Page 7

TWO

SMILE LIKE YOU MEAN IT

MAGNOLIA

O h my god, I am so fucking nervous.

Nervous, and really excited.

Reynolds Memorial is huge but it’s been renovated and modernized so many times it’s almost hard to tell that it’s the third largest building in Raevenwood, and it does not even touch the same vibe as the monstrosity before me.

The academy is definitely a close second, especially since both that and the asylum were built within a decade of each other, and by the Blackhurst family, but it doesn’t feel the same, either.

Blackhurst Ridge Asylum was founded right here in this very spot a couple decades after Illinois became a state.

The patriarch of our family, Langford Reynolds, eventually settled and named Raevenwood about five years or so before the asylum was on anyone’s radar.

There wasn’t a hell of a lot on the land at the time, mainly just a few small houses and farms, and when Elijah Blackhurst blew into town from New York, he immediately proposed his idea and asked to break ground here.

The asylum and everything that came with it was intimidating at first, Langford was hesitant even though he agreed, but he didn’t want Raevenwood to end up with a negative reputation.

Once both alphas saw how construction alone doubled the town’s population, hence increasing taxes that went right into the Reynolds’ accounts, they joined forces to speed things up, and no one worried about much of anything anymore.

They went all in together to establish a medical academy, and eventually, a teaching hospital.

All of these buildings were initially constructed out of a good place, one to benefit the current members of the community as well as help it prosper, but that didn’t last. Not when the money kept rolling in hand over fist and turned two semi-wealthy men into millionaires.

After it was opened, Blackhurst Ridge was primarily used as a place to dump unwanted family members.

Hysterical omegas, a rare, sickly alpha.

Anyone with a developmental or physical disability.

Even people who, by today’s standards, wouldn’t get state benefits because they wouldn’t come close to meeting current qualifications, but back then it was easier to pawn your family off instead of deal with them.

Something I’m sure my father still wishes was the case.

That’s how the first twenty or so years of Blackhurst Ridge operated, a fancy though terrifying place for the unwanted, a pretty torture chamber if you will, but when Raevenwood as well as the surrounding areas were hit with a tuberculosis outbreak in the mid nineteenth century, everything shifted.

Overflow from Reynolds Memorial immediately went to the asylum, infecting and killing those with already weakened immune systems or ones who were more susceptible because of their circumstances, and the number of patients between both dropped significantly, which meant funding did as well.

If families lost their supposed loved one, why keep paying for their housing? Or use a hospital that was sending people to their death? And if the hospital and asylum were empty, what was the point of anyone going to learn how to work at either?

No monthly payments meant no paychecks for Elijah Blackhurst or Langford Reynolds, and the two alphas started grasping at straws to save the monopoly they were trying to build.

That’s when the patriarch of my family had a lightbulb moment.

There wasn’t a prison back then, there was hardly a sheriff or any law enforcement, and what they did have was barely considered a jail, so as the outbreak spread and hit an all time high, the crime rate skyrocketed. That’s when Blackhurst Ridge went from asylum to institution. On paper, anyway.

Slowly but surely, patients turned to inmates, nurses became guards, and before anyone realized what was happening, they had a new population of about five thousand dangerous, deranged deviants.

Which is when the Reynolds and Blackhursts entered into the current agreement they still honor to this day, and the experiments they’d been low key running since the mid 1800s became public knowledge.

Blackhurst Ridge became a forerunner in lobotomies, electroshock therapy, and sensory deprivation, amongst other treatments , and each generation of our families pushed the boundaries with the way they were trying to revolutionize care for people who had diminished mental capacities or dangerous inclinations.

Things leveled out when facilities across the nation were exposed as abusive, neglectful, disgusting pits people were being thrown into and by the time Evie’s grandpa had control, all three staples in the monopoly were actively focused on revitalizing, rehabilitating, and recovering.

Blackhurst Reynolds University became reputable again, bordering on an Ivy League school for anyone looking to obtain a MD.

Reynolds Memorial’s reputation as a teaching hospital soared, and Blackhurst Ridge Institution was renowned for the way it promoted new and innovative ways of treating mental health.

All things that have only intensified over the years, even if there are still some skeletons in each building’s closets.

