Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 110273 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 551(@200wpm)___ 441(@250wpm)___ 368(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110273 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 551(@200wpm)___ 441(@250wpm)___ 368(@300wpm)
Cyclone stiffened, and it was noticeable enough for everyone to look his way.
Payton, too. “Oh, honey. You have to know that what your mother did was wrong. I can’t love her back, not until she apologizes to everyone she’s hurt because of her actions. To Bailey. Kash. Everyone she hurt. Right now”—she put her arm around Cyclone, drawing him to her side—“she doesn’t think it was wrong, what she did. That’s why you can’t see her right now, not until she gets better.”
Seraphina frowned, but she didn’t say anything.
Cyclone’s eyes were so big and wide, and heartbroken. My throat swelled up, seeing that last emotion, and then I heard him whisper, “Does that mean we’ll never get to see her again?”
“Oh!” Marie’s gasp was hushed.
I looked over. Peter seemed to be struggling himself, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down repeatedly.
A tiny tear slipped from Seraphina, sliding down her cheek.
Marie bundled her back to her, hugging her as both still watched Payton and Cyclone.
The only one who seemed not affected by his whisper was Payton, but her tone was soothing and so caring. “I don’t know, bud. I hope you do. I hope I do. I don’t agree with what my sister did, but that doesn’t mean I don’t still love her. You can feel what you feel. Anger. Hurt. Love. If you miss her, you can miss her. You can do that, but she’s made some bad choices, and until she starts making better choices that don’t hurt people, we can’t go and see her.”
“She’s not in prison.” That came from Seraphina. She was sitting straight up, her chin raised, her eyes defiant, and she was holding on to the table as if her life depended on it.
I tensed.
“But she should be.” Seraphina sent a furtive look to Kash, and I felt him tense beside me. She turned to Cyclone. “We should never see her again. She tried to take Bailey from us. If Kash hadn’t gotten there as fast as he did, we might not have her with us anymore. We just got a sister and then she wanted to hurt her and take her away permanently. That’s not a good person doing a bad thing. That’s a bad person doing a bad thing. And she was bad. She was mean to me, always. I was never enough!” Her voice rose. “Never good enough. Never pretty enough. I had to speak perfectly, act perfectly, think perfectly, and I hated it. I hated her! She made me drink vinegar if I messed up—”
“What?”
Everyone exploded, but Peter’s outburst overrode the entire room.
Seraphina turned those defiant eyes his way. “She made me clean my mouth out with soap. She picked my friends, did you know that?”
My stomach rolled over.
I wanted to throw up.
“She told them to pick on me. She’s the one who created that website where they ranked everyone in our class, and she knew I could see it. She’s the one who put that my personality needed work. It would’ve gotten worse except Bailey hacked into it and my mom was too scared to type it in again. She thought Bailey would look again, see it came from her, and would show it to you, Dad. That never happened, but…” She looked at me, and I was bowled over. “Thank you for doing that. I never felt like I could really tell you how much it helped, but it did. Those girls weren’t as mean to me as they were before. And Kash, I’m sorry that I liked Victoria. I know she was friends with Mom, and I know she was your ex, but I overheard that she was mean to Bailey and I’m really sorry about liking her. But sometimes … sometimes I didn’t like her at all.”
Kash leaned forward. “That’s why you’ve been nervous around me?” he asked quietly.
She nodded, her head almost jerking forward at an awkward angle. “I felt bad. I’m really sorry.”
I had no idea what conversation she had overheard, or when, but I wanted to just grab her and hold her forever.
“Ser.”
She looked back up at him.
“You don’t have to feel bad about anything. Okay? I think of you as my little sister, and that will never change.”
“Never?” A whisper from her.
“Never.”
She sat up a little higher, her entire face brightening up. “Okay.” Still a whisper, but it was progress.
“Those girls aren’t mean anymore because I told them what you did, Bailey,” Cyclone said. He was looking at me, too, and I continued to be bowled over. “I made them scared of you, told them you could hack into their parents’ bank accounts if you wanted, and no one would know.”
Matt snorted in a choked-off laugh.
I ignored him, reeling from what both had just said.
One. Two. Both with punches, because both were looking at me with such conviction, such strength.