“Right is right, Maya,” my mother’s voice had hissed. She was elegant, even then, her pearls shimmering in the candlelight. “Left is the sinister hand. It is the hand of the clumsy, the hand of the broken. We will not have a broken daughter.” They had spent years trying to “fix” me. They tied my…
“Ethan, you can’t just—” I began. He ignored me and went straight to the crib, staring at my baby like the world had stopped. His hands shook. “She… she looks exactly like me,” he murmured. The room went completely still. “What are you doing here?” I snapped. He turned, panic written all over his face….
Back then, Brandon was like a warm hearth in a cold winter. He noticed the way I held my coffee cup with my left hand to hide a small ink stain. He memorized my favorite songs. He made me feel that if I stripped away the titles and the bank accounts, I would still be…
I didn’t cry. I didn’t scream at the gate agent, who was currently announcing the final boarding call for Flight 882 to Aspen. I just stared at the screen, and for the first time in my twenty-nine years, the familiar, crushing sadness didn’t come. There was no wave of inadequacy, no desperate urge to fix…
“Good afternoon,” I said, my voice steadier than my hands. “I’m here for the Wells-Thornton wedding.” The blonde receptionist offered a practiced, tight-lipped smile. “Name, please?” “Myra Wells. I’m the bride’s sister.” The smile faltered. She looked down at the leather-bound book, her manicured finger tracing the ‘W’ section. Once. Twice. A third time. The…
The gravediggers stepped forward, their hands reaching for the levers that would lower the woman I loved into the cold, indifferent earth. My fingers throbbed, clenched so tightly in my pockets that the skin felt ready to burst. I remembered Eleanor’s voice from a month ago, trembling as she clutched my sleeve in the library. “Charlotte,…
Around me, the terminal buzzed with the frantic energy of delayed gratification. Suitcases rolled like thunder over the tiled floor; announcements dissolved into static; toddlers shrieked with the unique, piercing frequency of the overtired. I sat near the window, trying to make myself invisible. My gray oversized hoodie swallowed my frame, hiding the ports, the…
“I know the interest rate, Tony. I said I’d have it. Just give me a week. The assets are… illiquid right now.” He hung up and turned around. The loving, concerned husband who had wept at the hospital was gone. In his place was a man who looked at me not with sympathy, but with…
“He secured his legacy!” Beatrice corrected, raising her hand. Her diamond rings glinted under the fluorescent lights like brass knuckles. “And now, I’m going to make sure you never forget your place.” She prepared to strike. I squeezed my eyes shut, bracing for the impact, unable to lift my arms to defend myself. But the…
Standing in the doorway was a giant. He was wearing a charcoal three-piece suit that fit his broad shoulders perfectly. His silver hair was swept back, his posture rigid with authority. It was Arthur Vance. The city knew him as the billionaire tycoon who owned half the skyline. The hospital staff knew him as the majority…