Prologue - Ryan
PRESENT DAY
Everything was going according to plan.
Liquor was flowing freely, laughter and cigar smoke filling the air. Poker was the name of the game, but that wasn’t the true game at play here.
No. That game was life, and I was fucking winning it.
I sat back in my chair and surveyed the scene with a smirk. No longer was I the skinny, nerdy kid on the council estate, existing in his twin’s shadow. I wasn’t taunted. Pushed around. Bullied. I didn’t cower from anyone or anything.
I’d left that life far behind. Along withhim.
His ghost no longer haunted me. Tonight was proof of that.
My career was flying. Just last month, I’d been named the youngest partner in my firm’s history. My brains had got me there, along with my tenacity. My refusal to ever quit.
And who do you have to thank for that?
I shoved that away. He wasn’t here. He no longer existed for me.
He hadn’t for a long time.
My skinny physique had been replaced with muscles honed by a daily routine I never deviated from. Up. Gym. Shower. Protein shake. Work. Gym. Shower. Home.
It wasn’t that I didn’t have a life outside of that. The evidence of that was all around me. But I didn’t break from the routine. I couldn’t. It was all that had pulled me out of that dark place.
I wouldn’t go back there. I couldn’t.
One of my friends, Tom, got to his feet. He swayed, beer spilling from his pint glass as the rest of the table cheered. I grinned as he brushed it off, barely seeming to notice. “Let’s have a toast to the man of the hour. To Ryan.”
“To Ryan!” the tables roared. Not just ours, but the four others in the room. More proof that I could make friends on my own. That I could live a full and happy life.
I didn’t need him.
I never fucking did.
“Speech,” Tom slurred, spilling yet more of his drink. “Let’s hear from the groom to be.”
The old fear whispered in my ear as every eye turned to me, but it was easy to ignore. The mask of confidence was one I’d donned so often it was practically an old friend. “Nah, nobody wants to hear me drone on.”
The cacophony of noise that followed had my grin spreading wider. They were cheering for me. Encouraging me.
Because theylikedme. Me. Ryan Davies.
Fine. It wasn’t the version of myself I’d once been, but who gave a fuck? The old me had died a long time ago. His coffin was buried six feet under and that was where it could fucking stay. Every dream that fool had once had was locked away there too. The life he’d thought he’d lead.
He’d been a naive kid. I wasn’t him anymore.
This, this right here, was the plan. To transform myself into someone new. Someone who could rise to the top. Who was surrounded by people whowantedhiscompany.
To marry the most beautiful person he could find.
Tick. Tick. Tick.I’d checked off each of my life goals with the cold precision he’d taught me. To spite him.
‘You can’t be happy without me.’
‘Fucking watch me.’
