“I don’t know what I did or said to make you hate me so much, but I don’t care. This is my shot at a new life and you better fucking believe that I won’t be giving it up for anybody, especially some high school, jock loser like you. You don’t scare me, Slade. You’re a fucking dot on the map compared to the monsters I’ve dealt with. I’m staying and you better get used to it. This is my school now. My town.”
With that, I blow him the sweetest little kiss and walk away while Maze gapes at my back and hurries to catch up. “Okay,” she says after she gains control of her thoughts. “I knew you were a bad bitch, but I didn’t realize you were suicidal.”
“You’re either on the train or you can jump.”
“Oh, I’m so fucking on the train, but I have one little question.”
“Dare I ask?”
Maze’s eyes flick to me before going straight back to the sidewalk in front of her. “What the fuck is ‘Virago?’”
I shake my head, equally as perplexed. “I’ve got no fucking clue but something tells me I’m not going to like it.”
Maze pulls out her phone and I watch as she types ‘virago’ into her google search. The results come up and we reach the boundary line for my home and she cringes. “Yeah…you’re right. You’re not going to like it.”
“Maze,” I warn.
“Virago,” she says as though she’s about to address the class with a presentation that she’s worked all of two seconds on. “A domineering, violent, or bad-tempered woman.”
“On second thought, maybe he knows exactly who he’s messing with.”
Chapter 5
Three Years Ago
I sit at the long, twenty-seater dining table as my adoptive father, Lucien Valentine, stands at the head, toasting his business partners for another job well done. I have no idea what the job was or if it was even legal. I’m only fourteen, but I’m old enough to know that he’s a bad man. A very bad man.
I’ve tried listening in on the details of their deals before but I’ve never learned much. Lucien likes to use big, intimidating words that have no place in a child’s vocabulary. But what does it matter? I’m just a girl and girls aren’t privy to that information anyway. We’re here to be seen and not heard. My brother, on the other hand, he’s going to take over the family business one day. He’s their shining star while I’m probably going to be used for a deal or for breeding the next Valentine heir.
I hate it here. I always have. Blake and I don’t belong, but it’s not like we’ve got anywhere else to go. Blake doesn’t remember what happened. He was only three at the time, granted I was only four, but I was nearly five and I remember it like a movie that’s been playing on repeat since the day it happened. I remember their faces, their names, the way the kid begged not to do it. Blake wouldn’t remember the blood splattered on the wall or the way those strange men hauled us out of our home. Blake probably doesn’t even remember mom and dad. In fact, I’m pretty sure he considers Lucien and Maria our real parents and I don’t have the heart to break it to him. Maybe when we’re older.
We were stolen, or bought, or…I don’t know. But what I do know is that my parents, my real parents, were murdered in cold blood and a week later, we showed up here. That couldn’t be legal, right? Something shady must have gone down. No kids would ever be relocated to people like this especially when we most likely have more family back home…or maybe they didn’t want us.
Lucien’s loud, booming ‘cheers’ has my attention snapping back to the head of the table to where he holds his glass up, high above our heads. Every single one of our guests raise their glasses while Blake and I do the same.
I can’t help but notice Maria, our adoptive mother, beaming up at her husband from his side, as proud as punch. She’s just as bad as he is, in fact, probably worse because she turns a blind eye to all the bad he does and doesn’t do a damn thing about it, all while pretending to be a perfect mother.
Maria Valentine is all about the looks, what other school mothers think of her, what her hoity-toity country club friends think, what the next-door neighbor’s plumber thinks. She’s the worst, and so is all her plastic surgery. To her, everything has to be perfect and if something doesn’t fit in with her lifestyle, then it simply doesn’t exist.
I can’t wait for the day Lucien gets caught and she’s forced to admit to the world that things aren’t as she makes them seem. Geez, I can’t imagine how it’s going to go down when the world realizes we aren’t her real kids. That’s going to be an exciting day.