After You Broke Me
Cecilia's parents married — her father deeply in love, her mother in love with what he could give her.
Her father owned a restaurant chain and ran a successful business. Her mother came from a family that had fallen to ruin.
When Cecilia was three, they decided to separate. Her mother realized that little Cecilia was her father's greatest weakness and used her as leverage, knowing it was in her best interest to keep the girl. She set the rules. She set the conditions. And she enforced them with threats.
The father wouldn't be allowed near his daughter. The mother would send photographs. If he attempted contact in any form, he'd never hear from them again. He made sure his daughter would want for nothing — he signed over his restaurants, his entire chain. He'd be starting from zero, but none of that mattered. For a parent, nothing matters more than their child.
Left with no choice, he clung to those photographs, even as they kept moving from place to place.
What he didn't know was that barely a year after the separation, his ex-wife married a widower — a man who had a daughter the same age as Cecilia.
From that moment on, Cecilia's home became a living hell. Olivia, her stepsister, envied everything she had.
Cecilia's mother preferred Olivia. The girl reminded her of herself — ambitious, determined, always getting what she wanted.
In high school, Cecilia fell in love with a boy from the university. There was something about him that pulled her attention, and a few chance encounters had already brought them together. He was the kind of guy everyone noticed — a college athlete, a star player, popular without trying. But Cecilia made one mistake: she let it show that she cared. Once Olivia noticed, she made it her mission to steal him, just to watch Cecilia suffer. She'd been doing it since they were children — taking everything. In elementary school, she'd turned all of Cecilia's friends against her. In middle school, she'd made everyone hate her. And still, somehow, Cecilia kept going.
She had a plan. Wait until she turned eighteen and leave. But she never expected Olivia to do something that would tie her to the very boy she'd been in love with all along.
She went looking for Olivia one night — no one could find her — and ended up at a fraternity party on the university campus. Every so often, the college threw these events and invited high schoolers to celebrate.
Cecilia had just turned eighteen. As one final act of love, she decided to confess her feelings to him.
She would never forget that night — walking to Rodrigo's dorm room, her heart pounding so hard it ached. Then the sounds from inside the room. Moaning. She turned and ran.
For a while, she'd believed her life was like the romance novels she read — the kind where the boy falls for the shy, mistreated girl.
She was confused. The boy she loved already had someone who made him happy. She didn't know the girl, but she thought she must be very lucky.
Cecilia settled for catching glimpses of him when he came to play games at her high school.
Because the moment school ended, her suffering continued.
She had to work at her mother's restaurant — just another employee, sometimes pulling double shifts.
She'd come home exhausted, with nothing left to do but sleep.
Her mother had told her that her father abandoned them the day Cecilia turned three. So Cecilia believed she had no one in the world who loved her. She saved every penny she could, counting down to the day she'd move out on her own. That day was one week away.
She'd already found places to rent. She'd find another job — she'd been working since she was fifteen and had plenty of experience.
She came home that evening like any other and heard Olivia gushing about her new boyfriend — a multimillionaire, she said. For a moment, Cecilia hoped it was true. Maybe then she'd finally get some peace in her own house. Not that it mattered anymore. She already had an appointment to see the place where she'd be moving.
She went up to her room and lay down to sleep. She had no memories of her father.
Rodrigo's face drifted into her mind, and she smiled as she fell asleep, thinking that tomorrow her life would change forever.
It would. Just not the way she expected.
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