Fool Me Once
By Olivia Marie
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About this ebook
She was the daughter I wasn't able to have. The missing piece to our family. The one that made us whole.
I listened to her cry about all she'd been through and all the mean things her parents had done to her. I wiped away her tears and showed her how much she was loved. I told her she was mine and that she would have a parent in me forever.
But what if all she said was a lie? Pieces didn't line up and truths came out.
She might have fooled me once, but once was all it took.
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Fool Me Once - Olivia Marie
Dedication
For all the ones who were fooled by someone, they thought they could trust. Don’t give up on everyone because there are good people left in the world. I have a handful in my life that I can trust fully. The ones who tricked me, they taught me so much about how people can be and how I react to them. In many ways, they helped make me who I am. I guess for that, I should be thankful.
PROLOGUE
You made us feel sorry for you. Spinning your web of lies, you told the tale you wanted to make us take you in and feel your pain. Making them out to be the monsters, you cost one person a friendship of over three decades and a relationship with family that could never be fixed. Lying and stealing along the way to benefit your needs, you didn’t care who you hurt.
As much as I hated you for that, nothing compared to what you took from me.
The only way you would ever feel that pain would be to become a mother yourself, but I pray that never happens. You are too selfish to ever truly love another human being more than you love yourself. Lying is a specialty of yours, and all you see in people is what you can take from them next.
Someday I really do hope you can change and be the person we thought you were in the beginning. If you can’t, I hope you can see how damaging you are and let him go before he fully turns into someone like you or before you take all you can from him and throw him away like I’ve seen you do to others.
I wanted to love you and even did in the beginning. You were the daughter I wanted and lost, but time took away your cover and the real you came through. It wasn’t someone I liked.
You’re a storyteller, and a good one at that, but the reality was, you were the villain in all of them. It wasn’t your parents or even their roommate. It wasn’t the house you had or the car that left you stranded over and over. You made the choices you did and the aftereffects of it, well, that was all on you.
Coming into our house and playing your little games left a wake of destruction behind you that we are still cleaning up after. My first reaction when I found out about you wasn’t good, but I was told you were different, and I needed to give you another chance. I wished again they were right, and you really weren’t like your mother. In many ways, you weren’t – you were worse.
Your parents failed you. But you let them. At some point in your life, you had to decide who you were going to be and stop letting the things that happened to you – or didn’t – determine who you were. Until you can do that, you will never be the person you were meant to be.
And for that I am sad.
CHAPTER ONE
The phone rang at just after midnight. We were on our way to bed since we had to get up the next morning for work. Knowing our oldest son was thinking about coming home in the next few days, my husband answered it.
Hello?
Hey, Dad,
Cody said on the other end of the line.
Hey, bud. What’s up?
I’m coming home, but I was wondering if Lexi could come with.
I guess,
he said and looked at me while shrugging his shoulders.
Cool. See you in the morning then.
They hung up, and he turned to me. His lips were pressed together so hard, they were turning white, and the frown was so deep his eyebrows almost touched. Seeing that he was suddenly wide awake had me wondering what was going on.
What was that all about?
I asked.
Cody is coming home, but he wanted to know if Lexi could come with.
For how long?
I asked.
I don’t know. I’m assuming a few weeks maybe.
He shrugged his shoulders again and headed to the bathroom to brush his teeth.
I was nervous for them to get here because I hadn’t seen Lexi since she was a small child. I always felt sorry for his best friend’s daughter’s. His oldest, Molly, was treated like crap and Lexi, well, she couldn’t do anything wrong. I knew back then nothing good would come of that, and I was right. Molly had abandoned her dad years ago and with it, anyone that reminded her of him. That meant ditching us also and that hurt. Molly was a good girl. Always quiet and polite, but she wasn’t Angie and Pete’s, and Angie had no problem reminding her of that. The part I never understood was how Pete could stand by and let Angie treat his daughter the way she had.
I thought back to the day almost twenty years ago while I carried my first child in my belly. Lexi was almost one and was taken to a job site with her parents and older half-sister. Molly was in charge of watching her and keeping her safe. She wasn’t that much older than Lexi and being a child herself, she wanted to do something – anything – other than watch her baby sister. Molly took her eyes off her for a minute, and Lexi crawled off a small stairwell. It was only two steps and she landed in the grass, but Angie lost it on her.
You are so irresponsible. What if she would’ve gotten hurt? You didn’t even watch her like you were supposed to. Molly, you will never amount to anything if you can’t get your life together,
her stepmom screamed at her as she scooped her daughter into her arms and coddled her. She promised her ice cream and a new toy once they were done working. You can watch us eat dessert.
What I hated was watching Molly shrink into herself and her dad stand there and watch. It wasn’t the only time I heard them scream at her for things they should’ve done and not what they left up to their older daughter. Molly was the real-life Cinderella, and everyone outside of their family saw it.
I guess we will see in the morning what they have planned. I need to get some sleep though. All-day meetings tomorrow will bore me to death as it is.
Yeah. At least he’ll be home. The house seems so weird without him.
Maybe we should lock him in his room when he gets here,
Randy joked.
Probably not. After a while of him being back, you know we will be wondering when he plans on leaving the house again,
I laughed.
True.
Does Pete know she’s coming here?
I asked as Randy reached for the light switch.
I have no clue. I’m sure he does. Lexi can’t move without her parents up her ass, and it’s not like we live next door anymore.
Well, we weren’t expecting Cody to stay there for three weeks either,
I reminded him.
Cody wasn’t much on leaving the house to even do sleepovers when he was little. For him to go three states away and stay in a house he hadn’t seen since he was two was out of character for him. I wasn’t sure if Lexi was the same or not, but I was sure I’d find out soon enough.
When I first learned about their relationship, shock wasn’t the right word to use. I literally freaked out and told my kid his joke wasn’t funny. I begged him to be lying to me because the thought of him dating Pete and Angie’s kid had me livid.
Pete was Randy’s best friend, a relationship I always respected even if I didn’t understand it, but the man was weird. I couldn’t tell if he was the poster child for male chauvinist or if I read him wrong, but the things he would say at times had me thinking it wasn’t the misunderstanding I wanted it to be.
Then there was Angie.
As much as I wanted us to get along for Pete and Randy’s sake, there was no making her happy. I would be the submissive