How to Get Even , livre ebook

HOW TO GET EVEN


PIPPA ROSCOE
To Amy, Rachael, and Clare, I couldn’t have written this book with any other authors. You’re my ride or die, red-velvet-loving, prosecco-sipping, Delia-bonded sisters and I love you all!
SUN TZU ON THE ART OF WAR
THE OLDEST MILITARY TREATISE IN THE WORLD
Translated from the Chinese
By LIONEL GILES, M.A. (1910)
[released as Project Gutenberg’s eBook #132.]
CONTENTS



In the Beginning…


Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Epilogue


Thank you!

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IN THE BEGINNING…
CHICAGO, O’HARE AIRPORT, 21 DECEMBER

Bella ignored the phone that vibrated in her hand. Twice.
‘Are you sure?’ asked the flight attendant, blinking between her and the little old lady.
Bella looked at the large window showing a runway quickly becoming buried beneath mounds of snow from the sudden blizzard that had taken everyone by surprise.
Not that anyone should really be surprised by snow. In Chicago. Four days from Christmas.
‘Ma’am? This is the last flight out of here,’ she repeated, as if wanting to make absolutely sure Bella knew what she was doing. ‘It could be hours before another one can leave.’
Bella heard the warning and looked into the green watery eyes of Delia, the elderly woman who was desperate to get home to hold her grandchild for the first time.
And what did Bella have waiting for her in Upstate New York?
A loving family, a huge tree with fairy lights topped with the angel her sister had made in third grade, presents, a delicious meal; all the things that almost any sane person would kill to have for Christmas.
Anyone but her.
‘Absolutely. Please give Delia my seat and arrange for me to be on the next available flight,’ Bella replied determinedly.
The flight attendant shook her head, but did as she was asked, while Bella fired off a text to her sister.




I’m fine, honestly!
Please. Stop. Asking. Me . Bella silently begged.




I’ll let you know when I have flight details. Love to Mom and Dad! Xx
‘Oh, thank you,’ cried Delia, trembling with happiness. ‘I just couldn’t bear it if I’d missed her first Christmas.’
‘Just promise to give that beautiful little girl a kiss from me,’ Bella said with a genuine smile.
‘I will! I truly will,’ Delia exclaimed as the new boarding pass was printed.
The flight attendant shot Bella an unimpressed look as Delia grappled with her three bags, as if it were Bella’s fault that the older woman was flouting hand baggage rules.
‘Bless you, sweet child,’ Delia said, nearly losing her book as she reached for the boarding pass. ‘Oh here. Take this,’ she said, thrusting the paperback at Bella. ‘You probably need this more than I do,’ she said with a saucy smile, disappearing down the gangway before the flight attendant pulled a rope across the exit.
Bella stared at the book in her hands, a lurid pink flyer peeking out from between the pages catching her eye.

Just Desserts, Opposite Gate 7
Pictures of cocktails and cakes in a pretty cartoon design called to her. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had cake. Certainly not since before the…
What did you call a wedding that didn’t happen? An un-wedding? A non-wedding? Either way, before ‘it’, she’d been following a calorie-controlled diet to fit into the perfect wedding dress. The kind that all little girls – and a few boys too – dreamed of. The kind that her father had paid an almost eye-watering amount for.
Guilt and shame welled in her empty stomach, and suddenly, all Bella wanted was sugar. An obscene, high octane, chest exploding, fall-off-the-wagon amount of sugar. With the airport full of stranded passengers, she probably wouldn’t get a seat. But maybe, just maybe, one good turn deserved another, she thought as she pulled the flyer from the page.
And then she choked on a gasp as she caught sight of the paragraph the flyer had been hiding.
Fuck me, Daddy. Please? I’ve been such a bad girl.
Bella slammed the book shut, looking around her to make sure that no one had seen what she had. Her cheeks flamed, hot and bright, and she used the book to fan them.
Delia!
She laughed at herself as she put the book into her purse.
Cake. Cocktails.
And then, maybe, she’d read that book.



