I walk into the house with my baby sister in my arms. She has her little eyes closed because she sleeps a lot. My father hasn’t even looked at her once. He arrived at the hospital, spoke to my mother’s doctor, and then left. I refused to leave until Lilly could. Celeste brought me clothes and blankets. I slept in two chairs out in the waiting room. School and swimming be damned. Nothing else matters anymore except for Lilly. She is now the most important thing in my life.
“Blanche?” my father calls out.
My nanny comes running down the hall into the grand foyer. “Yes, sir?”
“Take the baby. I need to speak with Cole,” he orders. I’m surprised he didn’t change her name just because he can. Lilly Grace Reynolds is what they wrote on her birth certificate because I told them to, and he signed it without a second glance.
She nods and holds her hands out for her. I don’t let her go.
“Cole,” he growls.
“I’m just going to change her,” she assures me with a nod.
My eyes go from hers to my father’s, and he sighs heavily. I gently hand Lilly over to her, and my arms instantly grow cold at the loss of this little girl I need to protect. If I don’t, she’ll end up dead like our mother.
“We need to have a conversation man to man,” my father states, giving me his back. “My office.”
I straighten my shoulders and follow him down the hallway and into his office. The same one where I saw my mother tell him that Bruce Lowes had raped her and she was pregnant. That was months ago, but it seems like ages. He should have protected her, but instead, he called her broken and put his hands on her. I’ve wanted him to suffer ever since then.
“Shut the door,” he orders, sitting down in his chair.
I do as he says and walk to the front of his desk. “I have nothing to say to you,” I state.
“Watch your tone, boy,” he growls.
“Fu—”
I don’t even get the word out before he’s reaching over his desk and dragging me across it. I knock off his computer and papers and scream out in surprise. He slams my back into the wall with his hands on my shirt, pinning me in place. His face is red with anger as he lowers it to mine.
“Do you want me to send your ungrateful ass off to boarding school?” he shouts. “Like Deke’s father did to him? Huh?” He shakes me, and I try to fight him off, but he’s too strong. “Do you want me to send you away and never let you come back? Because I can fucking do that, Cole! I can do whatever the fuck I damn well want! No one’s here to stop me.”
Without thought, I punch him in the side of the head. He lets go of me long enough to backhand me across the face, sending me sprawling onto his office floor. I taste blood as I make my way up to all fours on the hardwood. I’ve never hit him before, but it’s not the first time he’s hit me.
He chuckles, standing over me. “You think you can beat me, son?” I don’t answer. “You may have the boys at school afraid of you, but don’t forget who runs this house,” he growls, “and who owns you. I can take everything away from you in a matter of seconds.” It’s almost the exact same thing he said to my mother.
I look up to see him standing before me breathing heavily. “Are you gonna kill me?” I ask, tasting the blood in my mouth. I want to make him bleed. I want him to know what it feels like to have nothing left. “Like you did Mom?”
He throws his head back and laughs out loud. “I didn’t kill your mother.”
I get up onto my knees and wipe the blood from my chin with the back of my hand. “You gonna try and tell me that you loved her?”
“No,” he answers simply and kneels down before me. “You’re not a stupid kid, Cole. You’re a lot smarter than the others give you credit for.”
“I know you killed her!” I scream as tears sting my eyes. He did it! He had to. There is no other explanation as to why she’s not here. With me. With my sister.
“Why would I do that?” He tilts his head. “You think I wanna raise you and your bastard sister on my own?” He chuckles.
“Then Bruce did it,” I growl. Someone killed her. She didn’t just fall and die. I don’t believe it. I won’t believe it.
He stands and straightens his black tie. “Bruce may have not wanted the child either, but he wouldn’t murder her for it.”
My nostrils flare at that statement. “I’ll find out the truth.”
He smiles. “Go ahead and prove me wrong, Cole.”
CHAPTER ONE
DEKE
Sixteen years old
I SIT IN the basement of Bennett’s parents’ house. His father is out of town on a business trip and took his mother with him. So, as usual, we decided to throw a party.
I take a hit from my cigarette and lean back into the couch, blowing it out. Bennett’s parents don’t ever come down here, so we’ve made it our hangout. At the Reynolds’ house, we hang in the game room. At my parents’, we party in the pool house. We have a designated room no matter where we go.
The couch sits back against the wall with a glass coffee table in the center and a large TV on the wall in front of us. The mini bar over to the right is fully stocked. It’s got soft gray carpet and white walls with matching wooden beams.
Bennett’s parents are the coolest out of all my friends. When my father kicked me out of the house last year, they let me stay here. I crashed at Cole’s for a few days until Liam found me and called my father.
Fucker!
He’s never cared much for me. Actually, Liam Reynolds doesn’t care much for anyone. Never once did Bennett’s mother ask me what I did to deserve it. She did my laundry. Fixed me breakfast, lunch, and dinner. She’s the kind of mother every kid dreams of. I could have stayed at my sister’s, but she was in nursing school and dating some punk I hated, so crashing at her place would have been like living with my father.
“Where’s Cole?” Eli asks as he comes down the stairs to my left and plops down on the couch.
I nod toward the only door down here, silently answering Eli’s question while “Right Left Wrong” by Three Days Grace filters down into the room from above.
“He’s been in there for a while,” Kellan growls, glaring at the closed door. “Wonder what the fuck he’s doing.”
“Well, he didn’t go in there alone, so of course, he’s gonna take his time.” I take another drag from my cigarette.
Eli smiles. “Who is he in there with?”
“I don’t know,” I lie.
I know exactly who he’s with, but I’m going to wait and let them all see for themselves. Especially since the chick he took in there was the same girl Kellan fucked last night. Natasha Grey. The new girl at our school this year. She’s had her eye on Cole since day one, but he’s never given her much attention until tonight. Three beers and a Jack and Coke loosened him up enough to take her to the closet, I guess. Especially when she came down here pulling her dress up and practically throwing herself at him. I think he was more bored than anything. And she was just … there.
“Yeah, well …” Kellan checks the time on his phone. “He needs to hurry up if we’re gonna draw tonight.”