“So here it is – for as long as I can remember, Harley has always gotten the better deal out of life than I have. Did better in school, danced better in ballet, swam faster in swim club, got all the hot guys to look her way … even got my parents to adore her. So it’s always been Harley this, Harley that.”

“All my life. Drove me crazy.”

I didn’t like where this was going.

“And now you come along … and through you, I think I can finally extract my pound of flesh from the exquisite Harley Barton-Ash,” her voice had sharpened to a needle-point clarity.

“I don’t want her outshining me on my wedding day, the way she will most definitely do when she shows up there with you, all nice and shiny and in love … don’t bother protesting … there’s no way that she’ll show up with poor Jack. You’ll be making your way into the guest list, that’s what my dad will tell you when we see my parents later. And for sure, seeing how you and Harley act around each other, you’ll be showing up at my wedding together, chemistry exploding like fireworks, for everyone to see. And once again, Harley will take center stage.”

I shifted in my stance. How exactly could this bitch stop all that from happening?

“So I don’t want that. In fact I don’t want her outshining me anymore, period,” Annie continued.

She smiled thinly. “You see, I know her most explosive secret. I know that she spent time in Vegas, when she dropped out of sight for almost two years. And that she worked with a high-class escort service while she was there.”

My eyes widened at that.

“I’ve become friends with the madam who ran that service, and so I know all about Harley’s work there. If anyone asked, I could make it sound like Harley did more than advise this madam …” she let that last thought drag out for a few minutes, letting the implications of it sink in.

I swallowed drily, but said nothing.

“I’m guessing you know all about that Vegas episode?” she posed that as a question, but she didn’t bother confirming what I knew.

“So you know as well as I do that if that came out, Harley will be done here in LA, as far as her precious career with the law firm is concerned. Not only will they not offer her the partnership she covets, and has worked hard for, they will torpedo her without a doubt because no firm could afford that kind of reputational hit. There won’t be a law firm in the west coast that will take her in, actually. She will be done. Her life in the law. Or her life, probably, will be over. She can kiss this precious house goodbye. She can kiss her career goodbye,” Annie continued, each word coming at me like a lethal bullet.

After we stared each other down, I managed to croak a response out, “Unless…?”

“Unless you break things off with her. In a way that will break her heart. And leave her in a sorry heap. She may be destroyed enough not to be able to make it to the wedding even. No matter. But you, dear Aerin, will definitely have to go. You’ll fly out of here, tail between your legs, poor little rich girl, and get out of LA before my wedding,” Annie said slowly, coldly. An icy cold hand gripped around my heart like a vice, and it felt like it was keeping my heart from beating.

My head spun; I broke out in a cold sweat; my pulse raced.

“And you’re not to breathe a word of anything we just talked about to anyone, Aerin. Because if you do, I. Will. Talk. To everyone, and she’ll be wrecked, anyway.”

Annie’s voice sounded like it was striking me with lightning bolts from a far distance. Despite the distance, each bolt was hitting me with unerring accuracy, knocking me down over and over again every time a word left her hateful mouth, until I felt like the ground itself had opened and swallowed me up.

I stumbled away from her, backing away, slowly turned, and then fell to my knees.

Tears fell, hopeless tears, regretful tears. I could hear a chorus of voices from somewhere behind Annie’s triumphant figure, concern evident in the voices.

But I couldn’t process them.

It was over. It was over with Harley. We were done. Not because we didn’t love each other. But because I did love her.

From the deepest recesses of my mind I remembered my Nana, and the poem I’d read out during her funeral service,

If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain;

If I can ease one life the aching,

Or cool one pain,

Or help one fainting robin

Unto his nest again,

I shall not live in vain.

“I am abandoned, Nana,” I cried out softly, in despair. “Someone, please … help.”

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