Page 82 of Fate, Interrupted

“My reasoning was different at ten.”

“How many stitches?”

“Six,” I admit.

“Ouch. Did the biting work?”

“Briefly. Then my father found out.”

“How bad was that?”

“Bad enough that I didn’t bite anyone again.”

She shakes her head, still smiling.

“Your turn,” I say.

“I already went.”

“You went first. I went. Now you go again.”

She considers this. “The burglary was my best one.”

“Give me the next best.”

She thinks for a moment. “I convinced my entire eighth-grade class that our substitute teacher was actually a famous novelist writing a book about middle school students and we were all being observed. They behaved perfectly for three weeks.”

I look at her.

“Three weeks,” I say.

“She was a wonderful substitute,” Norah says. “She deserved the three weeks.”

“But didn’t the other kids want to kill you when they found out?”

“I didn’t tell anyone until my ten-year high school reunion. By then, some of them had kids. They got it. Your turn.”

And here is where I would normally redirect. Give her an easy answer, one that closes the door rather than opens it.

I don’t do that.

“Okay. Here goes,” I say. “I spent most of my childhood trying to beat Logan. He’s older, bigger, stronger, and better in a fight. Better at most of what wolves are expected to be good at.”

I look toward the lamp. “My father noticed Logan early. He was always going to run this family. I think everyone understood that before Logan did.”

“And you,” she says.

“I understood it too,” I say. “I just refused to accept it for about fifteen years.”

“What did that look like?”

“Bad,” I say. “I was smarter than Logan in certain ways. Not better, just more strategic. I could read a situation faster, find the angle he missed, stay three steps ahead of where a problem was going. And I used that.”

I pause. “I put him and my father through the wringer with it. Every trick I could find. Every angle I could work. I was trying to prove that what I had was worth more than what he had.”

“Was it worth it?”

“It was worth something,” I say. “It wasn’t worth more. Different tools for different jobs.” I exhale. “Logan runs this family because Logan is built for it. I figured that out eventually.”