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I swallow hard, trying to force the lump in my throat away. I hate that both my parents think I’m guilty of this.
“Did you sleep with him?” my mother asks, making heat spread over every inch of my skin.
“No,” I cry, shaking my head. “I didn’t even fucking kiss him.”
“Language, Eva,” my father quips. “I’m fed up with this.” He glances at my mother. “I think you’re right. We have no choice.”
I glance between my mother and father, wondering what he means. “What are you talking about?”
My mom shakes her head. “It will be brutal, but I think she needs to learn a brutal lesson.”
I swallow hard. “Would you stop talking about me as if I’m not even here?”
My father meets my gaze. “We’re sending you to The Syndicate Academy in Maine,” he deadpans.
It feels like my parents rip the ground from under my feet. “That’s a thousand miles from here. From my friends,” I protest, even though I don’t have many friends here in Atlanta. “What the hell?”
My father stands, towering over me in all his height and grandeur. “You will go without another word. You’re a Carmichael, and it’s about time you learn what that means.” He glances at my mother. “The only way for you to learn is to attend school with people like you.”
I clench my fists by my side. “You mean the offspring of other criminals?” I shake my head. “I want nothing to do with your disgusting business.”
My mother steps toward me and grabs my wrist forcefully. “Watch what you say, Eva. I can cut you off faster than you can walk out of this room.”
I narrow my eyes at her. That’s what I count on. My only crime is that I’ve been taking the blood money my parents give me monthly and saving all of it in a bank account they have no access to, which will be my college tuition. However, I’m not ready to draw that card yet.
I know their plan for me. My parents want me to marry a mob boss and allow another criminal to take over the family business, starting the cycle again. It’s never-ending. There’s no way I will continue it and force my future children into such a terrible existence.
Someone has to break the cycle, and I intend to be the one to end the tyranny finally.
* * *
My heart fluttersin my chest as I stare up at the dark, intimidating building. Its cold stone and harsh lines only foreshadow what’s waiting for me inside. The columns that flank the entryway all along the many meters of facade only add to its imposing effect.
I swallow hard, realizing I’m about to enroll in a school full of the spawn of murderous criminals who are probably exactly like my parents. “Please don’t leave me here, mother,” I say, pleading at her with my eyes.
Her expression hardens as she glares at me with no emotion whatsoever. “The Syndicate Academy is the perfect place for you to learn discipline, Eva.” She tucks a stray strand of her hair behind her ear. “You need to learn what kind of behavior we expect of you as thesoleheir to the Carmichael Clan.” I hate when my mother calls me the sole heir, as all it does is remind me of my loss–our loss, and yet the way she says it, you’d think her child wasn’t dead and buried.
Karl, my older brother, died two years ago. Unlike me, he took to the life of crime like a duck to water. Unfortunately, that was his undoing. At eighteen years old, he orchestrated a drug heist, trying to impress our poor excuse of a father, and the unruly bikers in Atlanta murdered him.
Despite our differences, I loved him more than anyone else. His death ripped a hole inside of me and left me as the sole heir to the Carmichael Clan, which means my parents will force me into an arranged marriage to some evil criminal mastermind who can carry on the family business since womencan’tpossibly rule alone.
The criminal underworld still won’t accept women as leaders in the twenty-first century. They plan to sell me off to someone who will benefit their business, but I have no intention of complying.
My mother clicks her tongue. “Come on. Principal Byrne is waiting for us.”
Her high-heels clack against the stone of the steps as she rises toward the entrance of the gothic building. “Hurry now, Eva,” she says, glancing over her shoulder.
I draw in a deep, steadying gulp of oxygen before stepping onto the first step. The towering arched entrance is ominous as I walk through it. Deep down, I’d hoped the cold, harsh exterior was only a front, but the walls of stone line the plain, bare corridors inside too. My mother’s heels echo as follows the signs toward the principal’s office.
“Keep up, Eva,” she calls.
I hasten my steps after my mom, pulling my cardigan more tightly around me. It’s cold inside my new high school.
Who the fuck starts a new high school seven months from the end of their senior year?
It’s insane. Although not as insane that my parents believe I’ve been sleeping with the janitor. My father even accused me of attempting to fall pregnant to ruin the family. It offends me they think I’d be stupid enough to get pregnant, even if I were sleeping with him. I have no intention of ruining my life before it’s even started. Even so, it didn’t stop my mother from dragging me straight to the doctor to have a birth control implant inserted in my arm. My plans don’t involve a baby. They involve going to college and getting a veterinary degree.
My mother and father have controlled my life in every way since I can remember, forcing me to attend an all-girls school from primary age, so I don’t get why they’d send me to a Co-Ed school now. They wanted to ensure I had no interaction with boys, but now they think I’ve stooped so low as to fall into the arms of my high school janitor.
