Chapter 3 Author: Arctic Islands Elsie seized the moment and broke down in tears. "It's true. I'm sorry... I know I wasn't brought up properly... My parents died when I was born. There was no one to teach me how to be better... The only one who ever tried was Eleanor... and now she's gone too..." She sobbed into Jared's chest, shaking as if she'd shattered. But when our eyes met, there was no mistaking the hatred hiding just beneath the surface. "Elsie, none of this is your fault. It has nothing to do with you." Jared looked down at her, sympathy in his eyes. His hand lifted on instinct to wipe away her tears, but stopped halfway when he finally took in what she was wearing. "Why are you dressed like this..." His voice faded, swallowing hard as desire smoldered in his gaze. Elsie bit back a smirk. She dipped her head, feigning a shyness she didn't feel. "I've got a club event tomorrow night. It's just a costume for the performance. Professor Hammond, if it bothers you, I'll take it off right now!" And with that, Elsie actually started to undress. Jared shot forward and grabbed her hands, stopping her. I might as well have been invisible. "If it's for a performance, then there's nothing wrong with it." Jared shot me a pointed look. "Funny how it's always the ones with filthy minds who cry foul first." I scoffed. As I watched Elsie put on her little show, all I could think about was the three years I'd wasted on this joke of a relationship. After Eleanor died, I became Jared's girlfriend. But not once, in all that time, did he ever touch me. I kept telling myself that grief took time, that if I waited long enough, his heart would open to me. But reality had other plans, and it hit hard. The second Eleanor was gone, Elsie showed up to take her place. To Jared, I was nothing more than a stand-in. I tried to take things further, wearing the skimpy outfits my best friend swore would work, hoping he'd finally want me. But he kept pulling away, and every time he looked at me, it was with a little more disgust in his eyes. I thought maybe I wasn't captivating enough, so I signed up for dance lessons. But in the end, not even my graceful moves earned me a second glance from Jared. Instead, every effort I made to please him got slapped with ugly labels like "scheming" and "desperate", straight from my own boyfriend's mouth. All it took was a glimpse of Elsie's face, just enough to resemble Eleanor's, to stir something in Jared, the man who'd always seemed so distant. Suddenly, everything I'd done felt like some kind of cruel joke. It wasn't that I wasn't enough. I just wasn't the one he'd been holding onto all along.