I consider myself fortunate to have ended up inheriting her looks, and you bet your ass I use them to my advantage.

Beautiful girls have it much easier in life.

And despite what my mom did…I know she wanted the best for me.

However, she also wanted me to be smarter and stronger than she was.

Which—I can only assume—is why she made me promise not to fall in love.

Never let a man steal my heart because he’d ultimately shatter it and ruin me.

Men were toxic, and sooner or later they would fuck you over.

Therefore, it was important to use them while they used you and suck whatever you could out of them before it was too late.

Clearing his throat, my father takes what looks like a jewelry box out of his pocket.

“I got you something.”

I try to hide my annoyance as I snatch the box from him. Lord knows the man has given me tons of diamonds and jewels throughout the years and I don’t want any more.

I’m about to open it, but he halts me. “Wait.” He glances around at everyone. “Let’s take a walk out front.”

I eye Jace as we all start trekking to the front of the house. “What’s he doing?”

He shrugs, appearing just as confused as I am. “I have no idea.”

We’re almost to the driveway when my father looks at me. “You can open it now.”

Begrudgingly, I do.

Trepidation crawls up my spine as I finger the black key fob with a Mercedes logo on it.

Please tell me he didn’t.

Sure enough, there’s a pink Mercedes convertible parked in the driveway.

Instantaneously, panic claws at my chest and I reach for my pendant.

He knows I can’t drive.

He knows I’ll never drive.

I can’t…I don’t…

I don’t want to die like she did.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” I croak.

Everyone looks baffled…everyone but Jace and Cole because for once, this is something they understand.

Pink Mercedes.

A Mercedes…just like my mom’s.

My stomach rolls as the sound of metal crushing against metal assaults my ears.

A fresh new wave of panic grips me by the throat and my knees start wobbling. I’m gonna die.

“I don’t—” our father starts to say until Jace cuts him off.

“Bianca doesn’t drive.”

“I know that, Jace. But I think it’s about time she learned. I found a top-notch driving instructor—”

I throw the key fob at him. “Take it back. I don’t want it.”

I look over at Hayley. “Let’s go. Now.”

Tears prickle my eyes as I march over to the white Acura with her and Zack in tow.

“Bianca, stop,” Jace barks. “Don’t let him ruin your day.”

It’s not just him. It’s everyone. Everything.

“Come on, Bianca,” Cole yells. “Don’t leave.”

“Get back here, young lady,” our father shouts. “I did not give you permission to leave.”

Oh, now he wants to pretend to be a dad.

“Neither did I,” Jace growls.

Raising my middle finger in the air, I kick the pink piece of shit before I climb into the passenger seat of Hayley’s car. “I’m eighteen, remember?”

Once again, my mother was right.

You can go through life being the most beautiful specimen on earth…yet feel completely unnoticed and alone.

People only see what they want to see.

And no one wants to see me.

Fuck them. Fuck this.

Fuck everything.

Chapter 7

Bianca

I ended up showing up late for class and missing my statistics quiz.

Fortunately, my professor was kind enough to let me stay after and take it, but I’m pretty sure I bombed it anyway.

“If you can’t remember who you were, how do you know what kind of person you used to be or what might have shaped you to be that way?”

Oakley’s words from yesterday echo through my head as I place my exam on the professor’s desk and gather my things.

I thought I had enough pieces to decode who I was, but as it turns out…I was wrong.

Blowing out a shaky breath, I recall what I learned about my former self last night.

The most surprising fact? I was a virgin.

Which obviously means the first time Stone and I had sex last year was my first time having sex…ever.

It’s something I should be happy about because he’s going to be my husband, but I can’t shake this weird feeling I have.

I wish it was special.

Not that it was bad by any means, but right before it happened all I could think about was how it wasn’t a big deal because I must have done it plenty of times before.

But it was a big deal.

So is finding out that I had some kind of sick, twisted obsession with this Oakley guy and pretty much stole his girlfriend.

Both of them.

My heart clenches.

Given Hayley died and he obviously cared about her…he has to be hurting.

I’m not sure why I was with him the night of the accident—because if the memory I had last night is anything to go on, he wanted nothing to do with me—but I really want to find out.

“Are you okay?” Stone questions.

A jolt runs through me when I look up. I was so out of it I didn’t even realize he was waiting for me outside of class.

“Yeah.” I force a smile. “I’m fine.”

He gives me a puzzled look. “Are you su—”

“Actually,” I interject, because I hate keeping stuff from him. “Not really. I had a memory last night.”

Taking me by the elbow, he leads me out to the courtyard. “What happened?”

“Well,” I begin. “It was my birthday.” A weird feeling prickles in my chest because talking about your past hookups with your fiancé is really awkward. “Long story short, Morgan and I hooked up and Oakley caught us—” It suddenly dawns on me that he might not know who Oakley is. “Oakley is—”

“I know who Oakley is,” he bites out with a scowl. “I also know the prick is here on campus.”

I blink in confusion. “How—”

“I ran into Cole this morning and he told me what happened.”

Well, shit.

“Oh.”

“I’m pissed you didn’t tell me yourself—”

“You’ve been really busy lately.”

It’s not like I intentionally kept it from him, there was just no time to fill him in on everything with his crazy schedule.

“I get that.” He cups my cheek. “But if he bothers you again, you better tell me—”

“He wasn’t bothering me,” I snap before I catch myself. “I mean, I understand why you’re concerned, but it wasn’t like that. He’s …”

Not the bad guy everyone keeps saying he is.

At least he didn’t appear that way yesterday.

“He’s what?” Stone presses.

“He was sitting by himself when I approached him. Not the other way around.”

Stone’s eyes darken. “What do you mean when you approached him? Are you talking to random dudes behind my back now?”