Page 26 of Claiming His Property

I’m such an idiot that I didn’t even think about this before. It didn’t even cross my mind that Cade would be interested in my aunt’s money. What’s wrong with me?

Misty quickly rushes over and sits down.

“Wow, you were right about her being a bitch. What was that all about?”

I swallow hard. Both of my hands are trembling so I sit on them.

“She said…that Cade has been trying to seduce her for weeks.”

“What!? Bullshit!”

“And that he’s only getting with me because he wants to get to her money.”

Misty shakes her head and purses her lips. “No. No way. She’s just fucking with you, Sky. There’s no way you believe this, right?”

I don’t want to. But right now I feel like my entire world is crumbling down around me.

“She knew things, Misty…”

“Knew things? Like what?”

I swallow, feeling like I could choke on my own saliva. “Like Cade told me he was looking for an investor in his business so he could expand. She mentioned that…like he had said the same thing to her.”

“That doesn’t mean he tried to fuck her, Sky,” she replies. “Maybe he was just proposing a business investment.”

“Yeah…” I say slowly, thinking. “But then why didn’t he mention to me that he had asked her?”

Misty thinks for a long moment then nods. “That’s true…” she says. “So what do you think you’re going to do?”

I’m not used to Misty asking me what I’m going to do. I’m used to Misty telling me what I should do–giving me advice that she thinks I should follow.

This is a tricky situation.

Cade isn’t the only one with abandonment issues. He lost his parents, but I lost my mom. Losing him now would break me.

“Sky?” Misty asks again. “What are you going to do?”

I look at her as I deflate like a balloon, feeling completely defeated.

“I don’t know.”

10

SKYLAR

He tried to seduce her.

Just the thought of Cade coming on to my aunt makes me nauseous as I lie in bed staring up at the cracked and yellow ceiling of my bedroom–a ceiling I thought I was going to be leaving behind soon. But now I’m not so sure.

How could he do that? There’s no way he could actually be into her. But that would make Beatrice’s story true: that he actually did try to get her to fall for him so he could get her money. And that would make him the biggest scumbag imaginable.

And what makes it even worse is that I didn’t pick up on it in the first place.

How could I have not seen it?

I guess that’s what sociopaths are good at though, right? Putting on different faces and manipulating people without regret to get what they want.

My heart feels like a solid block of ice inside my chest.

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