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“There you go—” Margo snapped, “ruining the dinner”

And that’s when Mary knew shit was about to hit the fan “You’re such a bitch, Margo” The room went deathly quiet after Mary spoke those words, but she wasn’t even sorry, and sure as hell wouldn’t take them back

“Mary—” Her

“No,her fro” She shook her head and stared at Margo “It’s always so or not, she’s always made me feel less than, and I’ve reached the point where I’um on the bottom of someone’s shoe” Then Mary looked at everyone in the rooood enough to be in this family”

“Mary, what are you talking about?” Her enuinely confused, like she was clueless about how they’d always acted and treated her

They h, never told her she didn’t belong in the family, but there had been far too many times to count in her life when her parents and sister had made comments about what they expected of her, that she should wear certain things, or talk or act a certain way

She was always on display, always felt as though she never did anything right And it had taken her this long to grow co to knohat it meant to be cared for the way she deserved, for her to realize that she orth ave her credit for

In the short time she’d been with Alex, he’d made her feel special, like she shouldn’t feel ashamed of who she was, of how she felt or what she wanted in life He made her feel alive He may not realize it, but he had helped her so much in such a very short amount of time

He made her feel free

The rooo “I’like you’re better than me”

Her o opened her mouth in shock, and the three men in the room stayed silent

“You’re not better than anyone else, Margo” She lowered her voice, and felt that familiar desperation to have a bond—any bond—with her sister rise up “You’re h our veins or not I’ve always looked up to you, wanted to be close It doesn’t matter to me where you came from, how much or how little money you have, or who your friends are” She turned to her mom then “I don’t care about any of that because I love the three of you so much You’re my family even if you’ve never made me feel like it”

Her mother didn’t speak, but Mary watched the way her throat worked as she sed, saw the way she twisted her hands in her lap almost nervously

Then Mary looked at Lance “And you and I,” she paused to let those words settle in the air between the to be friends In fact, I don’t want you in my life” She looked at her mom then and felt her chest clench “You want to knohy I will never be with Lance again, why I want nothing to do with him?” Her mother didn’t respond, just sed almost painfully “He cheated on irl that I used to be friends with?” Her reide and she looked at Lance “Yeah, that’s right, ht was my friend at one of those posh wine parties you’re always tellingme to act fake at”

Lance cleared his throat, opened his mouth, but Mary’s father shook his head, his expression hard

“If you’re smart you’ll shut the hell up, Lance”

Mary snapped her gaze to her father, surprised to hear the anger in his voice

“Go on, sweetheart” Her father’s voice was softer, and noas Mary’s turn to s roughly, her e But soh and it all boils over”

Her father cleared his throat, her o and Joe kept their mouths shut as Mary continued

“Whether you meant to make me feel this way or not, the fact of the matter is you all did It’s why I picked BMU, because it was far enough away I could stand on my oo feet I could be away fro I was okay on my own”