Chapter One
Twelve years later (Bethany’s POV)
I laid poolside on the rooftop of Avengers Tower, my iPhone blaring from my iHome and the hot summer sun beating down, coloring my skin. I loved these moments, and could be found on the roof quite often. I had definitely inherited my father’s pale skin, and liked to keep up a tan to compensate. I flipped onto my stomach, readjusting myself with my book in the chair.
“How did I know I would find you here?” I heard a female voice ask teasingly, and turned to see a woman with red curly hair. Auntie Natasha.
“I don’t know, I think you’re a psychic.” I smiled, patting the chair next to me. She sat on the edge of the chair, crossing her long legs.
“How have you been?” Natasha asked, a certain look on her face. I knew my Auntie well enough to know when she was avoiding telling me something.
“Cut to the chase, Auntie Nat. It’s Malana, isn’t it?” silence followed, and I could tell my prediction was right. “She’s always telling lies about me!”
“She got in trouble for stealing jeans from the mall. She said that it was you who forced her to do it. Is that true?” Natasha asked, although I could see on her face that she knew it was not. Malana had made herself into a form of a problem child, having inherited her parents’ skills for badassness. Of course, she thought of me as some kind of threat to her status as Avengers baby for some reason and made it her mission to try to be better at me at everything. But the thing about Malana was that she had a tendency to fail at whatever she tried. I felt bad for her at first, but her personality had soured so much because of her bitterness towards me that it made it almost impossible to like her at all. I, on the other hand, was way more like my father: I was stubborn, intelligent, classy and small. I was 5”5 and skinny, whereas Malana was 6”5 and a little curvier. She wasn’t necessarily fat; in fact, I liked her curviness way more than my slender frame. But, I think that was another factor in her jealousy.
“Nat. You know me. Do you really think I would not only steal, but tell someone else to steal?” I raised an eyebrow at her.
“You’re right,” Natasha’s shoulders slumped “You’re a good kid. So is Malana, she’s just lost her way. I should go talk to her.” She got up and walked to the elevator.
“Hey, Natasha?” she turned “Thank you.” We smiled at each other before she disappeared into the tower.
I stared up at the blue sky for a little while, feeling my long eyelashes hit my round sunglasses as I blinked. I thought about Natasha, as well as my mother. I didn’t know much about my mother, but I did know that she had been a lovely and loving woman. I also knew that Natasha hadn’t liked her very much at all. Natasha was a territorial and untrusting woman, and my father had told me that having Malana had softened her in that way. Natasha was a wonderful woman, don’t get me wrong, and she was also very kind to me. But I couldn’t help but wonder why Natasha Romanoff treated me so nicely whereas she hadn’t liked my mother in the slightest. I guess that was just another one of my life’s mysteries, along with just what had happened to my mother the day that Uncle Nick had arrived at our home.
