Chapter 3

I waltzed into the elevator at exactly 8:45 am, coffee and bagel in hand. I was a bit taken aback by the exchange between Mr. Churchill and myself because it seemed that he hadn’t the faintest idea that his bitch of a daughter and I were no longer friends.

I found it comical, but I wasn’t the one who was going to tell him the kind of repulsive things she had done to me. Just because she was a raging psychopath didn’t mean that her dear dad needed to know about it. She should remain an angel in his eyes, at least. Daddy’s little girl.

As I stepped out of the elevator, a welcome sight in the form of my best friend and co-worker stood a ways in front of me with her back turned. She was just about to walk through the office doors.

“Good morning, Danielle! You alright, darling?” I asked.

Danielle was a gorgeous Sussex girl with hazel eyes, the cutest button nose, a curvy body, and a wonderful, goofy personality. Her dark brown -almost black- hair cascaded down her back in soft waves, and as she rotated to face me, her plump lips turned upward and parted, revealing a perfectly white set of teeth.

“Alright, love. You?” she responded, grinning.

“I’ve been better, but honestly, it’s nothing that seeing your pretty face can’t fix”, I said, holding my arms out for a hug.

We walked arm in arm to our desks, as we shared a cubicle, and both laid our handbags and other bits and bobs down with a soft jingle-jangle.

Danielle and I worked as junior editors for a medium-sized business magazine called The Sterling Journal. We had spent most of our adult lives together. We met at university, where we had all of the same classes. My family owns a large conglomerate, so naturally, when it was time to choose a major, I chose business. However, because I had a passion for writing, I double majored in Journalism. Danielle came from a different background, but we had similar interests, and we got along instantly.

During my terrible years at university, Danielle’s friendship got me through. I had her back, and she had mine. She was there the first time that I caught my boyfriend in bed with Charissa. We were still friends then, Charissa and I. It was our first year of university, and my boyfriend and Charissa shared the same major, so they had many classes together.

After it happened that first time, I forgave her. I thought, maybe they had genuinely fallen in love, and who was I to stand in the way of them, but then, it happened a second time, less than a year after the first instance.

At that point, I had given up on my friendship with Charissa, and I was almost certain that it wouldn’t happen a third time, but it did. Then, after we graduated from university, it happened a fourth time. Tyler would be the fifth boyfriend of mine that Charissa had slept with, and the only one that I had too.

Danielle was nothing like Charissa. She was a true friend who always tried to support and encourage me. And after every breakup, she would comfort me and say that “whatever is meant for you cannot not be taken away”. These words rang in my head like a mantra.

During our lunch break, Danielle and I decided to have dinner outside the office so that I could spill the tea about what happened yesterday.

I told her about what I walked in on after leaving work early to surprise Tyler.

“I still can’t believe it happened again!” I cried, “I had hoped Tyler would be the person who wouldn’t betray my trust, but I was wrong.”

“It’s not your fault, Ames, and I’m so sorry that this happened again”, she cooed.

“Do you know, I ran into her dad this morning when I was getting coffee, and he bought me breakfast?” I informed her.

“Maybe you should date him,” she joked, “he’s probably the one man on planet Earth she won’t sleep with.”

“Maybe I should,” I cackled, “He invited me to dinner at their place tonight. Maybe I should marry her dad and have her call me Mommy.”

Just like that, a lightbulb turned on in my head, and I was determined to have my revenge. I made up my mind then and there. Andrew Churchill was going to be my husband, and unless Charissa was planning on sleeping with him too, there was absolutely nothing she could do to stop me.

It was high time I taught her a lesson that she would never forget. I would become her stepmother and spend the rest of my life annoying her as much as I could. I was finally going to return the favour. I was going to take something that belonged to her for a change.