Page 10 of Winning Her

“Well?” I prompted when she still said nothing.

“Are you sure you don’t want something to eat?” she asked.

I rolled my eyes, at the end of my patience, and left the salon. Getting information on my father myself wouldn’t be hard.

But I didn’t see where I was going as I walked out the room and bumped into someone. Or rather, a smaller, soft body bumped into mine. She gave a small yelp as we collided, and I held her by the tops of her arms until she righted herself.

“Sorry about that,” she said. “I didn’t see where I was going—”

She looked up into my face, then cut herself off as she recognized who I was. I knew who she was, too.

Jessi.

Emily wasn’t the only woman who’d grown around here. The last time I saw Jessi, she’d been this awkward, gangly girl, not unlike what Emily was like as in her early teens. I could hardly see that same person in her now.

But she was staring at me with her eyes wide and jaw dropped.

Another woman was looking at me like she’d seen a ghost. At least she was looking at me, and not through or around me. But this was Jessi, not my half-sister whom I had an awkward half-sibling relationship with. On the contrary, we had no relationship. None at all.

I took a moment to get a good look. Jessi had grown into a beautiful woman.

Just when did that happen?

4

Jessi

I was on my way out of the main part of the mansion and heading out when I saw the sense in my mom’s words. I’d helped my mom with her work, and she’d even insisted I spend the night because by the time we were done with everything it was too late for me to have gone home. I turned around, my exhaustion telling me to stay.

It was a mistake.

I knew it even as I agreed with Mom’s suggestion, and I sure as heck was regretting it now.

Of all the people… of all the times… why did it have to be Trent?

I knew I must have looked like an idiot, just standing there and acting like I’d seen a ghost or something. It was rude, and as soon as it occurred to me I tried to shift my expression to something polite, my lips trembling a little as the corners turned up in a smile.

“Hello,” I said, at the very least trying to be civil.

Trent didn’t even bother with that. As soon as I opened my mouth and spoke, he just frowned at me and stormed off.

Maybe he was in a hurry, I tried to tell myself. It had absolutely nothing to do with me.

But then I heard him muttering to himself as he walked off, not even bothering to keep his voice quiet.

“Servants using the front entrance now… my how things have changed around here…”

The words left me stricken, but by the time I turned around, he was already out of sight.

Fuck! Damn you, Trent!

It had been years. Fucking years, and yet he was still the one person that could make me feel smaller than an ant with just a few callous words. If anyone else had said those words, it would have been easy to brush them off. They could have been jealous or their dislike of me would have been petty. I didn’t know exactly how Trent felt about me, but everything he said hit me harder than words from other people.

Just what the fuck had I been doing in all those years we’d been apart? I should have used it to get over this bastard.

Mood completely ruined, I turned back around. I didn’t want to head the direction he’d gone. The chances we’d bump into each other twice were low, but I didn’t want to risk it. Feeling incredibly stung, I headed back to my mom’s apartment in the servants’ wing.

You shouldn’t still feel like this, I chided myself as I felt old wounds tearing open. What exactly did you expect, anyway? You knew it would be bad!