Chapter One
Amber struggled to hang on to all the packages as she followed her mother and her sister out of the department store.
“Jesus Christ, Amber, if you weren’t so fat, you’d be able to keep up with us.”
“I’m coming,” she told her sister Bianca, rushing after them as she tried to ignore the things they said about her the best she could. She thought she’d be used to it by now. She was twenty-three, and as far back as she could remember, they’d constantly insulted her.
She had no idea what it was about her that they despised so much or anything she could have done to anger them, but it was a constant battle to stay cheerful and to act happy. Especially since she couldn’t remember a time in her life after her father died when she was nine that she’d laughed or even smiled.
He’d been the center of her world, and he’d shown her in so many ways how much he loved her. He’d tried his best to be a buffer between her and her mother and half-sister, but he’d been a gentleman, and confrontation had been hard for him.
They hadn’t been abusive toward him since he held the purse strings, but they both knew Bianca and her mother, Eldora, called him names behind his back.
Her mother had Bianca with her first husband, Franklyn. When he died, her mother married her dad right away, and they had her. She was five years younger than her sister, and they were as different in every way there was. While Bianca was tall, thin, blonde, blue-eyed, and beautiful, Amber was short, curvy, black-haired with green eyes like her father.
“For God’s sake, Mother. Can’t you get her to hurry? I’ve got a date tonight. Why did we have to bring her with us? She’s an embarrassment.”
Amber cringed when her mother looked over her shoulder at her with a look of pure disdain. “Amber, if you dieted and exercised as we did, you’d have more stamina.”
“Yes, Mother.” She heard her say the same things a few times a week, but no matter how much Amber exercised or dieted, she was never able to be as thin as them.
“Remember, dear, if we didn’t bring her, who would carry our bags?” Eldora asked Bianca.
“That’s true. She is good for something.” Bianca laughed.
Her mother and sister exited the mall’s doors, and instead of holding the doors, they walked off. Amber miscalculated and ran into the glass, which knocked her down, and all the packages scattered around her.
She sat stunned for a moment and then cringed when she felt blood trickle down her knee and her palms.
“Whoa, pequeña, are you all right?”
Amber looked up at the man who crouched beside her, and her mouth dropped open. The man had a dark complexion with black hair like her own, the deepest brown eyes she’d ever seen, and was beyond handsome. He looked like a movie star.
“Honey, I asked you if you were all right?”
She looked down at her palms and saw the drops of blood. “I … yes. I think so.”
“You landed pretty hard.”
“I’m kind of a klutz.”
He chuckled. “Your arms were full of packages and you couldn’t see where you were going. Maybe you shouldn’t buy so much next time.”
She smiled. “None of it is mine.”
“Whose is it?”
“What the hell are you doing, you stupid girl?” her mother yelled as she came in the door to stand over her.
The man scowled up at her mom. “She fell, ma’am.”
“That doesn’t surprise me.”
“Are these your packages?”
Eldora nodded. “Well, yes. Why?”
“Maybe if you had helped her carry them—”