Page 5 of Fade (Fighting Fate)

A knock on the door brought me out of my head, and I looked up to see Mom standing in the doorway.

“Really, Amy. Are you going to be sitting around like some sort of sloth for the whole day? You could be helping me with the plans for the dinner party tomorrow night. It’s about time you learned the finer details when it comes to hosting. It’s not as easy as I make it look, you know.”

She sighed and brushed her hair off her shoulder.

“Now, I’ll need Ryan here by seven o’clock sharp to help your father greet the guests, so can you please at least do me the favor of passing that on . . .”

I flinched at hearing Ryan’s name. I’d forgotten about the dinner party. This was not going to go down well.

Mom paused, her eyes narrowing as she stared me down. “What?” she said dangerously.

I swallowed. “Uh . . . Ryan and I kind of broke up.”

Her eyebrows shot up, and she sucked in a harsh breath. “What!”

I pressed my lips together, waiting for the explosion.

It was as quick as flicking a switch. Her jaw clenched, and her eyes narrowed into tiny little slits. “No,” she said sternly. “You will not do this to me, Amy. I have already told the Fitzgeralds that Ryan will be here. You know how interested they are to do business with Universal Management. Ryan was their way in. What do you think it’s going to do to my image if he’s not here after I told them he would be?”

She took one hand off her hip to point her long, manicured finger at me.

“I swear to God, Amy, if you ruin this for me, you can forget Paris this Christmas. I mean it.”

I sat staring up at her, a lump growing in my throat. I really wasn’t good enough for anyone, was I? Why couldn’t I just make them happy? What was I doing that was so wrong?

I racked my brain, trying to figure out how to fix everything. I knew I’d promised her that Ryan and I would be there, but how was I supposed to make Ryan come when he didn’t want to be anywhere near me?

Mom’s sudden shriek had me flinching as she began storming toward my closet. Throwing the doors open, she thrust the garments roughly to the side, dresses falling in clumps to the floor as she went.

Pulling a slinky red dress off its hanger, she threw it on the bed, then grabbed me by my upper arm and yanked me to my feet.

“It’s time you grew up, Amy. Stop dressing like a child with your jeans and god-awful tank tops and be the woman Ryan needs you to be. It’s no wonder he broke up with you. I’ve been telling you for weeks the kind of man Ryan is going to become needs a proper woman. Now put the damned dress on and go apologize. Grovel on your hands and knees if you have to. I don’t care. You do whatever it takes to get him here tomorrow night, or don’t bother coming home!”

I gasped, my heart hammering with a slight panic as I watched her stomp out the door.

I didn’t know what to do. I tried so hard to make Mom proud of me, but nothing ever seemed good enough. Just once. That’s all I wanted. One time where she would look at me and say, “I’m so proud of you, Amy.”

Glancing at the dress she’d left on my bed, I wondered if it was that easy. Was that all it was going to take? For me to put on a sexy dress and apologize?

Ryan’s angry face flashed in my mind. No. It was going to take a lot more than that. I was going to have to give him my body to get him to Mom’s dinner party, and I wasn’t sure if I could.

I thought of how proud Mom would be if I managed to get Ryan back. The need for her approval made my chest ache. I had to at least try.

Chapter 4

Daniel

“Are you sure you’re okay with me going out tonight?” Mom asked for the third time.

I laughed. “It’s fine, Mom. I’m just going to head to bed early anyway. The bus trip is finally catching up with me.” It wasn’t. But I wanted her to be okay with going out just the same.

“Okay, then,” she said, exhaling lightly. “We’ll do something tomorrow.” Grabbing her keys off the hook, she giggled. “See you in the morning.”

As soon as the door closed behind her, Ryan stepped out from the kitchen. “Finally!” I watched him pull his cell from his back pocket and start tapping the screen. “It’s booty call time.” He grinned and glanced up at me. “Want me to tell her to bring a friend?”

My brother was seriously a dick. For the first time in my life, I hated the fact that we were identical. Knowing people could mistake me for him pissed me off. “Nah, thanks, man. I’m good. I’m going to hit the

sack soon.”

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