“You told me you had no idea where your sister was,” Tess begins as Paul steps up beside her like an honor guard. “You lied to me, Parrish.”
The color drains from his face as he flicks an evil glare my direction.
“She hid in the backseat of my car. How the hell was I supposed to know where she was?” he lies while I stand there gawping at him.
“Are you kidding me?!” I choke out as Tess turns back to me and her eyes waver between relief and righteous anger.
That’s when it finally hits me, that thing I didn’t want to put a name to.
Parrish … was right.
When he told me that Tess was never going to let me go, he wasn’t just baiting me into an argument or trying to piss me off. No, instead he was delivering a simple truth.
I see it now, reflected in her gaze, in the stiff stance of her shoulders and the tremble of her hands, the fear that she carefully tucks away behind an exasperated expression.
Tess will never, ever let me go. Until I turn eighteen, I’m stuck here. Stuck in Washington state in this horrible suburb full of entitled, rich assholes. Stuck in that nauseating glass and cement box they call a home.
Stuck with a lying snake like Parrish Vanguard as a stepbrother.
“You knew perfectly well that I was in your car,” I growl back at him, surprised by the menace in my own voice. I’ve never been one to start feuds with others. In general, I get along with everybody. There’s usually some thread, no matter how small, that you can find with another human in order to create a connection.
But not here.
Not with him.
“Prove it,” Parrish retorts as Tess holds up both hands, palms out.
“That is enough, you two,” she snaps as Paul gives his son a sharp look. “You’re both grounded for the next two weeks.”
My mouth drops open as Parrish grits his teeth, turning a monstrous look on me, like this is somehow my fault that he lied and got Tess upset. If he’d just told her the truth, that I was at the school the whole time, this wouldn’t be happening.
I wouldn’t have had the worst start to my first day on campus, and Tess wouldn’t be slowly recovering from what looks like a PTSD reaction to finding me missing.
You have some responsibility in this, Dakota, I tell myself, but it doesn’t matter. Not right now. Not when I’m so mad at Parrish that I could spit. Not when I’m now dreading my first day of school at Whitehall more than ever.
“And you can hand over your car keys,” Paul continues as Parrish turns a stricken look in his father’s direction. “I’ll drive it home, and you can earn it back over the next two weeks by doing some work at my office.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Parrish snaps, and I raise both brows. Uh-oh. He throws a hand out toward me accusingly. “This girl—this stranger shows up—and suddenly my life is a living hell?”
“This stranger is my daughter,” Tess says, and any small spike of pleasure I feel at hearing her defend me is obliterated by the look of agony on Parrish’s face. “Like it or not, you two are family now.”
“We are not family,” Parrish growls back, his gold-flecked eyes turning my way again. He’s hurt. By what or who, I’m not sure, but the look of devastation on his face is staggering. “Never will be. Send her back to New York. She wants to go back anyway. She’ll never be happy here. She showed up wanting to hate us all.”
He turns on his heel and storms off, leaving the four of us in the empty hallway. The classroom door slams behind him, echoing ominously in the sudden silence.
Frankly, if I spoke to my grandparents back home the way Parrish speaks to Tess and Paul, I’d have received far worse punishment than two weeks grounding and a brief hiatus from my car.
I almost smile thinking of the punishments that Grandma and Grandpa would cook up: scrubbing the chicken coop, taking my phone away, stealing the power cord from my TV and PlayStation. Oh, they’d have made me wear grandma’s old brown shoes to school for two weeks. I’d be tasked with dinner prep for the whole family every day for a month.
In the end, I can’t make myself smile because I’m too sad, too lonely to do anything but stand there.
“I apologize again for my dramatics, Ms. Miyamoto.” Tess glances my way and tries to force a smile. “We could tour the school together while we’re here?” she queries as Paul checks his Apple Watch and fists Parrish’s keys against his palm.
“I’ll be off now. I’m already missing my first patient of the day.” He gives Tess a kiss on the cheek and offers me a tight smile on the way out. I notice that his gaze lingers a bit on my shirt, and I briefly remember Delphine’s warning from this morning. Heh.
