Emily
I don’t remember leaving the party.
One moment I was standing in that restroom, Vivian’s words slicing through me like glass. The next, I was in the backseat of a car, the city lights blurring past in streaks of gold and white.
“We don’t want a repeat of your mother’s scandal now, do we?”
Her voice wouldn’t stop echoing.
By the time I stepped into the house, I felt hollowed out. The quiet wrapped around me like a suffocating blanket. I didn’t greet anyone. I didn’t turn on the lights in the living room. I walked straight to my bedroom, closed the door, and leaned against it.
My mother’s scandal.
Not a scandal.
The scandal.
The one that had torn the Vale family apart.
I slid down slowly until I was sitting on the floor, knees pulled to my chest.
I had spent years convincing
