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Then Fiona’s heart sank. “Tobias doesn’t want me to live with him, does he?”
“I’m not getting any younger and he wants to get to know you better now that your parents are no longer here.”
Fiona did not want to hear this. “Why didn’t anyone tell me this before?”
“Your mother didn’t want to tell you or my nephew the truth. I’m sure you can understand why. And my nephew never knew the truth. Neither did your brother.”
“So how did you know?” Fiona couldn’t believe her mother would tell Regina any of this. What if Regina had told her nephew and he had blown up at Fiona’s mother?
“Timing. Avery was gone for two months to a rehab center, though it hadn’t done any good, and Tobias moved in.”
“I don’t remember him.”
Regina smiled. “You were being conceived. Your mother kept Tobias informed of what was going on with you over the years.”
“Where does Tobias live?” Fiona still couldn’t believe it.
“For now, you’ll remain here with me. But your father wants you to have more restrictions.”
“More?” Fiona couldn’t help how shrill her voice had become. The Halloween party was the first time she’d been out since she’d moved here! More restrictions?
She wanted to scream.
“For one thing, he doesn’t want you going out with Arman.”
“Arman? I’ve never been out with anyone since I moved here. You know that.”
“The guy you danced with at the party last night?”
“Oh.”
“Your father doesn’t like him or his family. Arman’s attempting to see you to stir up trouble. Like I said, he has issues with stalking a girl if he gets obsessed with her.”
Fiona knew it. There wasn’t any other reason for him to be interested in her. Now she wondered if he’d actually tracked her down here, but it had taken all this time to do it. “You don’t have to worry about it. He didn’t bother to tell me his name even. Now that I know he’s bad news, I won’t have anything to do with him.”
“He’ll come back for you. It’s a long-standing feud. Without fail, he’ll return.”
Fiona frowned. So she wasn’t truly some random girl he was interested in? Figured. “What’s the feud about? And what’s Clarissa’s relationship with…with…” Fiona couldn’t call him her father. “Tobias.”
“He’s her…guardian.”
Fiona didn’t believe it for a minute. “Where are her parents? Does she have any other family?”
“All dead.” Regina smiled one of her pasted-on smiles. “Tobias is all she has. As for the feud, it goes back centuries.”
“Centuries?”
“Figure of speech, dear. Why don’t you run along and do your homework?”
All Fiona could think about was Arman, the stalker, and Ruric, the guy they’d run over with Emma’s car, who she thought was a friend of Arman’s. Had all that been staged? Though, Ruric truly had been…well, nearly dead, and she didn’t think that could have been part of the plan to see her.
* * *
The next day at school, Fiona had wanted to see Ruric and hoped he was still alright after they ran into him with the car and learn what was going on with him and Arman being here, if Ruric actually managed to change schools. Clarissa, however, accompanied her, and that really bothered her. It wouldn’t have if she hadn’t felt that the girl was going to report back to Tobias and Regina about all that went on with Fiona at school.
Luckily, Clarissa wasn’t in Fiona’s first class. Fiona walked into history class, not thinking of anything really, except she had a test next week. That’s when she saw Tux—Arman—and nearly had a heart attack. He was sitting right next to her desk, as if he knew that was her assigned seat.
“Everyone take a seat,” Mrs. Johnson said to Fiona, since she was the only student in class who was standing there, her mouth agape. She snapped it shut, felt chills creeping up her spine, and took her seat.
