AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Her gaze is evasive. “Anyway, Lawrence took you away. I iced my face and then—”
“Youicedyour face?”
Della is silent.
“One of Lawrence’s guards punched you?” I interrupt. “Didn’t he?”
I’m going to be the one outside running Lawrence over with his limo. Howdarehis guard put his hand on my sister?
After a moment, she nods. “I was trying to stop them, and I wasn’t exactly being nice about it.”
“That’s no excuse for them punching you in the face.” I frown at the window as I ask myself if I could run someone over. If anyone deserves it, Lawrence does, because his guards would not have acted without his approval.
“So Lawrence took you. Mom wouldn’t tell me what was going on. When I’d calmed down, I realized Mom couldn’t have given birth to you because she’s a beta. I guess there must be exceptions, but…” she trails off.
I drag my gaze from the window to search her face, and I think I can guess what she doesn’t want to say. “We don’t look alike, so you thought I must have been adopted?”
She nods. “Mom eventually said some powerful men had given her a lot of money and a house. That all she needed to do was raise you and keep you away from other alphas.”
Now her wanting to keep me sheltered makes more and more sense. I’d already been bought and paid for. “Did she say who paid her to do it? And where I came from?”
I hold my breath as I wait for her response.
Della shakes her head, and my shoulders slump in disappointment. “I guessed it was Lawrence’s dad after what Lawrence said in the garden, but she refused to confirm it. Just that she’d lose the house, and they’d make her pay back all the money they’d given her. She said they would hurt me, but I’m not sure if she was telling the truth. She lied about a lot, Ever. Foryears.”
Lawrence threatened to hurt Della if I didn’t do what he wanted, and he had his guards punch her. It’s far too easy to believe he would have done much worse than that to Della. “You need to stay out of this, Della. You could get—”
Della shoves herself to her feet, glaring at me. “No.”
“Della…”
She shakes her head. “I know you want to protect me, but I’m not letting you. After Mom told me about what she’d done and about the suppressants, I packed up, dropped out of college, and came to find you.”
I frown. “But you love school, and your future is important. College is—”
She glares me into silence. And I wonder, not for the first time, how she’s the little sister here. “College isnotmore important than family. You’re my sister and I was going to find you. That’s why I went to Lawrence’s house after he took you.”
I blink at her, surprised.
Those first few days—scratch that, those first fewweeks—were the worst.
After my heat had passed, I had my identity methodically stripped away.
Worst of all, Lawrence told me I would never see my sister or draw again.
My life became an endless series of orders, from Lawrence and the women he hired to turn me into his perfect omega.
The only thing I had to be grateful for was that an alpha’s order loses its potency when the alpha isn’t around to enforce it. He would order me not to draw. I wouldn’t even think of drawing until he went out, and then I went hunting for a pencil and paper.
When he started threatening to punish Della, someone could have balanced a pencil on the end of my nose and I wouldn’t have touched it.
“Ever?” Della’s quiet voice pulls me from my somber thoughts.
I smooth out my frown and smile. “Sorry, you said you went to Lawrence’s house?”
From her long stare, she knows I’m not okay, but she doesn’t push.Thankfully.
“He wouldn’t let me see you. I kept going back until he said I wouldn’t leave at all if I kept testing his patience.”
