Page 80 of Knox Academy Omnibus
“Amelie, youwillwatch your language and how you speak to your mother,” Monty jumps in, getting to his feet.
“Don’t,” I warn. “You’re a decent guy, Monty, but you arenotmy father and you can’t tell me what to do.”
“No, but I am your headmaster-” he begins.
To my surprise, it’s Onyx that cuts him off in his angry monotone voice.
“What happened to keeping home and school separate, dad?”
“Yeah,” Slate joins in, “seems like this is very much a family issue.”
“We are family.”
“Their family issues. Not ours.” Onyx grunts. For once I’m grateful for the exclusion.
“What’s the bitch done now, Amelie?” Kalen asks. He’s practically bouncing in his seat, loving the drama, relishing the tension. He feeds off it.
“Why do you have all of your staff insisting on calling me Miss Knox?” I seethe. I may be overreacting and making a scene over nothing, but it doesn’t feel that way to me. I know this woman, know what she’s capable of, and this smacks of an ultimate power play.
“Yeah, Laura,” Kalen chimes in, coming over to throw his arm around my neck. “My future wife is going to beMrsKnox, not miss.”
“I’d put money on Amelie being Mrs K before Laura is,” Slate mutters to Onyx.
“Deal,” Onyx replies and they fist bump.
“Actually boys, you’re mistaken. Amelie is not, and will never be, Mrs Knox. Because Laura and I are engaged. Amelie will be your sister and wewillbe a proper family,” Monty announces to a shell-shocked room.
“WHAT?!” The three youngest brothers all shout at once. Only Sawyer remains silent, watching intently.
“Thank you for ruining the surprise, Amelie, we were hoping to announce it over dessert,” Laura hisses at me. She somehow manages to look at me with complete loathing, whilst looking at Monty like she’s the victim in all of this.
“That doesn’t explain the manipulation of trying to change my name.”
“I was trying to be nice,” she fake-sobs, even managing to squeeze a tear out. Monty immediately rushes to her side and cradles her into his arms. “I didn’t want you to feel left out. We wanted to welcome you to the family properly. I wanted to mark this date on the calendar: November 12th, the day we officially became one big happy family.”
I smell bullshit, but I can’t call her out on it without looking like a total dick. I just ruined their engagement. I look like the bad guy here.
“Bullshit!” Kalen cries, unafraid to say what I cannot. “You never wanted to make her part of the family. You wanted to control her!”
“Kalen!” Monty chastises.
“No dad! That...woman...is seriously fucked up!”
“Kalen enough,” Monty barks. “You will watch your tone.”
“I won’t! Does Amelie know that her car has a tracker on it?”
“That’s for protection. Besides, it comes as standard.”
“And the gps in the key fob? Pretty sure that’s an optional extra!”
“Monty! Make him stop!” Laura yells, her face red and blotchy.
“Does being part of this family mean that all of our rooms are bugged as standard? Or just Amelie’s because she’s a girl and she needs ‘protection’? How about the monitoring of her phone calls? The weekly reports on her progress by all of her teachers?” Kalen plows on. The bombardment of secrets that he’s revealing has me feeling lightheaded. The room begins to spin. “What about the private security you hired to follow her around campus...and off?”
My eyes snap to Sawyer’s when Kalen drops that bombshell, and my face drains of all colour. His eyes are wide, terrified, andit tips me over the edge. The room swims in and out of focus, the noises of the room become distant, sounding like they’re underwater, but overwhelming, nonetheless. Everyone seems to be screaming. Except Sawyer. He’s deathly silent as my eyes manage to focus on him. It’s the last thing I see before the world goes dark and I hit the deck.
When I come to, I’m no longer on the floor, but a bed. I blink slowly and the room blurs back into focus. I’m pretty sure I’m in Kalen’s room; the walls are a dark blue with photos all over of him and his brothers, the furniture all matching dark wood, the bedsheets surprisingly fresh smelling and soft.
