Page 63 of Revere: A Legacy Novel

Catherine would come to him. She was like him, after all. Living in a world that moved around her and did things she could not see. A world of people who lied and hid things from her; people who loved her.

It made everything feel … false.

He was real to her.

So, she would come.

Cross knew it.

A knock on Catherine’s apartment door instantly made her irritated. If the constant calls and messages she had been getting for two straight days were any indication, she knew exactly who had come over. She didn’t move from her spot on the couch.

The knock became louder.

Catherine kept reading her book.

“Catherine,” she heard her father’s muffled voice call, “you will open this door, or I will break it down.”

“And get me evicted?” she called back.

“I would pay to fix it, too.”

“Catherine, let us in,” her mother said.

Catrina sounded just as frustrated as Catherine did.

Wonderful.

“It’s not even locked,” Catherine said.

She kept her eyes on her book as her parents entered the apartment. She wasn’t reading it anymore, but she didn’t want to look at them.

Or rather, her father.

Catrina headed for the kitchen and turned on the electric kettle. Dante moved to sit beside Catherine on the couch. The moment he sat down she tossed her book aside and stood.

Dante sighed. “Catherine—”

“I’m not interested in talking right now,” she told him.

Catrina focused on pulling coffee cups from the cabinets, and not her husband and daughter. Catherine leaned against the island separating the kitchen and living room.

“We’ve been calling you for two days,” her father murmured.

“And I’ve been busy.”

“With what?”

“School,” she lied.

Catherine hadn’t gone to school since that day in the restaurant. She couldn’t focus enough to pretend to care. There were far too many other things on her mind.

Dante pursed his lips, clearly displeased. “You couldn’t pick up your phone at all? Call us back? Nothing?”

“Why should I?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“I don’t want to talk to you,” Catherine stressed. “That’s not hard to figure out, Daddy.”