Happily Ever After: A Contemporary Romance Boxed Set

by Piper Rayne

  Not knowing when she was coming back, I sucked up all I was feeling and got to work cleaning up the mess she had made. I had gotten good at that. Sweeping my hair into a pile, I pushed it all into a corner in the far side of the 4x4 room. Without having windows, it was impossible to tell what time it was or how long I had been in there. It always felt like days to me, but she never let me know.

  I hadn’t eaten all day and was reminded of that when my stomach roared; filling the silence with its voice. Reaching into the small pocket I had sewed into the inside of my dress, I pulled out the one-half slice of slightly molded bread I had found. I tried to carefully eat around the bad parts just enough to satisfy my stomach so it would be quiet. It wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing and it seemed to shut my stomach up a little. I always worried I would get sick eating the way I had to, but I knew starvation was a real thing too and not something I wanted. I had to survive to keep an eye on my dad even if he wouldn’t do the same for me.

  I jumped when the door flung open smacking hard against the wall and bouncing back on whoever had opened it. That caused them to fling it again, only that time, they kept their arm out to stop it from coming back on them.

  “Sno, come on,” I heard the familiar male voice say. “You need to hurry.”

  “Okay.” I scrambled to my feet and almost fell over. My right leg was completely asleep and putting my little weight on it was too much.

  “Sno, now,” Thomlin, my dad’s driver, said. He held out his hand for me to take and when my small hand landed in his giant hand, it was swallowed up.

  He dragged me down the hall, up the tall flight of stairs and into the living room. There were so many people standing around that it was hard for me to tell what was going on or who they were looking at. Nobody seemed to notice me, but the mood in the room was heavy. Like a thick fog on a hot summer’s night, the air was hard to breathe. I waited for someone, anyone, to realize I was there and tell me what to do.

  I turned back to Thomlin and all I got was a nod to move closer. His eyes were red like he had been crying and his shoulders slumped forward. His normal six-foot-plus frame was crumpled and looked defeated.

  I carefully pushed my way through the crowd of people, most I recognized, a few I hadn’t. None of that seemed to matter though when I was finally through and saw what it was they had been looking at.

  There on the couch lay my father. He was pale, covered in sweat and shook so hard, the couch vibrated under him. He looked up at me and I gasped. His once vibrant blue eyes were now dull and sunken into his skull. Hollow, there was nothing looking back at me when I looked at him.

  Without warning, he threw up and covered the first row in front of him with a thick, purple sticky liquid. A few jumped back and moved out of the way, but one stepped closer. With a wash rag in her hand, Jasmine began to wipe him up. She never said it, but I knew she loved him. I wished everyday he would have seen it and married her instead.

  Jasmine was sweet and kind. With her long dark brown hair, deep chocolate eyes and light mocha skin, she was as beautiful on the outside as she was on the inside. How my stepmother won over her was something I never understood. I would have loved to have Jasmine as part of our family and as more than just one of many helpers and the one who raised me when my parents weren’t around or too busy.

  “What did she do to you?’ she whispered to him as she finished cleaning the mess off his face. She used a different towel to wipe the sweat from his forehead and cheeks. Pity was in her eyes but there was more. Anger. I saw how mad she was at what was lying in front of her. I felt it too and I wasn’t sure why at the time. I knew my stepmom had something to do with what was happening to him, but none of us could prove it or knew what it was.

  “Watch, Sno.” I heard the words and knew she had too before he threw up again even more violently than before. Jasmine was covered in it and still, she hadn’t moved from his side.

  “Where is she?” Jasmine shouted over the small crowd that had gathered. “Where is his wife?” She spit the word out like it was poison on her tongue.

  “We haven’t seen her since we brought him into the house. I heard her mumble something about not up to caring for the sick or something like that as she went up to her room,” one of the gardeners said.

  “Go get her and make her come down here. I don’t think he’s going to make it and she needs to be here. This is her husband after all,” Jasmine said firmly.

  “Yes ma’am,” he said and ran up the steps that led to our bedrooms.

  “Sno, baby, come here.” She held out her hand for me and I carefully took it. She pulled me in closer to her and I started to fight her. “No. Stop that. He’s your dad and you need to be here. I get that it’s uncomfortable for you but try to push those feelings aside and remember all the times he was there for you. I’ve watched your relationship with him crumble over the last year and I hate it. I also know it had nothing to do with you two and everything to do with her. Remember who he was. Trust me, someday you’ll be glad you stayed by his side.”

  “I’m scared,” I whispered.

  “So am I.”

  4

  “I can’t watch this, and you are all cruel for making me,” my stepmom wailed. “I didn’t choose this and if I would have known he was going to go this fast, I wouldn’t have married him.”

  Her eyes locked on mine and ice ran through my veins. She did that too him and we both knew it. I also knew she wasn’t up to raising a daughter, especially one that wasn’t hers. I was terrified for what would happen if he didn’t make it. Being alone with her for the little bit I had to when he went away was hard enough. If I lost him and he was never around, I didn’t know what would happen to me. It was selfish and I knew it, but I was only a child and was watching the only parent I had left dying in front of me.

  The scene was all too familiar to me. It was almost identical to how my mother was at the very end. The two days leading to her death were hard, but the last day, the last few hours, were the hardest. She couldn’t talk, sit up and she didn’t know who either myself or my father were. I was waiting for that to hit my dad. I didn’t want to be close to him in case he asked who I was. I couldn’t take it again and nobody seemed to understand that.

  “I know, but this is where a wife should be,” Jasmine said to her.

  She turned on the tears like they were cued and sobbed into Jasmine’s shoulder. It was an act for all the people around us. She didn’t care that he was dying. All she cared about was how she looked to others when she wasn’t behind closed doors.

  “Ahh,” he moaned. Turning his head side to side as the pain took over, he moved the only part of him that he still could. He wasn’t throwing up purple anymore. There was nothing left in him when he tried. Dry heaving until I was sure he broke a rib, he had nothing left but small moans in him.

  “Daddy,” I whispered through my tears. We hadn’t been as close as we had been when my mother was still alive, but I adored him. He was the one person I used to be able to go to for anything. I missed those days and that was what I would hold on to when he was gone.

  With one last breath, he stopped moving.

  “Is he?” my stepmom asked when she noticed it too.

  The doctor had shown up only a minute before that and when my dad stopped moving, he put his fingers on his neck and brought his ear closer to his mouth. I’m sure he was only like that for a few seconds, but to me, it felt like a lifetime.

  “He’s gone,” was all he said as he stood and started to gather his things.

  “No,” I wailed. “He can’t be. Check again.” My little fists pounded on the doctor’s chest as I begged him to be wrong.

  “Sno, come on baby,” Jasmine said coming up behind me. “Come with me.”

  “No.” It wasn’t as strong as before because I knew there wasn’t anything anyone could do to bring him back. I had watched both my parents go in similar ways. Both violent and in agony. I was alone in the world and had nobody I co
uld turn to.

  As if sleepwalking in a nightmare, I let Jasmine walk me back to my own room. It was at the opposite end of the hall from my stepmom’s room, but I was right next to my dad’s. I took a lingering glance into his room as Jasmine walked me past it. His bed was still made from the fresh set of bedding I had put on earlier that day when I thought he would be sleeping in it. I put on his favorite set. It was a black and red flannel set with sheep skin for the trim. It was a gift my mother had made for him and he only used it once in a while so he could keep it forever. It wouldn’t matter what happened to it now that he was gone.

  “I need something,” I managed to get out.

  “Okay.”

  She let go of my shoulders and watched as I made my way into his room. Walking up to the bed, I grabbed the comforter off of it. Carefully wrapping it in my arms, I went to turn and leave when I saw his pillow. Placing the comforter back on the bed, I moved to where the pillow was. I picked it up and took in a deep breath. It still smelled like him even though I had changed the covering that morning. Tears ran down my face and landed softly on the one thing of his that smelled like him. I took a breath, grabbed the pillow and comforter, turned to Jasmine then walked to my room. If my stepmom had an issue with me taking something of his that my mom made him, I would fight her for it. On that, I wouldn’t budge.

  “Do you need help?” she asked looking at the load I had in my arms.

  “No.” It wasn’t meant to sound harsh, but that was how it came out. It wasn’t that I didn’t like Jasmine, I loved her, but I needed to hold his things. I had lost so much time with him when my stepmom showed up and now, I would never get any of it back.

  “I know things are hard for you right now, but you’re not alone, Sno. I will always be here for you and I love you like you were my own.”

  I looked up at her and really took her in. She had aged significantly since my mother passed. Here once dark chocolate hair now had bold white streaks pasted in. Her face had wrinkles I hadn’t seen before and dark circles encased her once vibrant brown eyes. She had lost a lot of weight too and I was sure she couldn’t have weighed more than I did at that point. I was mad at myself for not seeing that sooner and thinking she hadn’t cared more than she did.

  Jasmine had worked for my family for as long as I could remember. She had told me many times about the day I was born, how she had been in the room with my mom and watched as I made my debut. She said I looked fake with my jet-black hair that stood straight on end and my creamy, soft porcelain skin. She said when you added in the cool as ice blue of my sapphire eyes, there wasn’t anyone around who could touch my beauty. I never saw it, but I let her tell her story. It always made her face light up and a smile form I only saw when she was telling me about how she first laid eyes on me. Her little doll.

  “Come on now. Lay down and try to rest. I will go get you something warm to drink and be right back.”

  “Okay.”

  “Good girl. It will be alright. It will be alright…”

  She kept repeating those four words to herself as she walked out of my room and down the hall. I found myself repeating them too. It will be alright. It had to be. I had to keep going, as much as it hurt, for him. He would have wanted that for his daughter.

  At least I think he would have. I didn’t know him like I used to before we lost my mom. He was so different then. Always happy, laughing and looking to play a friendly prank on you. He would scoop me up in his big bear arms and swing me around as he sang, “little dolls are meant to have fun” and I would laugh at him until my sides hurt. He gave hugs and kisses out freely to me and Mom. Never one to hide how he felt about us, the words “I love you” were heard over and over in a day. And I knew he did too. He loved us more than anything.

