CHAPTER 1 OVER

JADE’S POV “Forget I even said anything!“ I half-scream as I walk out of his office. “Jade, wait,” his voice follows as he trails behind me as quickly as possible. “I didn’t mean for things to turn out like this,” he continues in an attempt to explain. I scoff, finding what he says incredulous, before walking to the back door. Then, the stairs, since following that darn elevator, would attract more attention than necessary, and that’s everything I don’t need right now. “Please stay away, “ I tried again. When he doesn’t stop following me, I turn and face him almost immediately. “Let’s get something straight,” I say, watching him as I fold my arms and lean on the door leading to the stairs. “We broke up, no, your family broke it off for reasons we’re both aware of, so this little game you’re playing won’t affect you as much as it’d probably affect me,” I pause to stare into his brown eyes, which probably plead for me to understand before I continue. “I want absolutely nothing to do with you people any more than I already have, so read my lips, Dylan,” I say, walking as close as I can to him before sizing him up and carrying on. It’s over. If even I can understand, then you should too.” I step back and watch him shake his head in most likely refusal before he opens his mouth to spew absolute nonsense as usual. But I love you.” “No, you don’t,” I reply almost immediately before going on, “because if this is how you love someone, then I’d rather be alone for the rest of my miserable life.” I hastily put my hand into my purse and dug out his engagement ring before stretching my hand out to him and motioning for him to take it, which he obviously refused. “Just give me time, and I’ll…” he starts again, which frustrates me to the point where I almost toss the jewel away but refrain due to how expensive it is. Instead, I forcefully place it into his palm and attempt to bypass him. I head for the stairs, which he prevents by stepping in front of me again. “What the hell are you doing? Move,” I say, and it riles me up slightly when he doesn’t attempt to get out of my way. “Didn’t you hear me the first time you jerk? move!” I half-shout, which makes him step back enough to enable me to pass. “I know you’re upset about everything, and I understand that, but I wouldn’t be chasing you if I didn’t feel like this could work out,” he starts as I walk down the stairs in a hurry. “I honestly don’t care anymore, and I never asked you to,” I reply quietly as I continue downstairs. “We’ll talk later when you’ve calmed down,” he replies similarly after a few seconds, which makes me shake my head in disbelief. When I get to the parking lot, after a lot of heaving and cursing under my breath, I half-run hastily to my car to ensure that no one who’s someone sees me here and starts up unusual rumors as they would usually do in this situation. ************************************* Thinking about it now, I’m thoroughly screwed, and I mean, like, in a wrong way. I’ve also concluded that I need a job right now because if I don’t get one as soon as possible, I’ll have to embrace living on the streets as my life’s calling. There are so many bills and no money to pay them, which is ironic since I never once had to worry about things like that during the uneventful twenty-three years of my life. That is until I found myself in this predicament a month ago. It’s a pretty long story which I’ll probably have to explain later, but all you need to know right now is that the Millers screwed me over hard. And by the Miller’s, I mean Dylan and his self-serving family, AKA the cannibals of New York. It’s basically as the name implies since they practically eat people alive, I think. They destroy everything and anything they don’t need anymore, such as my humble self. Because of their wealth and affluence, they’re practically almost invincible, which makes me wonder how the hell I was willing to marry one of them and into their sick family. They use people past their breaking points and toss them aside when they have no more to give. As a recent victim, I can testify that it sucks so bad, especially when I have nothing to hold onto any longer. So, as it stands, I have no relationship, no money, no walk-in closet, and absolutely no way in hell I’ll get past this without having PTSD along the road. I’ll continue my sob story later, but in the meantime, I need to use what’s left of my brain to get myself out of this extremely sticky situation. I’ll need cash fast, and I’m not entirely sure that any regular job with a monthly salary that I could get right now would be enough for what I need to pay off my family’s debts. My family has been a burden I’ve had to carry for the entirety of my life, but I never foresaw that this burden would get so impossibly heavy to the point where I would feel like I was being suffocated and needed an immediate release. That’s one way to explain my situation, and another would be that you can’t really count on family sometimes. I don’t mean that you shouldn’t see your family as a support system when things get too rough but rather depend on yourself more than you would on anybody so you don’t end up feeling alone and overwhelmed when they don’t come through to you. I know they’re trying in some ways, which I probably can’t understand; I really do, but it doesn’t seem like it since I’ve been hurt the most by all this. My Dad couldn’t take the heat and jumped off the Empire State Building in Manhattan. How did he get there so quickly? I’m not sure, but what matters is that he abandoned us. He left us to bear the consequences of his actions, which was unlike what I knew him to be or who I thought he was. On the other hand, my mom went a little bit… How do I say this? “Cuckoo,” if you know what I mean. It comes and goes occasionally, which could be caused by her fear of losing us, too. She hasn’t spoken a word since my Dad died and she’s also in a rehabilitation center now, an expensive one which I have to pay for monthly cause she’s getting better, maybe, possibly, but I couldn’t deal with her getting any worse than she already is right now. I couldn’t handle seeing her lose her mind again. On the other hand, my wonderful older brother has gone missing in the meantime, conveniently when I needed him the most. He’s responsible most of the time and actually helped to foot some bills, so his disappearance really hit hard. I’ve thought of doing the same as he did, but I don’t think I could just abandon my mum the way my Dad did; it isn’t and wouldn’t be right. So my only viable solution right now is to support the family, a dysfunctional one, might I add, since that’s the only reasonable way to overcome all this, or at least I hope it is. If push comes to shove, I’d happily dive into the Pacific to escape all these problems. That’s all the thinking my brain can take for today without overloading, so I’ll probably continue tomorrow. Ciao.