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“Harper Avery is my sister,” I said.
His eyes widened. “What?”
“Rick Avery is my biological father. There was no car accident. There was an attack on a church that killed 137 people. I was inside along with both of my parents. I was the sole survivor. When I woke up in the hospital, I learned I was cut out of my mother’s womb and kidnapped. My father was a California state senator. I was dumped at a church in Indiana—the very one that burned. After DNA tests were done to confirm, Rick sent his attorney to Indiana to offer me a place to stay so we could get to know one another. Someone discovered my true identity and targeted me as a message to Rick, but we don’t know why. The investigation is still ongoing. Well… there’s the investigation going on in Indiana, and then there’s no doubt an investigation going on with Rick’s people. I highly doubt they are the same.”
Justin fell to his knees in front of me, his jaw slack. “And that’s why you couldn’t tell anyone. Because if anyone found out the long-lost daughter of Rick Avery was here, at Crestview, you’d have a target on your back.”
“And my guess is Harper didn’t take too well to not being the only child anymore, and that’s why she despises you so badly,” Luna said.
I nodded. “I’m sorry I kept all this from you, but I did it to protect you. Just in case anything was ever to happen. The woman responsible for the attack showed up in my hospital room. She introduced herself as the name of Harper’s mother, which made it obvious it was a message for Rick, and she sent it with me.”
“Temperance, think about this. Harper must have known you were on Xanax. If you share anything with her or Rick at all, she had that information. How do you know she wasn’t hoping this would kill you?” Luna asked.
That was a good point. Why the hell was I protecting her anymore? She’d turned me away over and over again. She’d thrown my kindness back in my face and had tormented and tortured me. Shehatedme, and for no other reason than because I was Rick’s daughter.
But after what Damian and Asher did in gym…
She had a whole new reason to hate me.
I’d fucked Damian Alexander Wolfe.
I shook my head. “I… I think I hate her.”
“Well, you have every reason to,” Justin spat. “She’s done nothing but hurt you.”
I shook my head more. “No. You don’t understand. I’ve protected her. I’ve lied to Rick over and over again so he didn’t know the shit she was doing to me because he would have been livid with her. I’ve told lies around this school to make myself lookawfuljust to make her look better and to keep people from figuring anything out. I’ve tried talking to her and pouring my heart out to her, telling her how much she meant to me, despite how mean she’d been to me, and she spat in my face. And now this. OverDamian fucking Alexander Wolfe.I havenofucking doubt that’s what this is about. I hate her!”
“If you hate her,” Justin started softly, “then there’s no reason to protect her from Daddy anymore.”
My eyes met his, and I could see my fury reflected in them. I nodded. “No. There isn’t. Call the McArthur. I’m reporting them.”
Justin nodded. “I’m proud of you. You deserve better than her. She and Rick may be the only family you have now, but not all family is blood.”
“She’s not even blood. She’s fucking adopted, not that there’s anything wrong with that. I was adopted by my parents. But it becomes a problem when she makes it one. It’s why she hates me so much. Because I’m his biological kid, and she isn’t. She feels insecure about it.”
“Well, her insecurities are about to bite her in the ass. She should have just let you love her like the rest of us.” Justin sighed. “Like I said, Tempe. I love,loveyour big heart, but I don’t always like the people you put in it. It’s too big, and people take advantage of that.”
“She has for the last time,” I said. “I don’t do things for others to get things in return, but I sure as fuck won’t protect someone who has told me countless times they wouldn’t give two shits if I was murdered. I’m not going to protect someone who held me down while some strange drug dealing tattoo artist tattooed this mean as fuck thing on my arm.”
“Hold on a second,” Luna said. She leaned forward, squinting as she looked at the tattoo. “Justin, do you see this?” He turned and looked where Luna pointed. “Right there in the wood grain.”
Justin huffed a laugh. “Youhaveto be shitting me.”
“What is it?” I asked.
“Those stupid bitches and their hubris,” Justin said.
“They had the artist put their initials in the wood grain. It’s damn near impossible to see since the lines are uneven to match the grain. The only reason I did is because I paypainfullyclose attention to detail. They’re small, and they’re hidden, but they’re there. Theybrandedyou.”
Disgust filled me, and my expression reflected it. “Help me into that fucking wheelchair right now. I’m about to blow a fucking gasket.”
Justin wasted no time lifting me and sitting me in the chair. Luna pushed me while we made our way out of the room, Justin trailing behind us to lock up with my keys—not that it mattered—and made the call to the headmistress.
I’d wanted to get Becky back in particular for being such a bitch to me, but not like this. I’d wanted to come up with an epic plan all on my own to exact my revenge.
Unfortunately, getting the bitch expelled and sending her to prison would have to do.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN