Bea
This wasn’t the plan. This wasn’t the way things were supposed to go. Bea clenched her hand into a fist to stop the trembling and then raised it to the chipped paint of the door before her, knocking twice.
What was she going to do?
Where was she supposed to go?
She’d pleaded and reasoned and bargained and begged, but Milo hadn’t budged an inch. He’d had a court order for her to vacate. Evidently, that was in the prenup as well.
When Bea first proposed the idea of a prenup back when they were engaged, so many years ago—it hadn’t had much to do with Milo at all. On the contrary, Bea had been noticed by a scout at the mall when she was eighteen. She’d scored a modeling gig from it, but when she’d received her first paycheck, a whopping fivethousanddollars, paranoia began to set its claws.
The similarities between her situation and her parents’were alarming. Bea’s mother was a small-town beauty queen who’d made a small fortune modeling through big box department stores. Barely a year into her success, however, Bea’s father had wooed her mother with sweet talk and overpriced gifts. He’d gotten her pregnant, blown through her money, and then moved on to the next woman that caught his eye faster than the time it took for Beatrice to take her first breath.
So Bea had asked for the prenup, wanting to protect herself from her mother’s pain. To stop Milo from stepping out. From takingherhard-earned money. Milo came from his own wealth, yes, but that wasn’t something Bea was considering in the face of her own inevitable success.
Following that initial gig, however, Bea struggled to find work in the modeling industry. Her next audition failed, but only because her stylist had fucked up her haircut. Then her attempt at a commercial was a bust because her alarm clock never went off, so she showed up late and didn’t have time to study the lines. For her last audition, she actually received a callback, but the talentless floozy who got the job was clearly sleeping with the casting director, so she’d never truly stood a chance. None of it had ever beenherfault; it was simply a long streak of bad luck.
It was all incredibly disheartening. Very taxing on the mind. But when she stopped trying, Milo’s attitude changed. He stayed on her constantly aboutnot giving up on her dreams. He put limits on his credit cards and made her listen to multiple patronizing lectures about how her spending was out of control. It was all very dramatic considering that he, himself, was a child of nepotism.
She’d said that to him.
And he’d walked away.
Then he’d returned, and she’d been forced to listen toyetanotherlecture. He droned on and on—about how painful it had been to lose his parents so young. How his precious grandmother had helped fill those gaps. How he’d started as a clerk in his father’s company and worked his way up. And how much he struggled with leaving the company and his father’s legacy when he wanted to start his consulting business. How instrumental his grandmother had been in helping him feel confident in his decision to step away and forge his own career. All things Bea had known already.
“I’ve never relied on nepotism,”Milo had said, anger in his eyes. “My father would’ve never stood for such a thing.”
Bea wanted to say that his father wouldn’t be standing for anything any time soon, but she bit her tongue, gritting her teeth. She hated it when he patronized her. When he turned intoconsultantMilo and started advising her on how to turn her career around. She already resented the fact that she was spendinghismoney when she shopped. She didn’t need him constantly throwing the matter in her face as well.
In all her life, she’d only ever had one person who’d listened to her concerns and sympathized, regardless of what was said. A constant, unwavering friend who never judged. One person she could turn to no matter what.
The door swung open beneath her fist, and there she was—Eliana.
Bea knew, objectively, that she should feel guilty as she looked up at her friend—but she didn’t. All she felt in that moment was anger. Anger that Eliana had always been allowed to play the perfect little housewife, without question. The quiet girl-next-door who always won out in the end. The underdog that everybody rooted for.
Nobody ever rooted for Bea. Not truly. She was an idol to some, a project to Milo, and a cautionary tale to others, justlike her mother. She’d clawed herself out of the pit her parents had dug with her bare hands.She’dbooked that gig.She’dwon Milo’s heart.She’dcome up with the idea of the Busy Bea store.She’dbuilt her own image from the ground up. But it was never enough.
Eliana, on the other hand, wasn’t prettier than Bea. She wasn’t smarter. She certainly wasn’t more hardworking. Eliana just sat at her house doing fuck-all during the day. She was handed everything on a silver platter because she’d popped out a couple of kids, and she took it all for granted, while Bea had to start a whole company just to get a little spending money in her pocket.
Bea had often wondered—did Eliana not realize how fragile it was? How quickly it could all disappear? Eliana’s life was ideal. A dream. But it wasn’treal. It was dangerous. It was naive. But for years, Bea had watched how Eliana and Jesse interacted, searching for the crack. It was clear how Jesse hung onto her every word, and in time, to her horror, Bea realized that Elianawassecure. That this man trulywantedto be her provider. He wasn’t the most romantic guy, but there was no doubt in anybody’s mind that Eliana was the sun around which Jesse orbited.
And Beawantedit more than anything else she’d ever wanted before. At first, she’d just been curious—testing the waters to see how far Jesse would let her take the flirting, the jokes, and then the kisses. Each response she earned served to soothe her chafed pride. But it wasn’t until he’d shown up in Elliston that Bea knew she had him.
She began making plans while he lay by her side, snoring mindlessly. Jesse may not be as wealthy as Milo, but it wasn’t like Milo was overly generous in the first place, and judging by the jewelry and the bouquets and the trips, Jesse was doing fine on his own.
It had all been going perfectly to plan, until Eliana took the damn job working withMilo, completely out of the blue, and turned Jesse into a boar. Their meetings were no longer about Jesse’s thrill of being with Bea, but rather his fury over his wife moving out from beneath his thumb.
Perfect Eliana.
Bea loved her.
Bea hated her.
And even though it boiled her alive to stand before her friend and ask for help, Bea had nowhere else to go.
“He’s leaving me,” she whimpered, running a knuckle beneath her eye, wiping away an imaginary tear. She stepped forward to walk into the house, as she’d done hundreds of times before, but Eliana sidestepped, blocking her path.
“I’m sorry.” Eliana stated, though her voice held a note of steel Bea had never heard before. Her gaze darted up in surprise, and she was horrified to find the same steel reflected in Eliana’s eyes. “Milo told me what happened and what he was planning—given that you and I were friends.” Bea ignored the spear of pain that stabbed her at Eliana’s casual use of past tense. “But I can’t support you on this, knowing how you chose to hurt him. You know how I feel about cheating. Milo may be my boss, but he’s my friend too.”
