Chapter 5
194words
That name was chosen for my unborn sister. Mom had decided—a girl would be Sophia, a boy would be Samuel.
But Mom died from childbirth complications, and my tiny sister didn't survive her first month.
Dad remarried quickly. My biological sister's name was stolen by my stepmother's daughter.
Once they moved in, they forgot their previous poverty and claimed everything as their own—especially Sophia, who loved taking my things.
My spineless father poured all his guilt about my mother onto this mother-daughter pair.
Whenever I protested, all I heard was "You're the older sister, you should give in to your younger sister."
Our final argument happened when I was eighteen. Dad, red-eyed, shouted that I was "inconsiderate," then cut me off.
As for Gregory Grant, I always knew he was stingy and calculating. I chose him anyway.
Only because I knew Sophia Bailey too well—I was certain she'd try to steal him.
My previous boyfriends all left because they couldn't handle her harassment. Gregory Grant—a man who couldn't get what he wanted from me yet stuck around out of greed—was destined to take her bait.