  I tried so hard to understand why things between him and I changed when she died. I wasn’t the one who took her away. I had lost her as much as he had. When I would ask him, he always said we would talk about it later when I was older. I guess I would never get that chance with him gone too.

  I chose to hold on to the good times and let go of the bad. It wasn’t worth it to make him hold up to my expectations of him when he lost her as much as I had. I loved my dad and I knew he loved me. It might not have been shown the way it used to be, but that was all I needed to know.

  5

  “Give me that. It isn’t yours.”

  I was jarred awake when my stepmom ripped the blanket out of my hands. I didn’t realize I had fallen asleep until then. Looking around, it was getting dark out and I realized I never heard Jasmine come back into my room.

  “But it’s my dad’s and my mom made it for him.”

  “I know. That’s why it has to go.”

  The smile with her hollow eyes sent me into a shiver. She was taking it from me because she was jealous. Jealous of me and my mom. Anything that had to do with us, she tried to erase from the house. It was as if she wanted my dad to only remember her.

  “Please let me keep it. I’ll give you everything else,” I begged. Sleep quickly left me, and I was in the fight to save one of the few things I knew he treasured.

  “No, but you can keep begging. I love it when you beg.” Her laugh was loud and deep. A small row of cackles before letting out one big one like she had told the funniest joke ever.

  “Please. Where’s Jasmine. She knows how much he loves that blanket.”

  “Jasmine? You mean the help? Why on earth would you want her?”

  “Because,” I paused wondering if I should admit the truth or come up with a lie. “She’s all I have left.”

  The truth came out before I could stop it. Telling her how I felt about Jasmine was the worst possible thing I could have done. She would be gone for sure after that. My hope was, she would take me with her. She said she loved me like I was her own. Now that I was an orphan, I could be hers.

  “Oh, well. I’m sorry to say it, but she has been relieved of her duties here along with anyone else you had before me. The only help left are the ones I hired. It saves me from having to retrain them. Your parents let them get away with too much. Treating them like family instead of what they really are. It was pathetic. That isn’t how I will be running my household princess. If you don’t like it or can’t handle it, I will happily show you the door.”

  “Where would I go?”

  I wasn’t even yet sixteen and wasn’t old enough to be on my own. I was starting to get prepared to learn how to live on my own, but I wasn’t there yet. She had me trapped, and without knowing where Jasmine or the others had gone, I had nobody to turn to. The help she hired was just like her. They wouldn’t have cared what she did to me as long as they still got the paychecks each week.

  “Where you go is none of my concern. I never wanted you. You little nuisance. Always in the way and always getting into things you have no business being involved in. I can’t wait until your eighteenth birthday. You better have plans lined up because come midnight that night, you are out of here and everything your father promised me will be mine.”

  “What did he promise you?”

  It was the first I was hearing about him leaving her anything. As far as I knew, I got the house, the grounds, and his business when I turned eighteen. That was why he was prepping me for what he did all day. She hated the times he took me with him and, as much as he assured her it was so she would never have to dirty her hands a day in her life, she would still glare at me with her slits for eyes and twisted frown.

  “He promised me what I deserved for putting up with you and him for as long as I have. You think it was easy pretending to care about any of you? That has to be the hardest job I’ve ever had. You and your ‘I’m so perfect’ attitude. Him and his ‘My princess is my everything since I lost Tasha’ You both made me physically sick the years I’ve been with you. I only thought it was fair to do it back to them. If you’re lucky, I won’t do it to you.”

  “Do what? What did you do?”

  I was screaming at her, a thi
ng I knew wouldn’t end well for me, but I didn’t care. If she did something to them, I wanted to know. I remembered the flower I found in her room and wondered again if it had anything to do with that. Had she poisoned my parents? And how? I didn’t remember seeing her much when my mom started to get sick. It wasn’t until the very end when she would come by to check on us. I never liked her but couldn’t pinpoint why.

  “I took care of the trash,” she said through gritted teeth. I was waiting for them to snap in half the way she was snarling them. “If you have the sense to someday look back at all of this with objective eyes, you’ll see that everything I did was right. I’m not the bad guy here, Sno. Open those eyes of yours and see that.”

  “If you did something to them, I will never see anything but that as long as I live.”

  I stood abruptly to gain a little ground over her. She stood easily a foot over me and outweighed me by almost a hundred pounds. But I was younger and faster. If she wanted to go around, I would happily oblige her.

  “I’ll also be taking this back.” I grabbed at the blanket she held loosely in her hand and was shocked at how fast I got it back from her.

  “You little bitch.”

  Smack.

  Without missing a beat, she hit me across the cheek with the back of her hand. She sliced into my flesh with the absurd amount of gaudy rings she had on both hands. My hand went to my cheek as I turned back to face her. The stinging and burning I felt racing along my cheek bone made me wonder if she broke it. It also gave me the fuel I needed to face her.

  “You have a lot to learn little girl. Your place with me is one of them. Until you can do that, I have no choice but to punish you.”

  “What could you possibly do to me that you haven’t already?”