MY GREEDY STEPSISTER

I stood frozen in the middle of the living room as the footsteps got closer. My heart was beating so loud it drowned out everything else. Miss Mia gave me one last worried look before she quietly slipped toward the kitchen, leaving me alone.

Damon walked in first.

He had his arm around her waist. The same way I had dreamed he would hold me one day. She was laughing softly at something he whispered in her ear. Her blonde hair fell perfectly over her shoulders. She looked beautiful. Happy. Like she belonged here.

It really was Melissa.

My greedy stepsister.

The girl who had grown up with me after my father married her mother. The one I had shared my secrets with. The one I had cried to about Damon for years. She knew everything about me, everything about my life in this loveless marriage.

And now she was here in his arms. In our house, as what? His mistress or his new wife?

Damon’s eyes met mine across the room and for a second I saw his face flash with something that looked like…Surprise? Maybe even a little guilt. But it disappeared fast. He pulled Melissa closer and kissed the top of her head like he was intentionally trying to rub whatever was already going on here in my eyes.

“Melissa,” I whispered, my voice was barely audible but I think she heard because she turned and looked at me. Her face brightened up with the fake smile she always gave my father when he caught her doing something crazy. “Oh, Hazel. I didn't know you’re still up? You look… tired, sis.”

Sis.

The word felt like poison now.

Damon didn’t even bother pretending. He kept his hand on her waist and looked straight at me. “I told you I was bringing someone home. You should’ve saved yourself the embarrassment and gone to bed.”

I couldn’t breathe. My chest felt like someone was squeezing it tight.

“Melissa…” I said again, louder this time. “How could you? You knew. You knew how I felt about him. I told you everything. All those nights I cried to you about this marriage. About how much I loved him. And you… you still did this?”

Melissa tilted her head, still smiling. “Come on, Hazel. You’ve been holding onto him for three years and he clearly doesn’t want you. Someone had to make him happy. Why not me?”

Damon chuckled and pulled her even closer. “She gets it. Unlike you.”

I felt tears burn under my eyes but I refused to let them fall in front of them. Not anymore.

“All this time,” I said, turning my gaze to Damon, “I thought you didn’t know how to love. I thought you were just cold. But you’re not. You’re doing everything I ever wanted… for her. The gifts. The smiles. The way you’re holding her right now. You just didn’t want to do it for me, right? How stupid I have been.”

Damon shrugged like my pain meant nothing. “I never asked for you, Hazel. This marriage was strictly business. Melissa understands this world better than you. She knows how to stand next to a man like me. You’ve only ever been… in the way.”

Melissa touched his chest and looked up at him with adoration. The kind of look I used to give him but only irritated him more. “Baby, maybe we should go upstairs. Hazel looks like she needs some time alone.”

I felt sick.

This was the woman I had treated like a real sister. The one who hugged me when my mother died and told me she'd always be there for me. The one I defended when my stepmother was cruel and she had gone behind my back and taken the only man I had ever loved.

Right there, I felt whatever I thought I'd been holding onto in this marriage break.

“I’m done,” I said quietly. The words felt heavy but right. “I’m really done this time.”

Damon raised an eyebrow. “Yeah? You’ve said that before.”

“No,” I shook my head. “I mean it this time. Tomorrow I’m signing the papers. And I want you both out of my life.”

Melissa laughed softly. “Good luck with that. Father will never let you ruin the merger.”

I didn’t answer her. I just turned and walked upstairs with whatever dignity I had left. Their laughter followed me the whole way.

When I got to my room I locked the door behind me and slid down to the floor. The tears came hard and fast. I cried for the sister I thought I had, for the husband I never really had, for the years I threw away on people who never cared about me.

After a long time, I pulled out my phone and called Sophia.

She answered on the first ring. “Hazel? What happened?”

“It’s Melissa,” I whispered, my voice completely broken. “It’s been Melissa this whole time. My own stepsister.”

Sophia went quiet for a second, then she cursed. “I knew that b*tch was up to something. I’m so sorry, babe. What are you going to do?”

I wiped my face and looked at the divorce papers sitting on my desk. The ones I had printed days ago.

“I’m signing them tomorrow,” I said. My voice was shaky but sure. “I’m really doing it this time. I’m leaving him. I’m leaving all of this shitty life.”

Sophia let out a long breath. “I’m proud of you, girl. Call me when it’s done. I’ll be there.”

We stayed on the phone until I calmed down a little. When we hung up, I sat there on the floor staring at the wall for a long time.

Eight years.

Eight years of loving a man who never loved me back, of trusting a sister who betrayed me.

But tomorrow… Tomorrow it will finally be over.

I just didn’t know yet how ugly it was going to get.

The next morning I woke up early, grabbed the printed copies of the divorce papers, and walked straight to Damon’s office with them in my hands.

My heart was pounding but I'm doing this.

This was it.