* * *
Just Desserts loomed up ahead, bright and pink like a beacon amidst the chaos. Bella was hit with such a strong scent of caramel and chocolate that her mouth actually watered.
She scanned the café’s packed tables. Each one was excessively full of people guarding them possessively, glaring at anyone who looked their way. She was about to give up when a woman with bright magenta streaks in her hair caught Bella’s eye. Bella smiled back automatically, because there was something in the woman’s eyes. Recognition? Expectation? Then the woman winked. Someone passed between them and the woman was gone, but there, in her place, it was – a table in the middle of the chaos shining like the Holy Grail.
Worried that it would disappear like a mirage, she hurried over and reached a chair just as another woman grabbed the one to her left, and another came careening out of nowhere, just managing to stop opposite her, before taking out a fourth woman who reached for the adjacent chair.
Bella’s heart sank. If any of these women had companions, she’d have to give up her seat.
‘If none of you are with anyone else, we could share?’ the eclectic redhead asked in a British accent that reminded her a little of Olly.
Burying the thought beneath the relief she felt at finding a seat, Bella smiled and nodded. Introductions were made as layers of coats and scarves and bags were removed, each finally sitting down at the table with a sigh and a grateful smile.
Paige, the redhead with freckles and a gorgeous smile, was British, as was Astrid who had glossy brown hair and an aura of irrepressible energy that made Bella slightly wary. Sienna was a fellow American and had big blue eyes and golden hair that made her look like a Disney princess.
‘Would you think me a terrible lush if I got a glass of prosecco?’ Paige asked hesitantly.
Prosecco. It was ten in the morning and Bella would never ordinarily drink at such an hour. But suddenly she wanted to. Suddenly she wanted, more than anything, to be someone who drank when the fancy took her, ate as much cake as womanly possible. She wanted to be… a bad girl.
Bella cleared her throat and kicked the purse containing Delia’s book further under the table.
‘I’ll have a glass,’ she told the waitress after Sienna suggested getting a bottle. ‘And some water for the table, please.’ Bella wasn’t quite prepared to let go of all her sensibilities in one fell swoop.



* * *
Bella squinted at the second bottle of prosecco. When had they ordered that? Deciding it was unimportant, she pressed her fingertip into the crumbs of her second red velvet cake, popped them into her mouth and savoured the mini sugar bombs exploding on her tongue as Astrid peppered Paige with questions about her Virtual Assistant business.
Astrid had her own business. Something she could be proud of. And Bella? Bella was hiding until the furore died down over the disaster of a wedding that never happened, so that she could finally assume her role at her parents’ foundation.
Which was what she wanted, she reminded herself sternly.
‘Is that why you’re in the US? Work?’ Astrid asked Paige.
‘No. I was at a wedding in Chicago.’
Bella flinched.
‘Oh, how lovely. How was it?’ Sienna asked dreamily.
‘You know. Pavlova dress.’
Bella’s had been sleek . A twenty-thousand-dollar Vera Wang in ivory silk from the bustline down, topped by a swathe of delicate lace crossing her chest and arms.
‘Drunken best man’s speech.’
Bella had forbidden Olly’s best man from drinking until after the ceremony.
‘Smooshing cake into each other’s faces. A handsy Uncle Chip.’
Bella downed the remainder of her prosecco, fearing the damp heat pressing against the backs of her eyes might actually, horrifyingly, escape. ‘I’d rather not talk about weddings.’ It was only the lump in her throat that stopped her from adding, If that’s okay .
‘Not a fan?’ Paige asked.
‘Absolutely not,’ Bella confirmed.
‘Don’t believe in love?’
‘I did,’ Bella admitted. ‘And then six months ago I stood up in front of 400 guests to let them know that my groom wasn’t coming.’
She pressed her lips together to keep the sudden well of unruly emotions from escaping.
‘Holy mother of…?’ Astrid spluttered as she clutched Bella’s forearm. ‘You were jilted?’
‘Yup. By text. The morning of.’
‘By text ?’ Astrid’s mouth flattened.
Bella smiled, letting the women’s sympathy, their outrage, soothe the hurt caused by the wedding guests’ horrified fascination.
‘He’s not a bad person, really, he just did a bad thing,’ she admitted honestly. And he wasn’t. But Olly had told her that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. Let her believe that, let her plan for how her life would be, with him . ‘He was a bit of a…’ She searched for the right word. ‘Peter Pan. Commitment wasn’t his strong suit and I made the classic mistake of thinking that it would be different with me,’ she admitted with a shrug, feeling embarrassed and ashamed that she’d been so foolish.
‘Doesn’t excuse him leaving you at the altar,’ Sienna said.
‘Via text ,’ Astrid stressed, furiously.
‘No, it doesn’t,’ Bella replied, reaching for her glass before realising it was empty and putting it back on the table.
‘Well, you can string mine up,’ Astrid announced. ‘Unbeknownst to me he’d already trotted up that aisle and merrily said “I do” to someone el