The Shackelford home was a large, sprawling white brick mansion in the affluent gated community of The Landings. Getting past the gate had felt a little like an interrogation and then the almost twenty minute drive just to get to the house had also felt a bit daunting to Sabrina. Nonetheless, they arrived right on time. George, the limo driver, had driven Sabrina and Aria and Kelsey, who unfortunately could think of no good reason why she couldn’t come today. Especially after she’d behaved at dinner. She needed to save face.

The circular drive allowed George to pull up right to the door and the three piled out of the car, all walking as if they were arriving to their death sentence. Sabrina said nothing to Kelsey, only glanced at her and they both gave one another a knowing look before Sabrina rang the doorbell.

Aria snorted when the doorbell began to play Fur Elise instead of a normal bell tone. The door opened and there stood who could only be Mrs. Shackelford. She was dressed in a flowy, pink sundress that looked like something from an old lady’s upscale boutique. She had blond hair pulled back into a tight bun, bright pink lipstick, and perfectly white bleached teeth.

“Hello! You must be -” She stopped in the middle of her sentence and gave Sabrina the once over. “Hm. That’s strange. I didn’t know the caterer was bringing extra help.”

It was all Sabrina could do not to reach out and slap the woman across the face. She could feel Kelsey’s eyes on her and she looked over at the shocked expression Kelsey gave.

“I’m Sabrina Victor. This is Aria Chasez and Kelsey Morrissey.” Sabrina contained the venom she wanted to spew at the pretentious woman standing in front of her.

“Oh. Oh! I’m terribly sorry! I didn’t know...I mean, Joshua never told me that...well, no mind, come in, come in!” Mrs. Shackelford briskly waved her hands in front of her and led the three of them inside the house. Tinsley was standing at the top of the winding staircase as if waiting for an orchestra to play for her to ascend.

“Hello!” She waved at them and took the stairs two at a time. When she reached the bottom she leaned over to hug Sabrina and then coldly pat Kelsey on the arm. “Nice to see you.”

Kelsey ignored the smug expression on Tinsley’s face and put on an Academy award winning smile. “You, too!” She admitted to herself it had probably been a little over the top but she didn’t care.

“So, you’re Sabrina.” Mrs. Shackelford was still giving Sabrina the once over and then turned to Aria. “And you’re...Josh’s daughter. How...how nice.”

Sabrina ignored the obvious way Mrs. Shackelford was trying not to address the color of her and Aria’s skin and instead grabbed her hand and squeezed it. “Yes. Aria’s Josh’s oldest child. Kelsey has his son, Beckett.”

Mrs. Shackelford turned to Kelsey. “Oh. I see. Yes, well, where is the little man?”

“He’s out with Josh.” Kelsey answered and followed the other four into the spacious living room. It was covered in wall to wall white carpet and a large painting of Tinsley at her debutante ball was displayed over the fireplace. The furniture looked as though it had stayed in some sort of early nineties time warp. A green, velvet sofa with fluffy red pillows adorning each end made Sabrina feel as if it was leftover Christmas decorations.

“Sabrina?”

Sabrina turned around when she heard the all-too familiar voice of Karen Chasez. She grinned at her former mother-in-law who was coming from the kitchen with a glass of iced tea. Karen and Sabrina had always had a special kind of relationship. Even after JC had left her for Kelsey, Karen still called in and checked on Sabrina and Aria.

“Hi!” Sabrina hugged Karen and Aria ran over to her grandmother and joined in a threesome hug.

“Gramma!” Aria kissed Karen’s cheek. “Dad didn’t say you’d be here today!”

“Oh, you know your dad is absent-minded sometimes.” Karen chuckled and looked over at Kelsey, who was distancing herself from the huddle. Karen had never been fond of Kelsey and even though she loved Beckett, in her mind Kelsey had and would always be the “other woman” and the reason her son was no longer with Sabrina.

Kelsey had known all of this. She knew Karen wasn’t a fan and she had known it from the beginning. It wasn’t anything Karen had said or done, but she knew that Sabrina had been close with JC’s mother and Kelsey wasn’t going to try and come between that, not then or now.

“Hello, Kelsey.” Karen smiled warmly at her and Kelsey returned the smile. “Congratulations on your award. Josh was telling me all about it.”

“Thank you.” Kelsey replied and suddenly felt very alone in the house. She tried to ignore the feeling of dread welling up inside of her and go along with the festivities of the party.

Tinsley’s bridesmaids were more or less all like her. Former sorority girls, debutantes, and homecoming queens, and a few former reality stars that Kelsey and Sabrina mostly recognized.

