Camille
I wanted everything. Earned or not, but I had a strong case for my desires.
And she…well, she was so weak.
She was needy and whiny.
Maybe I was, too. Not petulant like her, not crying over imagined wounds. Mine was justified.
I had reasons. Good ones.
She had nothing–or so I told myself.
No, she may not have had reasons like I did, but she had everything else.
Everything.
I’d done whatever it took to get my share, to take what was rightfully mine.
This was supposed to be my chance. The one thing that no one could take from me.
I had the birthright.
I was the first.
But she was treated like the first.
And that made me so angry. Unbelievably angry.
I tried so hard to push it down. I punched pillows. I threw darts at her face. I smiled when I wanted to scream. I softened when I wanted to be razor-sharp.
I tried to be sweet. I tried to be smart. I tried to be the better daughter. And still it wasn’t enough.
Somehow, she always won.
Even when I thought I had the upper hand.
I’d come in so strong. I had it within my grasp.
And she’d still managed to rip it all away.
If only I’d been able to spin things just a little differently, to keep things under wraps for a little longer.
Why had she been so smart?
Smarter than I expected, really. I genuinely thought she’d be far dumber, far more emotional, stubborn, thrown.
Anything.
I would have taken anything to get just a little further. Would have done anything.
But I pushed too hard. Way too hard.
I did things that would’ve gotten me doxed on the internet, like that woman—Mel Halston—who slept with her best friend’s boyfriend in the same room at that stupid ranch that ruined my life.
But I wasn’t as stupid as she was. I was smarter. Just not smart enough.
It didn’t work out for Mel Halston. And it didn’t work out for me either.
It started so well. I’d had her. I’d had him. She loved me. He could have, too. And then she came into it. Screaming.
And they just bounded to her side. Every whimper, every tear, every sob chipped away at all of that progress.
I could have had it all if only she’d stayed away for just a little longer.
But she didn’t. She poisoned everything.
And I had to do what I had to do. I had to take back what was mine.
And that? That’s what got me killed.
