AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Have you spoken to them recently?”
“That’s a joke, right?” My teeth grind.
At least this time, Miss Jones has the decency to look concerned.
“I suggested they call you.”
“Well, they didn’t. And we both know they won’t. I could disappear off the face of the planet and they wouldn’t care.”
“Hadley, that’s not—”
“True?” I bark out a bitter laugh. “Let’s not kid ourselves. I’m here so they can tell all their friends I’m finishing my education at a private school with an excellent reputation. And then, when I graduate, they’ll release my trust fund so I can go to college and they can cut me out of their lives for good.”
Pain stabs at my insides, but I don’t let her see it. I don’t let anyone see it. Because if I acknowledge it, it’ll drag me under. The way it did before.
“I know you think what they did was unfair, but they just want the best for you. And staying in Gravestone wasn’t a good idea.”
“Are we done here?” I snap, unable to stand her defending my parents for a second longer.
She lets out an exasperated breath and runs a hand over her slick ponytail. “My door is always open, Hadley. I’ve known your parents a long time, but I’m on your side here, I promise.”
With a curt nod, I grab my bag off the floor and stand, making a beeline for the door. But her voice gives me pause at the last second.
“I know you’re a clever enough girl to know the Jagger twins are trouble, Hadley. All I’m saying is, don’t make the same mistake twice. High school won’t last forever, and then you can be whoever you want to be.”
I want to tell her I don’t want to be someone else. I want to be Hadley Dove Rexford, the girl I was before everything changed.
But she’s gone.
And the truth is, I don’t know who I am anymore.
Chapter Six
Cole
Ace: Family meal tonight. Do not be late.
The message sitting on my cell taunts me as I stand in the school parking lot, waiting for Conner to pick me up.
We’ve got enough money now thanks to our new daddy to be able to buy ourselves a decent car each, but I don’t want a cent. I look around at the makes and models littering the lot. Audis, Mercedes, Porches… it looks like a car dealership, not a fucking school parking lot.
Despite everything we thought we knew about ourselves, it turns out that we’re one of them now. Here it’s all about how much money you have, what designers you wear, and the cars you drive. We may have been dragged from the Heights against our will, but this place could have been our home for years.
As I sit on the steps waiting, I wonder how different our lives would have been if James had pulled his fucking head out of his ass long enough to do the right thing years ago. I allow myself to very briefly think about the things I probably wouldn’t have been forced to experience, to witness, over the years which have made me the way I am now.
Maybe I would have been more like Conner. Maybe I’d have seen more good in people.
But the truth is, I didn’t, and I’m nothing like my twin. He sees light and fun; I see darkness and devastation. And suddenly learning that our rich uncle is actually our dad does nothing to shine a light on any of that darkness. It only makes me want to fall further into the black abyss.
He says he had his reasons; I’m sure he did, and he can tell them to himself as he falls asleep at night to make himself feel better. But it will never make me feel better about it.
He was the one who left me there.
He was the one who allowed me to witness everything I did.
He was the one to do this to me.
By the time the spluttering of our old Ford approaches, my fingertips are burning with my grip on the concrete beneath me.
