Chapter 2 FOUR MONTHS LATER (Where Trouble Starts)

Roxy’s POV Four months ago, everything changed. It wasn’t the grief that broke me. It wasn’t even the nightmares, or the way I’d wake up gasping his name like I could pull him back from the dead. It was her. I used to wonder what she felt after it happened. Guilt? Remorse? Even a flicker of regret? But I was so stupidly, painfully wrong. Because one week after the hit-and-run, she was living her best life—unbothered, and unapologetic. And I? I was choking on grief, drowning in it. That was the moment something in me snapped. “So what’s your plan? Just walk in there and kill her?” Rosy, my younger sister, shot her eyes at me, her arms crossed over her chest. I was exploring clothes in my wardrobe, picking out the dress for my first day at the South Carli University. “Ofcourse not” I roughnecked her, “I am not a killer. I only plan on making her suffer….This or this…” I held up two gowns, a black A line gown and a blue tea length gown with spots of flowers. “That. Red always brings out your eyes.” “That was already my pick.” I chimed excitedly. Rosy resumed as if my ward robe choice was merely a distraction. “And how Roxy, do you make someone like Professor McLain suffer?” I returned the blue gown into my hanger roll, watching Rosy’s face soak in fear for me but I was anything but afraid. My little sister, though just two years younger than I was always more level headed than I was. I on the other hand was a hot head. “First, I’ll come for HIM, the man who seems to make her happy, then I’ll come for her reputation and finally, her family but first I would have to get close to her.” At some point, I had started thinking as I was speaking. “This is insane Roxy. You know I did some research on Professor McLain and she is not only a white Beacon, her father is like the most respected Aristocrat in California….. they are the real life California billionaires…. So how do you expect to take someone like Sarah McLain on…. Let alone get close to her?,” I face her, head held high, with two chips on my shoulders. “Well Rosie, incase you haven’t noticed, I am known for being the teacher’s pet, I am also really, really smart. I was a straight A student and class valedictorian at Oxford high. I scored a scholarship very easily to study at Stanford and if I didn’t transfer, I would easily nab a first class Stanford Law degree. So getting close to Professor McLain is piece of cake.” She shoved one leg under the other, digging her ass into the bed, scrunching her face to almost tears. “Please Roxy, this is dangerous, what if you get caught?” “I won’t get caught…..where is my Swade for Gods sake?” I am partly distracted by my currently lost favorite shoe in the world. “Roxy….I just think you just need to mourn Lucas and move on….you haven’t taken a moment since he died. You just came up with this dare devil plan and ever since your mind has been on a rampage. I think you need to deal with your pain and not this….” “Yes!” I rejoice finding my favorite shoe in the world. My brown Swade sneakers. I line the shoe with my picked out dress and a triumphant smile slice my lips and then I turn to her wrenched gaze. “And no Rosie, I didn’t JUST come up with this plan. You know I was fine…. barely…. But fine, I even went to Lucas’s favorite place…. Lux Liquors….. somehow, I was going to find the heart to move on and then I see her…… Sarah McLain… happy and pleased with herself…. She was going to her anniversary with her ‘baby’.” I scoff, “I mean she ran over a young 22 year old man with his whole life ahead of him and she just gets to move on— flourish, have anniversaries with her husband….” I chuckle. “For God’s sake, she just got a professor of the year award.…. can you believe that?! Someone has to avenge Lucas and it’s going to be me. That’s what Lucas would want.” Her face pales. “Lucas is DEAD,” She almost spat the last word as if it was supposed to mean more than it already did. “He is dead Roxy and you just need to please, stop! take a moment and just stop!” “I absolutely cannot stop and take a moment because if I did, I would have to remember how she ran him over again and again, it keeps playing in my head. It never stops. She left him out there in the streets to die…. God, I would have to think about Lucas’s bright future and how easily she cut it off…I would have to think about how she went scot free with no evidence at all to tie her down. See….I would have to think about the wedding we’d never have and the kids we’d never have. Lucas was my soulmate so, I absolutely CANNOT take a moment.” I shoot two hands from my temples. I feel blood heating up my face and Rosy walks up to me, pulling me into a full hug. “I am just so worried about you, all you’ve ever wanted was to graduate Stanford with a Law degree and now you’re transferring to South Carli…” She leaned back with a shrug. “I just don’t want you to regret this.” I place two hands on her shoulders with tangible conviction. “Right now, the only thing I want is to take everything that matters to Professor McLain and crush it.” I make an impression with my hands, mentally picturing Professor McLain’s face. “She took Lucas from me.” “So what…you’re going after….what’s his name, Aaron West?…..” Her eyes follow me frantically as I plant myself in front of my mirror and I make a satisfactory smile. “Oh no Roxy, he’s too old for you.” She nearly cried. “Professor McLain turns 38 this year, so that puts Aaron West around the same age. Besides he didn’t look all that old….” My mind partially drifts to the man who nearly ran me over with his car, and how fast my heart raced when he touched me, and then he scolded me and implied he would spank me. The thought sent a thrill up my spine. I swallowed, “I mean I was a bit drunk, and it was pretty dark, and I was definitely depressed but…. he was not bad to look at,” “Come on Roxy, you said you were drunk and it was pretty dark…. how could you even remember what he looks like?” “Bits and pieces. Besides I don’t care about his looks. I am not trying to fall in love with him. I am only trying to get him to fall for me…. ruin Sarah’s life and then break his heart. I mean if he is coupled to someone who would hit a person and run…. He’s most likely as dangerous as she is or even worse,” I shrug, feeling very sure about my deductions. “Even if he looked like Chris Hemsworth, I would never even care!” She shakes her head, speaking, “And you think it’s going to be that simple. Just go in there and make that type of man fall for you? you think he’s going to be interested in you…. fall in love with you… and forget about his sophisticated wife?” “Well stranger things have happened in the world Rosie darling.” I say sweetly. “Girl you just turned twenty two…. I’m sure he prefers more mature women like his wife, Professor McLain. I bet he is not even going to take you seriously.” Her eyes cruise my Ariana Grande figure. “Oh dear Rosie, do not underestimate my charms, Lucas used to say— you my dear can make a priest sin.” I laughed shortly after making an impression of Lucas and then I finish with a proud shrug of one shoulder. “You see…. that right there is why I am so worried about you, how you talk about Lucas without any emotions, where did all your pain go? He died just four months ago….you can’t already be this chill about it.” I let out a sharp sigh, scanning the wrinkles on her face. “Oh dear, fix your face, you will get a permanent wrinkle. I have told you I am fine.” “Well I don’t agree with this plan.” She quoted the last word with emphasis, her disapproval glaring on her face but I Roxy Bennet, was not deterred. “Well sweet Rosy, you don’t have a choice but to support me, you are the only best friend I have left in this world.” I playfully pinch her cheeks. “And it is over a Cliff?” I hold out my pinky. She squirms just a little and an exhales with that—I surrender to Roxy Bennett smile. “Over a Cliff.” She slides her pinky into mine. “Now….” I turn back to the mirror, yanking up my full black curly hair in my hands. “Help me figure out what to do with this hair. “A hairstyle that would win me Professor Mclain’s friendship and Aaron West’s heart.” She sighs, crossing her eyes in exasperation. “Oh boy, I think we’re about to get in trouble.” “Oh this is revenge baby and it is not pretty.” I shove my lips into a conceited smile an exuberant smile. “So have you figured how you’re going to tell mom?” Rosy asks, and immediately my head suspends with worry.