I swallowed past the lump in my throat. “Yes.”
“Why? Your father can’t actually make you marry anyone. There are laws against that now, you know?”
I shook my head. My father would find a way to get me to consent. He’d already hinted before at hurting my mother. She foolishly believed she’d been my father’s equal, helping him plot against me when all along, she’d been nothing but a pawn.
I’d tried to summon hatred for the woman who’d given me life, but I couldn’t. How could I blame her for being weak when I’d allowed my father to weaken me, too?
We do the best we can with the information we have. No one person gets to decide what makes an individual weak or strong, even if their decisions aren’t what we would have done ourselves. It takes more courage to be selfless than it does to be selfish.
Channeling my inner Four, I realized I couldn’t leave my mother at the mercy of that monster. Convincing her to leave my father wouldn’t be easy, but I had to try. Knowing what I know, I couldn’t live with myself if I left without her.
“He’ll find a way.”
“What if you went to the police?”
I was surprised at her eagerness to get me to stay. I would have thought she’d be happier if she never saw me again. “It would be pretty hard to prove that my father intends to marry me off against my will. I’d need concrete evidence.”
Four squeezed my hands, determination filling her big brown eyes. “Then get some.”
I suddenly felt like I’d been hit with a thunderbolt and brought back to life stronger than ever. I never realized how much I’d given up by giving up. I’d alienated good people while allowing bad ones to push me around. No more.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” Lou shouted before I could respond to Four. She’d suddenly appeared next to us, her gaze moving back and forth between us. I hadn’t realized until now that Four and I had stopped skating. We now stood off to the side, still standing close and still holding hands. “I spent two hours on the phone convincing Jamie that you two weren’t going to run off together after you kissed, and here I find you looking like you’re about to do it again!”
Shock and guilt had Four and me pulling away from each other and carefully swiveling on our skates to face Lou.
“Jamie told you?” Four questioned, looking peeved.
“About your little foursome in the science lab? Yeah, he told me. I’m his bestie, duh.” She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.
What a brat.
“It wasn’t a foursome,” I argued. “We didn’t have sex with each other.”
Lou waved me off. “Potatoes, po-tah-toes.” The look she gave us was stern. “What did I just walk in on?”
“Nothing,” Four answered sighing. “We were just talking.”
“Great,” Lou chirped. “Then fill me in.”
“We were talking about why you told Jamie about Sean,” Four snapped.
I blinked in confusion because that definitely wasn’t what we were discussing—far from it—and Lou was right… I did want to kiss Four if only to thank her for helping me see. Besides, who the hell was Sean, and what did he have to do with Jamie?
“I didn’t,” Lou denied. “Jamie already knew. I just told him that you knew, too. Oh!” She snapped her fingers. “And that Wren and Ever might be brothers.”
“Whoa!” I interrupted before Four could lay into Lou. It was a good thing too because that would be the fight of the century. “What are you guys talking about?” My gaze darted back and forth between them.
“Long story,” Four and Lou said at the same time. They immediately returned to glaring at one another. I almost laughed because one would think they were sisters the way they constantly fought.
“Well, then, I guess you better start from the beginning.”
It was dark and pretty late when we stumbled onto the beach a few hours later. The things Lou and Four divulged when we’d gone back to the hotel had me reaching for the whiskey Four had snuck out of the manor. I couldn’t stop giggling at the name she’d given the McNamara’s mansion.
Apparently, Ever wasn’t a McNamara at all.
He was a Kelly.
And he didn’t know that his biological father was still alive.
He’d also been a very bad boy joining Exiled to find his mom. I’d glimpsed the tattoo on his back once or twice but didn’t know and hadn’t cared what it meant. I thought his mom leaving was his only demon and was too wrapped up in my own to ask.
Some friend I was.
Unlike Jamie… he’d risked his life for his friends. And all the while, I’d been hating him without ever knowing how close I’d come to losing him. I wasn’t the only one with secrets, after all.
At least now I knew where the hell Wren and Lou had come from. From the outside, it seemed like they’d just popped up one day and fit themselves right into our lives. And oh, how well they fit. As often as Lou made me want to pull out my hair, I couldn’t imagine life without her challenging me every step of the way. Wren was too much like a steel vault. I couldn’t get a detailed reading, but I had the feeling he was a good guy. He had to be after caring for Lou for years while believing they could never be. If Wren and Lou could beat the insurmountable odds they once had stacked against them, then maybe Jamie and I could have too if I hadn’t planned to leave Blackwood Keep forever.
As we approached the familiar blue beach house on stilts where Vaughn held all his parties throughout high school, I tried not to think about how I hadn’t heard from Jamie all day. It was thoughtful of him to send Four and Lou to keep me company, but a “thank you, ma’am” after he wham-bammed me all night would have been nice.
I glanced over my shoulder as we climbed the wooden stairs and saw Four texting furiously on her phone. She was the only one who’d opted out of drinking since she was driving Ever’s G-Wagon.
“Hey, Bee, open the door, will ya? I think I’m wasted,” Lou announced.
I frowned because I’d had more to drink than she had, and I was nowhere near as wasted. Tipsy maybe. Glancing at the door, I wondered if I’d been led into some kind of trap. Lou watched me expectantly while Four fought a grin. If they had been anyone else, I would have got the hell out of there, but I trusted them. I may have been in social exile for the last five years, but I still recognized good people when I saw them. Taking a deep breath, I decided I could handle whatever was waiting for me on the other side of that door.
Pushing it open, I stepped into the dark house and looked around. I could make out the outline of a couch and maybe a lamp or two. Moving farther inside, I jumped when the door behind me slammed shut. Whirling around, I saw the shadow of a man looming over me. Panic speared my chest a second before there was a click, and then a flashlight illuminated his grinning face.
“Hello, Clarice,” my stalker greeted in a raspy voice.
“Jamie! Ugh! I’m going to kill you!” My fist balled as I flew toward him. I was very much looking forward to seeing blood pour from his pierced nose onto his lush upper lip. Before I could land the first punch, however, light flooded the entire room.
“Surprise!”