buzzed around me, a sick echo from

champagne tickling my nose, the s

from alcohol, but from

irst

the town' s cha

dead-end family farm into a success, an

yes always filled with a lazy en

cause she couldn't

I was

room, radiant, her ar

reman, Chloe's husband in that

cident, a hero who saved the comp

affair, got beaten by the manager's wife

d

d with Mike' s.

instakingly mold

t mine, and a flicker of something

She was

ut a dramatic wail, p

t! I can't

. Sharon, my stepmothe

rling, wha

ng finger, not at David

voice ringing with false tears. "He's the

plastered on his face, clearly f

and calculating, darte

, lazy, always looki

ssful farm I built with him, was her shortc

ern for Chloe, then turned to me, her

stand, don't you? Chl

ided m

good man, a foreman. Stable. He's a much better

was giving Chloe the winning ticke

the good man, the one wh

ew exactly what Chlo

w I was going to m