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Who cared about my last name, or why it didn’t match Dad’s? Obviously there was a reason—not that anyone needed to know.
I had no idea I evenhada dad until Mom drove into Teller when I was two, found a random house, and dumped me on the front stoop, along with a trash bag of clothing and two toys. She didn’t even leave the car seat.
From then on, I lived with Dad. And I never saw Mom again. If the police came and asked me to pick her out of a lineup, I wouldn’t be able to do so. We had no pictures of her anywhere, and the only thing I knew about her was her name.
Morgana.
The two of them had never been in love. They were a fling in college, and I became the result of it. From what I knew, Mom never told Dad she was pregnant until we showed up at his doorstep. She fled, he kept me, and that was our life. Moving house to house every few years as he married and divorced.
He never loved anyone, as far as I could tell. With the amount of times he got divorced, how could he? Love wasn’t something we did in our house—it wasn’t real. It was a means to an end. It was companionship for him more than anything.
I hadn’t made it another ten yards before someone else popped up in front of me. Literally, stepping right into my path and blocking me from going further.
“Watch it—”
“I’m sorry,” he said, shocking me.
I snapped my head up, finding the dazzling blue eyes and deep dimples of Charlie Henrikson once again in my face.
“Excuse me?”
Charlie smiled, one that if we were in a movie, would have the ‘ping’ sound effect and the twinkle sparkling off the side. His perfectly straight, perfectly white teeth shone so much I almost wanted my shades.
“About yesterday. With your… um… your dad? I wanted to say I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to come across as rude or anything. Honestly, I was just shocked by the whole thing. I mean, he’s been my coach all of high school and—”
“Is that all?” Was this the thing Dad was expecting when he told me to stay away from his soccer players last night? When he thought they might approach me and I would cause trouble? If so, I needed to shut this down before Charlie went any further.
Charlie’s grin faltered for a second, but he plastered it on once again. He reached up and pushed his hair out of his face, it falling back exactly where it laid a moment ago, not even looking messed up. “Um, I guess. Well, that, and I wanted to let you know it wasn’t me who told the Fairy Godmother. I swear. I wouldn’t rat you out like that.”
“You wouldn’t rat me out? What, like it was some sort of big secret I asked you to keep?” I propped my hands on my hips first, before taking them down, feeling like I looked dumb. No, crossing them over my chest was a better option.
A slight flush filled Charlie’s cheeks. “Well, no. But—”
“All you want is to tell me you didn’t do it, so it clears your conscience. Not because you actually care.” I lifted an eyebrow, daring him to say otherwise.
He opened his mouth, but I cut him off. “It’s cute that you think I care. Really. But guess what? It’s only the Fairview kids that care about stuff like that. Ask any Teller kid and they’ll tell you how they’ve known for years. But it doesn’t matter to us. Most of the time, we don’t claim our parents like you do. Having a parent ‘be someone’ isn’t a big deal. We like to make a name for ourselves.”
Charlie’s eyes grew wide, only alerting me to how incredibly, almost impossibly, blue they were. Like someone took literal gemstones and placed them in there.
“Uh, okay then. Well, have a good day,” he stuttered as he shoved his hands in his pockets and strolled off, having the nerve to look unbothered by our entire interaction.
I huffed out an annoyed breath, hoping that was the last distraction of the morning. I had contracts to work on and school and stuff.
“Una?” I heard whispered behind me right as I rounded another corner. Groaning, I turned around, finding a head sticking out of the door to the bathroom.
Aria with her reddish dark strawberry blonde hair looked at me seriously. She stuck out a hand and gestured for me to come inside.
I could have ignored her. I could have turned and walked away like I never heard her. But Dad would probably have my head if I did anything to Miss Perfect’s daughter.
Aria was the last ofsevendaughters, actually. But the only one still at home. The other six were already grown and either on their own or in college. It didn’t make holidays any less annoying, though.
At least Dad and I would have some peace and quiet again, with no one fighting over the last roll.
“Can I help you?” I hummed, not wanting anyone to overhear the two of us talking. This was closer than we had ever been while at school. I wasn’t sure about her angle here, but whatever she was getting at toed a dangerous line.
Before she started, I ducked down and checked under doors to all the stalls, making sure no one was in here with us.
“I… I… well, I—”
