Chapter 54

Blaze

Sometimes when I dress up for these parties, I don't even recognize the person staring back at me in the mirror. No, that's a lie; I do recognize myself, but the me I see is the one who let everyone else control her life. It's the sixteen-year-old girl who was being groomed to marry a rich man and become a society maven. If I close my eyes and think hard, I can still see her. With her platinum blonde hair, wearing her pearls like a southern debutante does, clear eyes innocent as hell only wanting to please her parents.

I can remember her very clearly. She wore pink lipstick and looked at men underneath long eye-lashes, and she giggled when a boy with proper family lineage would pay attention to her. Daphne would shrink into the crowd, smile prettily, curtsy, and be the envy of every other southern debutante in the room.

The memories aren't happy and I don't like reliving a past that's painful. Squaring my shoulders, I lean closer to the mirror, making sure the fake lashes