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I can’t be sure, but it looked like it was blood under those nail tips. Blood from what though?

She and Guy talk in low tones, and Sera and my dad keep their heads as close as humanly possible without morphing into one person, until it feels like I’m the fifth wheel on a double date.

The second dessert’s over, I’m already walking for the door. Get me the fuck out of here.

Hearing Sera say, “Kota, there was a handprint on the fridge when I got home,” has me slowing my steps though. “Care to explain that?”

“I, um…”

Grateful my back is to the room, I let my smile unfold as I come to a full stop. I gotta hear this.

“I saw that, too, and was wondering the same thing. Khaos? Was that from you?”

This little snitch ass.

Smile gone, I spin around to find everyone focused on me. Everyone but Kota. She’s just as oblivious to my presence as she was before she said my name.

Is she scared I’ll share how that handprint really got there? Her mom overshared. I feel like it’d only be fair.

Before I can get a word out, my dad rushes to my defense, saying, “He doesn’t know the rules. I’ll tell him.”

He hasn’t told me anything that’d help me acclimate to our new “family” better.

“Thank you, Graham. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“Probably have a smudge-free fridge,” Guy says, earning himself another round of laughter.

This time I join in before cutting it off suddenly to eye the fuck out of his girlfriend while saying, “My hands end up in all kinds of places they shouldn’t be.”

Then I meet Guy’s gaze, daring him to make another smartass comment at my expense. I’ll show him how to work a clit right fucking now. It won’t take me all night and two buckets of sweat to do it either. I’ll make his girl come faster than that last course did.

Guy clears his throat but doesn’t say a word.

I excuse myself from the dining room but not before hearing Sera say something about “wanting one hundred.” If Stepmom wants to charge me for dirtying her fridge, wait until she finds out what I did to her daughter.

It’s sometime late in the day when I drag my ass out of bed, in need of the bathroom. Finding it locked, I bang a fist on the door, muttering under my breath about Kota having her own bathroom.

I stagger down the stairs, kneading my shoulder. It’s sore but manageable.

The front door opens and closes, then opens and closes, a steady line of people coming and going. The fuck?

After three days of playing happy household, my dad and Sera went out of town again last night. Guy took that as his invitation to sleep over, but I didn’t stick around to listen to that reunion. I was gone until about three a.m., and when I got back, they both must’ve been asleep. This mansion is so big and so empty, it felt almost eerie walking in here in the dead of night by myself.

But now, it looks like my stepsister’s having a party. The kitchen is crowded when I pass it, and there are people in swimsuits running around, getting water all over Mommy Dearest’s pristine marble flooring.

Can’t wait to hear what Sergeant Sera says about this mess.

As long as Kota doesn’t try blaming this shit on me, too.

Where is Stepsis anyway?

She’s been avoiding me ever since that dinner party from hell. We share a hallway, so whenever she’s not in school, we do run into each other, but she’s always the first to find somewhere else to be.

I duck into the first open bathroom I come across before going in search of the hostess.

I find her in the pool…area. Other than excessive, I don’t know what this section is called. With a glass roof, it reminds me of a greenhouse, but I doubt that’s what it’s called. There’s plenty of greenery in here though, so maybe.

Inside, the air is thick with humidity and hormones, and it makes me want to strip off all my clothes.