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Slowly exhaling, Sebastian turned his attention back to Mikey and–

“Oh, I almost forgot something,” Jonathan said as he turned around.

“What’s that?” Mikey absently asked as she opened her book and settled in to read right around the time that Sebastian found himself moving, desperate to get to his brother before he could screw him over and–

“Bradfords only marry their neighbors.”

Chapter 15

“Why?” Chloe asked no one in particular as she rubbed her hands down her face, slowly exhaling as she counted to ten and–

“You’ve betrayed me for the last time!” came the announcement from behind the locked front door that had Chloe dropping her hands away to glare at the reason why she was panicking.

“I betrayed you?” Chloe asked in disbelief because if anyone here had been betrayed, it was her. “You told him that I thought he was cute!”

“Because you do!” Katie shot back from behind the safety of the front door.

“No, I don’t,” Chloe bit out only to demand. “Why did you tell him that?”

“Because you’re always staring at him!”

“Glaring!” Chloe snapped. “I’m always glaring at him!”

“Same thing!”

“No, it’s really not,” Chloe said, sighing heavily as she stood there, rubbing her hands roughly down her face as she told herself that this wasn’t happening.

It just couldn’t be…

There was no way that her life was about to get worse than it already was. It just wasn’t possible, she told herself as she dropped her hands away. God, she hated her life, Chloe thought on a groan only to follow that up by wondering if she wasn’t making too much of this.

Maybe Cole hadn’t heard Katie? Or maybe he really just didn’t care? That was possible, Chloe told herself with a slow nod and the reminder that he barely knew that she was alive. With any luck, he wouldn’t mention it to his friends, Chloe hoped as she slowly exhaled trying not to panic, but it was kind of impossible since she knew what would happen if Cole ever told his friends what her little sister said.

They would make her life a living hell.

Not that they weren’t already doing that anyway, but something told her that if they found out what Katie said that they’d make it a hell of a lot worse and she really didn’t think that she could handle that. For probably the hundredth time this week, Chloe wondered if she’d be better off transferring to the public high school, but…

That really wasn’t really an option.

She’d worked her butt off to get into Latin Scribe High School. For four years, she’d worked her butt off, got good grades, studied day and night so that she could nail the entrance exam, and did every extracurricular activity that she could fit into her schedule all so that she could make her application stand apart from the rest with the hope that it would be enough to get her a full scholarship.

And once her dream finally became a reality…

Cole’s friends had turned it into a nightmare, making her life a living hell and making her wish that she’d never heard of Latin Scribe High School. It would be so easy to tell her uncle that she wanted to transfer, but then she would have to tell him why and she really didn’t think that was a good idea considering that Cole’s grandfather was his boss.

God, why couldn’t she just be invisible?

Knowing that it was pointless to worry about something that she had no control over, Chloe checked under the doormat for the key that was supposed to be hidden there and wasn’t really surprised when she couldn’t find it.

“You interfered with my business,” came the disgruntled announcement that had Chloe looking up and biting back a groan when she spotted Katie standing in the window, holding the spare key.

“Uncle Nick told you to let it go,” Chloe reminded her as she stood up while she tried to figure out how she was going to get in the house now.

“Uncle Nick also told you to watch me,” Katie pointed out with a smug smile as Chloe considered her options and realized that she really didn’t have any.

Not unless she wanted to try climbing to the second floor to see if she could squeeze through the bathroom window and she really didn’t want to do that, mostly because she wasn’t a big fan of heights. That left…

“I guess I’ll just have to tell Santa Claus what you did,” Chloe said with a sad shake of her head.