave. Love is a game big enough for only two, and I no longer want
Scarlett’s POVSebastian left after my outburst that night. I think I hurt him after all. Rip the band-aid, right? He never comes again after that, and I had a week in peace. No annoying Ex, no Ava, and no news.In the end, our news didn’t make it to the front page. Not even the last page or any page. Jack Fuller secretly reached out to my cameraman only on the second day, proposing to buy out the video. And though the cameraman raised the price three times after a deal was made, Jack Fuller budged over and over again.I know because he wasn’t just any cameraman, he was one of Adrian’s best friends, a veteran from Afghanistan, and now my bodyguard.My homemade little video was sold at the price of fifty grand. I think I could push it even further than that, but we already got what we wanted -- to test out Jack Fuller's attitude--He went out on a limb to keep my name off the news, even though Ava would loved painting me as the worst adopted sister of all time.My family is definitely
Scarlett’s POV“So what did he took from your mom?” Lucas asks.“Well...”Lucas narrows his eyes: “Do you not know what it is?”No. I didn’t go through with Sebastian’s “deal”, and in the end, I only got to know that Jack Fuller took something.Damn that jerk.“Then how is it different if I’m going instead of you?” Lucas lets out a chuckle, seeing through my hesitation, “How were you even going to look for it though?”“Well...”“Yep, say no more,” Lucas concludes our conversation, realizing I have no good answer to his questions, “I’m not letting a pregnant woman climbing second-floor balconies to look for a maybe.”“I can sort of tell Jack Fuller’s things apart from something that doesn’t belong to his office--”“I’ll show you the study through video,” Lucas’s solution comes faster than my hard-came answer.“If they catch me red-handed, I’m just a daughter sneaking around her adopted father’s study, but if you--”“I won’t let them catch me.”That concluded our discussion. The party s
Scarlett’s POV“What?!” It’s Olivia Keen’s voice, “We are in your dad’s study! You know how sacred it is to us kids?! The ‘forbidden roommmmm’!!!”I roll my eyes, whispering to Lucas: “I’m on my way!”You have to hand it to the mean girls -- they are mean to everyone, sometimes even to each other. They are selfish and horrible and they harm and betray, but somehow, they still make up with each other after. Birds of a feather, I guess?“What forbidden room?! That's just stupid! Is YOUR dad’s study open to everyone???” Ava snorts, closing the door. I don’t hear the light switch’s sound. So the room should be dark still. Lucas can hide, but not for long. I can’t imagine if Ava burst into a scream in the next few seconds and called the police on us.I can’t let Lucas get punished for my plan.“Pretty much, yeah,” Olivia’s indifferent voice comes through clear and loud, “Who still plays the last century spy-like rules at home, huh? What is your dad? An FBI?! Hey, can I take my boyfriend in