The Other Hailey

21| insanity

My blood boils from just staring at them.

As the hours slowly pass, I begin to see more clearly. I see why Veronica ran away from home. These parents are as good as none. They're ready to ignore everything else just to sell their daughter off, and merge the two families. All they want from this union of minors is to keep their legacy, and continue to rule Brick Way. I honestly don't get what adults do these days, and yet, they'll say we're the problem when they existed before us and made things worse in the society. Take for instance, Patrick and Lilith's morals— they only care about their daughter because she's the key to fulfilling their greedy desires.

Why the hell won't their child turn out the way she did?

"You know what?" I take off the napkin covering my laps. "I'm not doing this."

"What are you doing?" Adam whispers with red eyes.

Is he on weed, the hell?

Expressing my repugnance, I say, "What does it look like I'm doing? I'm wrecking this dinner because I fucking hate you and your grandmother." I get up on my feet. "I'm done with this dinner."

"You can't be done, you haven't finished your meal." Lilith smiles, trying to hide her panic.

"I don't want to eat with this family; they disgust me."

"Excuse you?" Adam's mother, Lia, yells and her dangling earrings flicker under the lights.

Honestly, from her buffy appearance, she looks like she can beat my ass if she wanted to, but I don't hold back my next statement.

"Oh, are you offended by that?"

Mrs. Whitlock Richards takes a sip of her champagne before turning to her son. "Owen, seems these people have no regard for my presence, it's best we leave—"

"No." I cut her off. "I'll leave since you obviously don't want me here."

"Veronica..." Lilith fists the ends of my dress, trying to get me to stop.

"I don't know why I have to answer your questions just to prove my worth to you." I grit my teeth at the lady. "Your son should be the one begging for my hand in marriage, not the other way around."

"Veronica Kendall Gates! You better sit back down this second!" Veronica's father yells.

My eyes rove every part of the bald man's face. His head reflects the colorful lights that have been hung on the trees, but I won't be fooled by his rainbow head— he is a man with terrible personality, who deserves no respect. For some reason, it irks me whenever I see how different he is from my dad. My dad's hobby was playing the piano, and this man would rather play golf, drink with his friends and boast of how much money he makes from his business.

Ah, this is so annoying.

Looking straight into his eyes, I say, "You're not my dad. You look nothing like him, even. And I don't take orders from strangers."

With that said, I turn around.

I just want to be done with that crazy, immoral family dinner. If I get asked the real reason why I acted insane at the dinner table, I'll blame it on the arrogant pricks, but deep down, I know the real reason: I romanticized the hell out of Veronica's life. From the outside, she had a perfect life. I believed she had everything I lacked. I stole her life because she had parents. But little did I know that her parents were also dead. It gives me a headache to realize that I endured the awful things that happened just to enjoy what it feels like to have parents one more time only to meet these airheads.