02

SYDNEY GREY

Two and a half years ago

Sydney Grey looked at the stars and the bright full moon as she rested on her back in the swimming pool. She loved to backfloat in the cool calm water as she gazed up at the stars.

She wondered why she had to do this alone. She had been alone for a year now.

Her father had been forcing her to spend more time with her so called fiancé. She never saw « Logan Hunt » as a husband material. He was more like an over-protective brother and thinking about marrying him was just… weird. Gross even.

The man she dreamed of dating never even looked at her. He was the epitome of perfection. A perfect son, a perfect brother, a perfect boyfriend. Everything was just perfect. He had perfect girlfriends. Perfect life. A life which had no place for Sydney.

Sydney hadn’t always been beautiful. She had big ass spectacles, braces because of the alignment, a mop of curly platinum blonde hair that never seemed to settle and an utter geek or atleast that’s what the kids at school called her. She loved to read. Most of all she loved botany. Nobody knew she had a master’s degree in botany. Nobody except Logan because he was the one who had helped her get in college.

Her parents loved her, no doubt in that. Nolan and Haley Grey loved her. They spoiled her. Too much actually.

She wasn’t much into fashion before. She loved plants. She had even thought of being a landscape Gardner when she was a teen.

She had her own greenhouse in the huge expanse of a backyard of her parents house.

When she had turned 19, her mother had dragged her to a parlour to »fix her » and then sent on a date with Logan.

Apparently, Logan was furious at that. They ate as much as they could and as a way of rebelling they had went on to get a tattoo.

Logan loved music so he had a beautiful tattoo on his arm. Three to four lines with notes on them.

Sydney got a tattoo at the back of her neck. A beautiful butterfly. That’s how she thought of herself. That she’d somehow, someday break out of her cocoon and be… beautiful and mesmerizing.

Sydney definitely had come through with it. After getting her masters in botany, she had come home to know that her mom was angry because she refused to settle. Her dad had thrown out every single plant and demolished the greenhouse because according to him she had been acting like a goddamn kid, playing with plants.

When her mother had cried at why her daughter couldn’t be beautiful, Sydney was hurt. So hurt that she had spent thousands in getting herself fixed. She went through treatments to get rid of the pimples, she had a laser operation to get rid of the spectacles, she had her dentist fix her teeth, she had her hair straightened out and she had hired a personal trainer to get into shape. A year later Sydney had turned into a woman everybody wanted to be.

At a party, Logan had disapproval on his face while Dan had flirted with her incessantly. Sean, like the perfect gentleman he was, kept her at arms length because he had another on his arm.

That had stung but she acted as if it didn’t matter.

When Logan had cornered her and asked what happened, she had cried and spilled everything.

« I’ll make it right, Syd. I’ll make everything right. I promise you that. » He had promised her.

She had lost herself in the process of impressing her parents, that she didn’t know who she was. Kayla Summers, a college friend of hers was sitting on a couch with her as they watched America’s Next Top Model.

Kayla had snorted, threw popcorn at the TV and yelled « My friend’s better than you, you skanky bitch. »

« You really think so ? » Sydney had asked

« Oh I know so » Kayla had said.

So Sydney had pursued her career in modeling. She liked modeling. It kept her busy, away from home, away from her parents, away from Sean. Before she knew it she had lost her affection for the flora and had interest in Versace and Prada and Louboutins. She looked after her diet, gave up everything she ever loved. She was so fucking lost that she didn’t knew her way. She felt like that was her life now. Might as well make the best of it.

So when her father had barged in at her home saying that if she didn’t marry Logan, he’d see to it that she didn’t model anymore, she had fled home. She had fled and travelled all those places she wanted to.

A week ago she got a message from Logan, his company was going down and their fathers had talked about merging their companies by joining families.

Logan had asked for a year and told her to say the same if her father called her. And she did exactly that.

She trusted him. She didn’t text him back. No. She didn’t want to worry him now that he was so much into his work. She just hoped he was okay.

Sydney closed her eyes and stood in the water. She was fucking tired of living this life. A life that felt like a lie. A life where she was all alone by herself. A life that she never wanted for herself.

She took five laps across the pool to push those thoughts away but if didn’t so the trick so she just stood in the cool water for a minute before she went into her empty suite.

Cool shiver racked her spine and the hairs at the back stood up. She felt somebody staring at her. Somebody was there. When Sydney turned around she saw nobody but she knew someone was around. She felt their gaze on her, felt chills run down her spine at that.

Suddenly a figure jumped out of the shadow and Sydney let out a ear-splitting screech.