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Not for them. For her.
But I don’t.
“They were being mobbed by three guys. What else was I supposed to do?” I yell. “It’s not like I had a choice.”
“You could’ve walked away,” Liam says.
“Oh, like you would have,” I scoff. “While your precious Jasmine is on the floor, begging for you to save her.”
“Hey, don’t make this about me now,” Liam says, pointing at me.
I sigh out loud as I pace around my room. Rain begins to pitter-patter down the windows, the sky growing as dark as my mood. “If I get expelled, Dad won’t accept that.”
“You’re right about that.” He rolls his eyes. “But you could’ve told him the truth.”
I stop and yell, “Told him what? That I was trying to play the knight in shining armor?” I laugh at how stupid I sound. “No, that’s dumb.”
“And unbelievable,” my brother adds. “But you did it for the right reasons.”
“Screw what’s right,” I say, and I point at Liam. “And fuck you for telling Dad about that girl in my room.”
He holds up his hands. “Hey now, that wasn’t me.”
“Who the fuck else could it have been?”
He shrugs. “I don’t know, but I wasn’t the only one inside the house that day.”
“And I’m supposed to believe your word? Give me one good reason.”
“I’m your brother,” he replies. “There’s your reason.”
“Yeah, no,” I scoff. “You’ve got to give me something better than that.”
He gets up from the bed and walks toward me, broadening his shoulders. “Don’t be stupid.” He places a hand on my shoulder. “I care about you. I want you to be okay.”
My nostrils flare as I look at him, but all I see is truthfulness, and it pisses me off.
Why is he still so fucking nice to me? Is this all just to prove he’s the better brother? The one who will take over the company while I’m lying in a ditch somewhere?
“Don’t,” Liam suddenly says. “Whatever you’re thinking, don’t.”
“You’re always so fucking nice, and I hate it.”
He plants his forehead against mine, forcing me to stay. “Don’t let Father get to you. Whatever he tells you, don’t let him get into your mind. Listen to me, Luca. We’re better than this. We’re brothers.”
“While you take over Dad’s business and stab me in the back.”
He grabs my neck. “I would never fucking do that. Never. Promise on our father’s life.”
I scoff, “You’d kill him to prove a point?”
“If that’s what it takes to prove my loyalty to you as a brother, I would.” He strengthens his grip. “Believe me, Luca. And don’t let them fucking pit us against each other. If we go down, we go down together.”
I nod a few times even though I don’t feel the same way.
“You got it?”
I nod again, letting it sink in slowly.
“I’m always going to be honest with you. Straight up,” Liam says. “And you know why? Because I love you.”
I snort.
“I mean it.”
“I know,” I reply.
He nods and then slowly releases me from his grip. But his hand is still on my shoulder, and he looks me deep in the eye as he says, “I know you have a thing for Jill, but you have to stop.”
I stare at him in confusion with my lips parted.
“I’m telling you this as a brother who loves you, okay?” Liam says.
My lip begins to twitch. “Why?”
“You just can’t,” he says. “Trust me on that.”
Can’t?
Trust him?
Rage becomes me, and I grab his shirt and shove him up against the wall. “What are you hiding?”
“I’m not supposed to tell you but—”
“Tell me,” I growl in his face.
He rips my hands off his shirt and shoves me away, showing off his bulky chest and muscular arms as he breathes out loud. And I realize then that he doesn’t love me. He’s just using my only weakness to try to stop me.
“TELL ME!”
Thunder strikes outside.
A menacing shadow looms behind my brother’s figure. The shadow of my ruined future.
His eyes lower to the floor like a sad coward. “Mom told me … Jill’s supposed to marry me.”
My eyes widen.
Thunder booms again, the sound as loud as the beating of my heart.
But I don’t wait until the lightning follows to force open the window and jump outside, running straight into the storm.
Chapter 8
Jill
* * *
I turn off the light in the bathroom and make my way to my room through the long hallways lined with expensive paintings and statues that stare back at me, reminding me of how lonely I feel in these vast halls.
I sigh as I clutch my bathrobe tight, but I pause the second I hear my parents’ voices coming from their bedroom.
“Are you sure it was the right decision to send them there?”
Holding my breath, I sneak closer and clutch the doorway just out of view.
My father paces around the room. “It’s the safest school, you heard Lex. These kids need protection.”
