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| Bitter or Better? |
After her sister's death, wedding cake artist Milli Velvet Haywood left her busy life in Vegas behind; Hoping for a new beginning in the small town resort community of Pagosa Cliffs, Colorado. But with a newstart comes challenges. Her attempt to return to her old life brings a different set of dangers. Can she move forward and be better? Or will the bitterness of her life sour her future chances at happiness and love.
This story is all about choices. It is about overcoming versus succumbing.
“Excuse
me? Are you Milli Haywood?” A thin woman, almost as tall as Marni, asked with a
concerned look on her face. “And is that your sister, Marnianne?”
“Uhhh,
did you know our parents?” Milli questioned in surprise.
The
woman looked in the direction Marni had gone, her expression said she wanted to
be anywhere but there, “Oh honey, I am so sorry. I am here to serve you with divorce
papers. I have them for you and your sister.”
Milli’s
breath caught in her chest, but she nodded slowly. She blinked rapidly in an
attempt to staunch the tears from falling. “I knew Edgar was a coward but...I
thought Heith... I guess I should have known. Dad always said cowardice and
cruelty runs in families. Just give me the papers. Marni’s having a hard
pregnancy, she can’t be upset right now.”
The
woman’s eyes were sympathetic. “I am sorry but...” She shrugged in a helpless
gesture. "I have to give them to you both personally, see them signed, and
bring them back. I am so sorry. I don’t normally do this kind of thing. If I
had known you were both pregnant, I wouldn’t have agreed to do it. The Rowlings
are trying to tie up loose ends and secure the family’s assets.”
Milli’s
full lips pressed into a thin line. She couldn’t keep the bitterness out of her
voice. “And let me guess, the emotionally unstable, orphaned daughter of two
doctors and her adopted mulatto sister are loose ends.”
The
woman nodded sadly. “I’m Jean Lasater, by the way. And I’m so...”
“I
know, you’re sorry. Please don’t apologize again. You didn’t do this,” Milli
interrupted with a wave of her hand.
Jean
swallowed, wishing she wasn’t being forced into doing this. “It’s just… Well,
they told me you were both strippers looking for an easy mark and trapped the
boys into marrying the both of you. But this morning, I learned where you both
work and I feel terrible. I... I didn’t know about your sister’s condition or
yours. They didn’t tell me.”
Milli
held out her hand for the paperwork. “They don’t know. Marni insisted we tell
them in person, but it’s been months and they never came back.”
The
bitterness was choking Milli, She wanted to vomit as she read the papers. There
was a quarter of a million dollars in a fund for her if she would just sign the
papers and keep quiet about being married to Edgar Rowling. No further contact
with any member of the Rowling family was the only additional stipulation.
Time seemed to stop as Milli read Edgar’s statement on how they met. He had
written that she was a stripper who had saved him from being mugged and that
her position at the bakery was a side job because she couldn’t make enough
money as a stripper to pay her rent. Reading in his words what he truly thought
of her was like being stabbed. Her husband did not see her as his heroine, but
as his whore. She had given him her heart, her trust, her virginity, and now he
was paying her to go away.
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