Edible Arrangements (The Hollens Book 6)

Chapter 1: I Hate You

Kyle's POV

Dear Kyle. E. Livingston,

I hate you.

My hate runs deeper than Lake Baikal for you.

Oxford needs to put your name in the dictionary as the definition to the word snake.

I thought we were friends. From the day I took you home and introduced you to my mom, you were special to me. But you betrayed me.

You messed with the wrong female. The wrong former best friend and the wrong Hollen.

We'll forever have beef.
*Zenobia

I laughed at the letter that was nearly six years old. I was cleaning out my room when I found it in my old highschool backpack.

Zenobia Hollen.

A crazy, fun, spoil rich girl with everything she ever dreamt about right there at the tips of her fingers.

She was my best friend and the one I let slipped through my fingers because of a stupid lie I created to impress a group of stupid guys who weren't worth impressing.

Although it was six years ago, I thought about Zen everyday. She had block me on all social medias and contacts and I couldn't show up to her father's house.

Mr. Ethan Junior Hollen scared the hell out of me. Zenobia was his one and only child and that man would walk through hell and kick satan in the balls for his daughter.

When Zenobia was five, she loved animals. Her father bought a zoo and arranged it special for her.

When Zenobia was ten, she got into computers so her father bought her her own Information and Technology lab.

When Zenobia was fifteen, I asked her out on a date. Her father bought a gun.

The Hollen Family were great people. I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Ethan Hollen when Zen and I were friends. He was the man who started the empire. He changed the way I viewed rich people. I always assumed rich people were stuck up jerks and only think about money but he was so down to earth and humble.

Evan Hollen, Zen's uncle, scared me just like her father. He was a man of few words and he never repeated himself. He would look at you as if he was reading your entire life from since birth.

The wives of the Hollen men were angels. I met the first lady as they referred to her. Mrs. Emma Cole Hollen. She was a sweet old woman with a warm smile.

They accepted me as one of their own although it took a while longer for Zen's father to do so.

But, I found out the hard way that it was never wise to cross The Hollen Family. Forgiveness wasn't a strength of theirs and cutting people off and never speaking with them was almost too easy.

~
"Kyle! You're going to miss your interview!" my aunt called from downstairs.

"I'm leaving right now," I answered. I reached for my cellphone and my wallet before leaving the room.

"Good morning Aunt Jackie," I greeted her when I reached the kitchen. Aunt Jackie grew me up like her own son when my mother couldn't get over her addiction of drugs and would disappear for weeks, leaving my older sister and I to fend for ourselves in an empty house.

Aunt Jackie took us in. But when my sister fell in love with a basketball player, they got married and she left to be with her husband as a wife should.

I stayed with Aunt Jackie. She didn't have kids on her own nor a husband. Well, she did have a husband once upon a time but she divorced him for infidelity and got half of his assets including his mansion. He was a rich.