Lahat ng Kabanata ng Ex-Periment: Fake-Dating My Sister's Ex: Kabanata 21 - Kabanata 30

Tiara “What da hell is this?” Melody asks, twirling the food around her plate.I take in the look on her face and fight back a smile, “It’s octopus.”She splutters, “What?!”“Uh-huh.”“Gurl, I’m black. Black people don’t eat weird ass food.”I laugh. “Yeah right.”We are at the rehearsal dinner and the ballroom is basked in the warm glow of expensive candles and the gentle hum of conversation. Donald Lemptons is here, finally, coming in merely an hour before the dinner, and now he sits all-powerful-like at the head of the table, flanked by Ciara and Grace on both sides, and every other person looks small in comparison.A part of me tugs at my guts, whispering, ‘you should be there, in that circle with them. They are after all family, they should have to acknowledge you too’But I’m used to all the years of neglect by them, pretending I don’t exist in their glamorous family. Maybe except my mother, but to her I’m a different family than this one. To her, both of us make one family, an

Tiara I can’t sleep.It’s hard to when the conversations keep playing in my head;“. . . you weren’t silent all those times you fucked my wife in all the cities you took her to. . .”“. . . inviting your lover to my daughter’s wedding? . . .”“Leave her out of this,”“. . . would you love you if you were me?”Too much information for one night. I don’t know what to feel. Happy that my father wasn’t lonely after all? Hurt that they had both lied to my face? Angry that she cheated on Donald? Does that even make me angry? I don’t think so.I’m overwhelmed, my feelings are in a state of flux, rapidly morphing and merging into one another, leaving me disoriented as I replay the whole night.Ryan left me alone for a while and I appreciated that he decided to give me some space to think. But in the middle of the night he knocks on my door.His features are etched in worry when I open the bedroom door and he doesn’t wait for an invitation to enter which is as well considering the number of

TiaraThe beach is cold at this time of the night but I don’t mind.I need the wind to clear my thoughts anyway.Melody texted me earlier about attending the bridal shower tonight but I opted for the serenity of the beach instead. The appeal to get drunk and scream on the top of my lungs has always been lost on me.Tomorrow it will all be over. The wedding, the pretense, everything will be over. I can leave it all behind and catch the first flight back to New York, putting these past few days in the rearview mirror. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.It’s hard to think of my life now and hold back the tears that threaten to spill. Maybe one day, I’ll understand why she chose to stay, but today is not that day, and as I think back on the years, I try not to be her, to understand her choices.Growing up, I’d accepted my fate as the other daughter, the extra they had to keep. It was all I was and I didn’t mind. But knowing now that I could’ve had more, that my life didn’

Ryan Her eyes dart around as I wrap her shawl around her shoulders.“I can’t believe we did that,” she whispers, eyes on the floor, cheeks a crimson red.I’m holding back a laugh. “You were not so shy hours ago when you –”Her elbow smacks against my stomach, “Shut up.”I laugh as she turns redder, “It’s not even bright yet,” I gesture around the semi-dark beach, streaked by the faint lights of dawn, “I’m sure no one saw us,” then because her after-sex glow is absolutely adorable, I add, “unfortunately.”Her eyes shoot up sharply and she would’ve hit me again if I didn’t lean down and kiss her lips, slowly, letting her know my intentions for later.She is breathless when I pull back and I love that I can bring that emotion out of her. “I’m just going to head to Jackson’s for a minute, I’ll catch up with you in the suite. Okay?”Her forehead bobbles against mine as she nods, “Okay,” she sighs and step back. Then as though a light bulb switches on in her head, she snaps her

TiaraI know it.Seeing Ciara in her messy-girl outfit with the wild look in her eyes, I know something is wrong.I don’t have to take in the confused expression on Ryan’s face to confirm what I already feel.They are standing in the middle of the aisle, close to the make-shift alter and I walk up to them, hoping against all odds that the word ‘wrong’ has a different context to them than it has to me.“What’s going on, Ryan?”Ryan yanks his hand away from Ciara’s touch, meeting me halfway, “Tee—”“We were just talking about you, sis,” Ciara drawls.Ryan glares at her, “Shut up,” to me he says, “we need to talk.”She chortles, “We’ve already had the talk, babe.”Babe?“Do you guys maybe want to this. . .” I gesture behind me to where a handful of people are standing, “somewhere else?”“This is the perfect place, Tee,” Ciara looks smug, too smug and I can feel a tightening around my throat, “I was just telling Ryan about the deal with Thomas.”“Um…” her deal or my deal? I have to be sur