Sighing, I answer, “No.” I can feel the tears building, but I dig my nails into my palms and swallow them down before I continue. “Is one ever ready to have the people you love rip your proverbial heart out and stomp all over it before turning their backs on you to be with the vilest human to exist?”
Shay pulls me into her arms. “You’re going to get through this. The first time will be the hardest, but I’ll be with you every step of the way. Just know mi cyaan promise I won’t tump Samantha in har face or box di idiot bwoy dem inna dem face.”
“It’s fine, Shay. In the end, it will all be fine. I’m not back here for them. I’m back here for me and what has to happen to protect my family,” I say, hoping my tone conveys the confidence I don’t wholly possess at the moment. But you know what they say.
Fake it ’til you make it.
And I’m going to fake it all the way to the helm of Fraternitas.
ROWAN
“Remember if you??”
“Shut the fuck up already,” I growl, cutting off Samantha’s eighteen-hundredth reminder of what has to happen.
She whirls to a stop in front of me. “Listen, Rowaniel, I’ve been nice enough to leave your little trash toy alone. That deal is only good if you do your part.” She angles her head at Liam and August. “If you all do your part.”
Sebastian is back at Calloway Academy, the lucky bastard, and Karl won’t be seen anywhere in public near the bitch-threats to his life be damned. The rest of us don’t have that option. Sam literally holds his life in her hands, and if we don’t do what she wants, he’ll die. While he has no qualms about playing Russian roulette with his life, we won’t take the chance.
“Don’t you worry, we’ll play your stupid game,” Wy snickers. His lips quirk, and I arch my dark brow in his direction.
He’s up to something.
The look of mischievousness is painted all over his freckled face. He’s been like this all summer, but it’s gotten more blatant the closer to the start of school.
We’re standing in front of the F. A. Bradford School of Social Sciences and Humanities building-one of the four departments located in the Bradford Quad, which is aptly named since every building in this area is named after a Bradford. Karl is supposed to meet us here once his class is over. He’s going to flip his shit when he sees Sam.
It’s the first day of classes, and we all agreed to meet here for lunch. Unfortunately, Samantha thought that included her. One of the annoying stipulations to her being our Chosen is that she has access to our schedules, and she wasted no time ensuring she had breaks whenever we did. I’d send him a message to warn him if this vapid bitch would give me room to breathe.
“How much longer do we have to wait for him?” Sam whines, and as if on cue, the doors to the humanities building slide open, and students begin to file out.
“As long as it fucking takes. No one wants you here, so if you don’t want to wait, no one is begging you to be here,” Liam seethes. He’s finally starting to look a bit more like himself. There was a period over the summer I swore we would have to stage some sort of intervention after he scratched the shit out of his neck. Luckily, our new plan has provided an outlet. Between trying to locate Eshe Solomon or another hacker to deactivate the bomb in Karl’s arm, he’s a man on a mission.
Five more minutes pass before Karl exits the building. He still has a slight limp, but the bruises on his face have all healed. Physically, he’s almost one hundred percent-emotionally, it is a different story. We all have been on heightened alert after Liam told us about the incident at his house.
“What the fuck is she doing here?” Karl snarls. His face reddens in anger, and his fists clench at his side.
“We’re going to lunch, my love,” Samantha snips back.
August throws his arm around Karl and whispers in his ear, pulling him away from the plastic girl with a death wish. It’s a move made to look like a greeting as people walk by.
“You should stop pushing him if you hope to last the week,” I warn. It’s a warning she doesn’t deserve, but it’s more for Karl’s life than hers.
Samantha slides her arm through mine before following in the direction Karl and August went. “And you should know that I’m the one making the rules. Not any of you. So, get him in line, or he’ll be eliminated,” she orders and places her disgusting lips against my cheek. I have to fight not to push her off of me.
“You kill Karl, and there’ll be nothing left for you to leverage against us,” Liam states. “So,
Samantha, remember your control isn’t endless, nor is your power absolute.” Then he walks past to catch up to Karl and August, leaving me to deal with the girl who’s like an infection that penicillin can’t fix.
As we walk across campus, other students stop and greet us, offering their congratulations on our upcoming wedding. I have to fight not to gag each time Samantha runs her clawed nails along my exposed arm or leans in to kiss me. It’s the longest ten-minute walk to the dining hall ever.
Once inside, I extricate myself from her hold, ignoring her muttered protest of what it will look like if we don’t walk in looking like a loving couple. “No one’s going to think anything. We’re here to eat-not be joined like Siamese twins.” I grumble, then leave her standing by the entrance to find the guys.
I find them close to the window, opting not to sit at our reserved table in the center of the room. My face scrunches in confusion as I sit next to Liam.
“We won’t sit there. That’s reserved for the Heirs and their Chosen-not some power-hungry wench,” Liam states, and I nod in agreement.
I groan when I see Samantha heading for our table, but she’s stopped when a group of cheerleaders intercepts her. I’m not sure what they’re saying, but it’s enough for Sam to smile and go to their table.
“Thank fuck,” August exclaims, relief etched on his face.
I think we all collectively sigh once Sam officially sits and begins animatedly talking. Her hands move with each word she makes, but that’s about the only thing on her that moves.
“Have any of you seen her?” Karl asks, causing our attention to focus back on our table.
Her. He means Emma.
I’ve been trying to catch glimpses of her, but we don’t have any classes together until later this week. Liam worked our schedules so that at least one of us would be in each of her classes. August has English with her later today, so she’ll be on campus today. My lips curl up into a smile at that thought.
“Not yet,” Liam answers, while Wy and I give a quick no with a shake of our heads.
Karl fidgets at that response-absentmindedly rolling a razor between his knuckles.
“Put that shit away,” I whisper as Liam holds Karl’s hand still. Karl’s nicked his skin with each pass of the razor’s edge.
Blinking back into awareness, Karl looks down, his head slanted, and watches the blood trickle from the superficial cuts.
“Come on, O. You can’t let our girl see you like this,” Liam pleads.
“But she’s not ours anymore. Is she?” Karl murmurs without looking away from his hands.
August’s fist hits the table. Not loud enough for anyone to notice but enough to rouse Karl from his trance. “She’s ours. No stupid bitch can change that.”
Karl snorts, but it lacks any real emotion. I watch as his sullen eyes look around the lunch table before landing on the group of cheerleaders Samantha’s sitting with. “
That stupid bitch has though, hasn’t she?”
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.