Champagne flowed freely served by attendants in black and white. Kelsey sat for most of the shower, occasionally joining in conversation with one or two guests who’d recognized her as JC’s ex-girlfriend. Every so often, she’d glance over at Sabrina who was tied up with Karen. Kelsey grimaced. She had wished so much that her former mother-in-law had gotten to know her when she’d been married to JC. Every family gathering they had been to, Kelsey was welcomed but it had felt forced. She wasn’t Sabrina. She’d never be Sabrina. And the funny part of it was that neither would Tinsley.

“Can I have a sip?” Aria sat down next to Kelsey and gestured at her champagne. Kelsey rolled her eyes and chuckled at the teenager.

“Yeah, right. In front of your mother and grandmother? I’m sure that would go over well.” Kelsey knew Aria had had alcohol at parties because she’d confided to her former stepmother about it. It wasn’t a huge secret because eventually Sabrina had caught on and had had the “as long as you are responsible” discussion with her about it. But Kelsey wasn’t about to let Aria freely sip on alcohol when the two women she’d butted heads with for years were only a few feet away from her.

“Gramma isn’t stupid. She knows I’ve had a drink before. So has mom.” Aria leaned into the plush cushion of the couch. As tacky of a couch as it was, it was surprisingly comfortable.

“I don’t care. This is already the most uncomfortable party I’ve ever had to attend and I’m not going to be blamed for letting an underage teen drink. I don’t need that.” Kelsey looked over at Tinsley who was gushing with her sorority sisters. “Well, look on the bright side. If you ever want to be a Kappa Kappa Gamma, you’ve got an in.”

Aria turned up her nose. “Ick. I don’t want to be a Kappa anything. Especially if that’s what you turn out like.”

“She’s really not so bad is she,” Karen was saying to Sabrina, referring to Kelsey. “I feel bad. I probably should have been nicer. I guess if I’d known that my son was going to be a serial groom, maybe I would’ve given her more of a chance.”

Sabrina shook her head. “She’s nice and I am learning to warm up to her, even after this long. But it still stings.”

“As it should. Josh was your husband. Whether or not she made the first move, he should have had more sense.” Karen looked over at Tinsley. “And had I known that was in his future...well, maybe I would’ve just hidden him away from all women after he left Kelsey.”

Sabrina couldn’t help but burst into a fit of giggles. She took a gulp of champagne and placed the empty flute on the mantle of the fireplace. Mrs. Shackelford waltzed past them with a fake smile plastered on her face.

“Ladies, we’re about to go into the parlor to open gifts,” she said, as she flitted past them.

“The parlor?” Sabrina scoffed. “People still have those?”

“These people do.” Karen sighed and followed Sabrina into another room that was smaller than the living room and hadn’t been updated in years. Sabrina found herself against a wall of nothing but books. Always intrigued by literature, she tried to make out some of the titles. Most of them were written by Fox news anchors or former Republican senators. Sabrina quietly turned away and looked on at the scene in front of her.

Tinsley was surrounded by gifts that all seemed to have come from Tiffany & Co. All of the bags were Tiffany blue and after the third gift had been opened-an hourglass with Tiffany blue colored sand-Sabrina was wishing there was more than just champagne being served.

Kelsey on the other hand was fine with the champagne. She wasn’t downing it like Sabrina, but sitting on a blue ottoman and watching as Tinsley opened worthless present after worthless present. What the hell was she going to do with a sterling glass pencil sharpener from Tiffany?

Kelsey hadn’t had a shower when she married JC. They were so rushed to get married that it hadn’t mattered, especially considering they both had everything and didn’t need anything else. Her friends had thrown a small bachelorette party in Vegas but Kelsey hadn’t remembered much except getting drunk and throwing up over the side of their penthouse balcony. It had been written up in Variety the next day. At the time her manager had covered for her saying she’d gotten food poisoning. The truth of the matter was that she’d had tequila, vodka, and rum in five different drinks in about an hour’s time.

She remembered the next morning on the flight back to L.A. that Aria would be at JC’s when she landed and she was too hungover to want to do anything. It just so happened that Sabrina had been dropping Aria off when the limo pulled up to JC’s house, Kelsey had stumbled out, still somewhat drunk, and Sabrina hadn’t been happy at all.

“It was her bachelorette weekend!” JC was saying to Sabrina when Kelsey tripped up the stairs to the front door. She’d leaned in and sloppily kissed him, then looked at Sabrina and smiled before ducking into the house. She’d left them arguing on the front steps to go upstairs and crash on the bed.

It was instances such as that that made Kelsey cringe. She had been a horrible, horrible person to Sabrina. And she hadn’t been anything that young Aria had needed to be around. Yet, JC was infatuated with her and her with JC. But they were both caught in a fantasy that slowly turned into a nightmare. Infatuation could only last so long.

Kelsey looked over at Tinsley. She saw the diamond on her left ring finger hit the light. She was waving it around like a trophy. Kelsey shuddered. There was no way in hell that marriage would last long at all. JC had tried to fill that hole for years but she knew that nobody would ever or could ever replace Sabrina.