Play The Part (Player Next Door Book 3)

97 | Both Breaking Now

Temperature check.  Have we cooled down enough from last chapter? 

Well, too late now...

Chapter 97: Both Breaking Now

It's the witching hour.

The clocks struck midnight and I was at home alone, sitting in my sister's bedroom.

Expecting her to creep through those doors any minute now, clad in the black outfits she'd been wearing to sneak up on us all this time.

She's in Europe, I reminded myself, calming my panicking heart.

The blackmailer.

All this time, I was so sure the blackmailer was obsessed with Luke. In my own blind love for him, I didn't connect the dots.

The blackmail started when we started.

The blackmailer had an issue with us.

The girl who had access to every part of my life, who lived across the street from him and despised us together. The girl who could easily navigate from my home, to my school, to the Dawsons' house across the street and even to our old lady neighbor who had Winnifred, without suspicion.

Maybe the old lady hated me so much because she thought my sister and I were the same.

Because my house was her house.

My school was her school.

And my neighbors were hers.

Who would suspect a sister?

We shared the same last name, the same age, the same DNA.

I thought the blackmailer would be someone obsessed with Luke. But maybe it was someone who just hated me.

I stared down at the letter she wrote me. The letter she told me to read as she was leaving.

Dear Millie,

I wouldn't describe our family life as warm and cozy. I wouldn't be surprised if you left this place and never came back.

It's what our old man taught us to do.

And I guess I took my anger out on you over the years. I called it discipline. Maybe it was just easier to harden you than to soften myself.

Because life can suck. And don't we know it?

This year, I felt a lot of things. Jealousy was new. You struck lightning-level luck. You seemed happy and none of us Ripleys have been or are meant to be happy. It's like you'd forgotten that rule.

In the end, everyone's gonna leave. If you don't leave first, they'll do it for you. We end up alone, just like mom.

So keep your guard up.

Keep one eye open. I hope I taught you that much.

FLO

**

I read that letter thirty times that night. I poured myself a drink and read it again.

Until I memorized every hateful word by heart.

What a coward.

To say so much, but not to my face.

Now she was gone for the summer, then gone for college. This isn't closure. This isn't a chance for me to confront her.

She got the last word. Like a true blackmailer, a lurker in the shadows, never one to step into the light.

She played with me, with my life, with the people I love, and as soon as she didn't need to anymore, she leaves a crappy little note.