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CHAPTERONE

Ithought I knew what heartbreak was. I’d experienced the hurt and betrayal of a relationship ending in disaster once before, so I was familiar with the empty feeling that came from my chest being torn open and my heart ripped out. Somehow though, this time felt worse. I’d foolishly trusted Noah with my slowly healing heart only for him to take a hammer to the cracks, shattering the fragile pieces until they were nothing more than specks of dust.

I let out a long sigh as I stared up at the night sky. It was dark and completely clear tonight, and the stars were so bright it almost felt like they were mocking me from above. Why couldn’t I be a star? They were perfect and untouchable, and they never had to deal with pain or sorrow.

A low chuckle came from beside me, and I glanced over to find Wes had turned his head and was watching me rather than the sky. It was just the two of us. We were resting on the hood of his car in the middle of a field. He had found me crying alone in the courtyard after Noah broke up with me and had whisked me away. He hadn’t pressured me to explain why I was so upset. He just listened to me when I said I wanted to leave the ball and get as far away from the school as possible.

I’d had no idea where Wes was planning to take me. I hadn’t really cared. I would have happily gone anywhere to get away from the school, but the quiet field he had chosen was the perfect place. The long grasses rustled pleasantly in the breeze, and though we were only a ten-minute trip from Weybridge Academy, it felt like we were a million miles from civilization. It was peaceful out here and, until now, Wes had stayed silent, giving me space to work through whatever it was he thought I was going through.

“Is something funny?” I asked, tugging his suit jacket in closer around me as the evening air danced across my skin. Wes had to be cold without his jacket, but he had refused to take it back when I’d offered it to him. I didn’t have the energy to argue.

“You’re scowling at the stars like they’ve done something to piss you off.”

“Yeah, well, maybe they have.” I threw another scowl up at the sky. “It feels like they are rubbing their happy, sparkling butts in my face.”

“I didn’t know stars had butts.”

“Oh, they do,” I replied, rolling to my side so I could look directly at Wes. “They’re big balls of gas, after all. And we all know where gas comes from…”

Wes laughed, and I somehow managed a small grin in response. It quickly fell from my lips though. How could I smile after everything that had happened tonight?

“So, Matthew LaFleur is your father,” Wes said.

Now that we’d broken the silence, Wes was probably eager to start asking questions. I wasn’t surprised this was the first one he ventured, having seen the stunned look on his face when Matthew had introduced himself at the ball earlier.

I slowly nodded in reply. “He is.” I hoped my short response was enough to deter Wes from digging any deeper. I wasn’t particularly interested in talking about my father, but I had to admit it was damn sight better than lying here thinking about Noah.

“Why didn’t you tell anyone?” Wes’s voice was soft, and I knew he wasn’t annoyed about being kept in the dark. It seemed he was just trying to understand.

“It’s not like I was keeping it a secret. It’s just that I barely know the man, and I never thought to bring it up. He doesn’t feel like my dad, so why would I say anything?”

“That makes sense,” Wes said, but his head was tilted as though he was still considering my response.

“What?”

“I was just thinking a lot of people at school will be surprised. You’ll probably find them all clambering to be your friend now that you’re a LaFleur.”

“I’m not a LaFleur.” My response was immediate, and my defensive tone caught me off guard. I took a quick, calming breath before I tried to explain. “Just because Matthew LaFleur is my father, it doesn’t mean I’m a LaFleur,” I said more gently. “Surely the kids at school won’t care who he is?”

“A lot of them might. Your father has a lot of success and influence in our world.”

That was just it. This was Wes’s world, not mine. And I didn’t care one bit how much influence someone’s parents had. In my view, a person’s worth came from their actions, not their DNA. Apparently, I was in the minority when it came to that opinion though. At least, around here I was.

“This isn’t my world,” I muttered.

Wes frowned and nodded, as though he was thinking of a different way to get his point across.

“All I’m saying is that The LaFleur Corporation is just as big and well-known as Hastings Laboratories. And look at how people around here treat Noah. The fact that Matthew LaFleur is involved with Weybridge Academy now won’t go unnoticed by the kids or the parents.”

“As long asIcan go back to being unnoticed, then I don’t care.”

Wes smiled at me but shook his head slightly. I guess that meant I was out of luck.

“Most people at Weybridge would have been shouting from the rooftops on their first day if they had a parent as rich and influential as your dad,” he continued. “I mean, Veronica never would have targeted you the way she did or teased you about your mom’s business if she’d known who your dad was.”

The fact it was normal, expected even, to brag about how rich and influential your parents were in order to make friends at Weybridge only made me more certain I would never really belong there. A wave of guilt washed over me at Wes’s words though. While I never had any intention of publicly promoting my messy family history and newly discovered father, I shouldn’t have hidden the truth about my mom and my life back in Rapid Bay. She’s the parent I should have been proudly bragging about on my first day at school.

“I doubt it would have made a difference to Veronica,” I said. “She’s been trying to take me down one way or another since the moment Noah first looked my way. If she wasn’t teasing me about being a charity case, she would have done something else.”