Chapter One
Andrea
“Sofia is getting married.”
My friends spat out their drinks.I looked away from the glass of wine in my hands, glancing up to meet their horrified expressions.
Gina was stunned, her green eyes sparkling with confusion, her lashes fluttering rapidly with shock.Julie, the most dramatic of our trio, looked like she had just seen a ghost.Her fair complexion grew paler.
“Snotty Sofia is getting married?”Gina repeated.
“Yup,” I replied, popping the “P” and chugging the rest of my wine in one go.
“How?”Julie asked.
“Oh, you know, she met a poor guy who decided he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her,” I chirped sarcastically.
Julie’s face fell, and she slowly exhaled.“I’m sorry.”
“If the devil’s spawn can get married, maybe there’s hope for me after all.”Gina shrugged, downing a shot of vodka.
Julie and I snickered.
I was at work this evening when I received a text from Sofia, or more like a picture of her scrawny little fingers with a big-ass rock on it.I had barely reeled from that when my stepmother’s call came in.I didn’t think she called to break the news to me, per se.She wanted to gloat and rub it in my face that her daughter had the one thing I didn’t—a fiancé.
I wasn’t interested in dating anymore.I’d rather have flings and focus on the business that pays me.Men were a total waste of time.It didn’t hurt to get the message.I just dreaded what would come after it—but most of all, it was shocking how she managed to snag herself a man.If anything, she and her mother were probably holed up in their lair, conniving on how they were going to make my life miserable with the engagement.
Sofia wasn’t just a bitch.She was pure evil—sly, condescending, and mean at her core.It was no secret that we hated each other.Her mother—my stepmother—was worse.She didn’t just take up my late mother’s place in the family, she managed to poison my father’s mind and blinded him to every horrible thing she did.Whenever I was at home, I was stuck in the wolf’s den.
“So, what are you going to do now?”Gina spoke up over the music playing in the background.Chilling at the Skull’s Lounge wasn’t going as planned tonight.It was an escape plan, but here I was, talking about what I was trying to run from.
“That’s not all.”I refilled my glass as the girls waited with bated breath for me to continue.“The family will be having a getaway at the family villa in Venice.”
“No way.That trip is going to be chaotic.”Julie shook her head, something akin to pity flashing in her eyes.
“You know you can decide not to go, right?”Gina arched her brow.
I scoffed.“A Moretti family trip is always compulsory.”
“Sofia and your stepmom will be waiting eagerly to pounce on you like wolves.”Julie groaned.
“That’s why we need to come up with a plan.”Gina chipped in.Julie and I both snapped our gazes toward her.“Am I the only one who knows the solution here?”
“Yes.”I sounded bored.Julie rolled her eyes.
“Get a fake fiancé.People do it all the time.”She shrugged, taking a sip of her vodka.
“Gina!”we yelled simultaneously.
“I was just trying to help.”
“There’s no way in hell I’m doing that,” I refuted.“I’m not desperate, and I certainly don’t need to prove anything tothem.”I eyed her.
Julie was quiet for a while.The neon lights in the room cast a colorful glow on her brown skin.Her face shimmered with light nude makeup, and her dark hair was tied in a ponytail.She looked like a snack in her ivory two-piece.Gina, on the other hand, went all out with her sultry red dress.Her ginger-red hair cascaded down her back in lush waves.The vibrant color of her hair made her bloodred lips pop.
Once it clicked what was going through Julie’s mind, my eyes widened.“Julie, no—”
“Maybe it’s not such a bad idea,” she squeaked lightly.