“The doors aren’t automatic, Maggie, and if you can suddenly open them with your mind, I think you’re overqualified for the internship.”

I grin as I turn to see Maddox Ridgeway standing next to me, all six foot one and two hundred pounds of the biggest omega in the history of omegas a step away from being directly in my bubble. “Shh. I’m trying to keep it quiet so I don’t get kicked from the program.”

“Dean Dickhead doesn’t need anymore fuel,” Hendrix, his twin, snorts from the other side of Maddox. “He finds out you have ESP and you’re toast.”

“Exactly,” I say as I smile at the slightly taller and definitely bulkier alpha. “I’m glad to see you doing your job already.”

Hendrix rolls his eyes just before the three of us look up at the massive building, staring at the gargoyles keeping watch over the vaulted front doors.

“How was Evie this morning?” Madds asks without breaking his stare. “She was pretty short when she texted me.”

“Camden picked her up.” Something I only know because of the tone she used when she talked about her ride. “So, Eve was fine until then.”

“That’ll ruin anyone’s day.”

I nod and pull my gaze from the front of the asylum. “I’m just grateful he didn’t come upstairs to see me.”

“No shit,” Hendrix grunts. “Cousin or not, that fucker is a waste of skin and bones.”

And that is exactly why I love Evie’s twin cousins just as much as I love her. It also helps that the three of them were the only people I was allowed to befriend and play with since the time I could walk, but still.

When I went to the director and asked about the open spot they had, Carter Blackhurst was kind and helpful, and I will never get used to that because he’s such a raging bastard to Evie. Then again, my dad is nice to her most of the time, so it’s not that weird.

Even still, I was worried he’d shoot me down but he didn’t, and when Carter told me that Maddox was part of the program and Hendrix was his escort, then offered to pair me with them, I was so relieved.

Madds and I aren’t going into the same speciality but he’s also trying his hand at applied psychology, so we’ll be in most of the same locations, and his twin will be responsible for making sure we get there and back without issue.

“Are you pumped for this?” Maddox gives me a nudge and the three of us start up the steps. “Nervous? Because I’m both, and if it’s just me, I’m going to be pissed.”

With a smile, I loop my arm through his and head through the doors, setting our bags on the belt for X-ray. “I’m both. Excited, anxious, sort of feel like I’m going to throw up. Mainly I’m thrilled to be literal acres away from Camden.”

“He’s such a tool,” Hendrix grunts as Madds nods. “You haven’t fucked him yet, have you?”

Choking on nothing but my own spit, I cough so hard I trip through the metal detectors and practically fall into the guard on the other side. “Jesus, Drix.”

He shrugs as he walks through behind Maddox. “Have you?”

“No,” I say as I pick up my bag from the conveyor belt. “Not that you should care.”

“Love to have you in the family, hate for it to be because you bonded to that asshole.”

“Thanks.”

Hendrix takes mine and his brother’s bags then points for us to walk a little in front of him. “Offer still stands.”

I smile to myself and it grows when I see Maddox do the same.

The twins are Evie’s first cousins but on her mother’s side, which is where the Ridge comes from in the asylum’s name.

The Ridgeways were a silent partner that came in during the construction of the asylum, they kept it afloat during the depression, and they’ve worked alongside mine and Eve’s families ever since.

They aren’t old money like ours but they have a lot of it, and Carter knew he was going to do more than have his generation of Ridgeway sign the needed documents.

He knew he needed to lock them in for insurance purposes, which is why he mated Evie’s mom, Dolly.

Her brother, Donovan, is the twins’ dad, and he’s one of the coolest rich guys I’ve ever met, and he runs the asylum when Carter is at the university.

The twins have a huge family, one that’s ridiculously close.

I’d take all three of their dads and both of their moms any day of the week, and I’d love to have the nine siblings they do because being alone sucks.

Unfortunately, that is never going to be an option.

For one, Donovan would sooner cut off a limb than essentially sell one of his children, and even if he was an asshole who would, he’s not a Blackhurst, so my father would never even consider it.

But, Hendrix convinced his dad to help him challenge my contract, and then offered himself in place of Camden. To bond with me, to help me through my first heat after graduation, or any in between if I had to stop taking my suppressants.