Page 133 of Wicked Little Darling

This time it was pneumonia, but what would it be next time?Whenwould the next time be? Would it be the last?

Fuck, I couldn’t think like that. Val would be okay. He was always okay.

But Reese…he hadn’t answered any of my calls or returned a single one of my texts, and that wasn’t like him.

Well, maybe it was at first. But I thought we’d been getting closer lately, and he usually responded to me almost immediately. Was he upset that I hadn’t called or texted him for a few days?

I’d had to leave in the middle of class when Val called me from the manor, and in my rush to get him to the hospital, I’d left my phone there.

I couldn’t leave Val for anything, not even my phone. I’d asked Albert if he could bring it to me when he came to visit; he’d given Everett the task, and he’d taken his sweet fucking time getting it to me.

I was terrified something had happened to Reese. I’d wanted to call him more than a few times in the days I’d been stuck by Val’s bed, but I didn’t even know his number.

I was the only one in my family who ever gave a shit when Val got sick; Evelyn was too far gone to ever know what was happening in her children’s lives, and Albert would always just say “He’ll be fine” and wave it off, as if Val hadn’t spent the better part of his childhood in a hospital.

Everett didn’t give a shit about either of us.

I thought Reese would be fine, but if he was mad because he thought I was ignoring him…I mean, I could just explain everything, and he would understand. Right?

But I couldn’t forget what Everett had told me when he’d brought me my phone, which made me wonder if there was way more going on than I was aware of.

Everett was lying. He had to be. And if he wasn’t, then the situation was different than he’d presented it because Everett was as dishonest and conniving as they came.

My entire life had been shaped around Everett’s brilliant misdirections and theatrics.

All Everett did was act. Everyone in my family, really. Growing up and seeing how he was behind closed doors versus how he presented himself in public, I never understood how nobody saw through the snake’s skin. Why was I the only one? Evelyn and Albert thought he was perfect; they were blinded by their own desperate need to have at least one flawless child.

So when he’d told me that Reese was having secret meetings with Albert and telling him everything about me behind my back, I really didn’t believe it at first.

Everett had a reason for telling me something like that. He wanted to drive a wedge between me and Reese, that was clear. But what wasn’t clear was whether or not the information he’d given me was true.

Had he been having meetings with Albert? Had he been keeping tabs on me and relaying what I did back to my poor excuse for a father?

Why?

That was where I needed to start.Whywould he do something like that, if it was true?

He’d been transferred here after essentially being kicked out of his previous school. He’d told me that a few weeks ago. But he was being bullied and had only defended himself, and the school had sided with the bully because his parents were rich, so they’d opted to send Reese away instead.

He had no prior relationship with Albert and he was randomly assigned to my…

I paused, one hand on the railing, then squeezed it as a wave of anger rolled through me.

Was it not a coincidence? Had Albert put Reese in my room to watch me? Because of what happened last spring? Because he was worried I would do something like that again?

A bitter laugh scraped up my throat.

I could believe it. But what I couldn’t believe was Reese just going along with that for no reason.

Albert must have threatened him with something, hung something over his head—he’d usedsomethingas leverage.

Possibly his scholarship.

Fuck, I hated my family so fucking much. If that was true, Reese couldn’t be held in the wrong for anything, no matter what he’d told Albert.

I didn’t give a shit what Albert thought he knew. I hadn’t done a single thing wrong—not then and not now.

If Reese had gotten tangled up in my messed up family’s bullshit, that wasn’t his fault. Not by a long shot.