Page 39 of Chaos at Westbrook High

“I know you want me,” he mouths, and I resist the urge to kick him in the dick.

“Kai, quit playing with the girl and focus.” Damon shoves the side of his head before looking up at Elijah accusingly. “You wanna stop acting so shady and tell us why Derek’s girlfriend has your personal phone number?”

Elijah stares at him in disbelief. “You know about Derek?”

“Yeah. He showed up after weeks of hiding from us and picked her up from school on her first day.”

“And she told you she’s his girlfriend?” he asks slowly, sliding his gaze down to me.

“I never said that,” I mutter. “They just assumed.”

“But you never denied it,” Kai says to me.

“I told you I’m not his girlfriend.”

“No, you’re just fucking hi?—”

“I’m not fucking him, you idiot.”

“Then what?—”

“He’s my brother!” I shout.

Oh shit. Shit.

Kai’s face falls at the same time mine does, my heart pounding as the deathly silence rings through my ears. It takes him a second, but then it hits him. I can see it in his eyes, the moment the meaning of my words registers. He yanks his hand from my body and leans all the way away from me, putting as much space between us as possible. “What the fuck?”

When I say nothing, he looks over at his siblings, finding them all gawking at me with a mixture of confusion and horror. Their heads all swing up to their dad at once, and he shakes his before they have a chance to ask. “She’s not Maverick’s,” he tells them, and it seems like he’s directing it at Kai more than the others when he adds, “You’re not related. Her mother was Leila Kingston. Hailey and Derek are half-siblings.”

“What the fuck?” Kai repeats, his gaze moving back to me and staying there.

“Who’s her dad?” Damon asks.

“His name was Dante Taylor. He was one of her mother’s guards,” Elijah says, giving them more than I’d like him to. When my jaw tightens, he has the decency to look guilty.

“Was?” Damon looks at me. “Is he dead?”

My face doesn’t change, and he blinks, seemingly taking my silence as his answer.

“Why Lawson? Whose name is that?”

Again, I say nothing, swallowing the raw emotion trying to push its way up my throat. There’s another “fuck you” on the tip of my tongue, but I refrain from giving it to him this time.

Giving up on me, Damon looks back up to his father. “Why didn’t you tell us about her?”

“Because I promised I wouldn’t. The only other person who knew about her was your mother.”

My heart thaws a little at the mention of Claire. Elijah may have his flaws, but he loved his wife fiercely. She was his entire life next to his kids, his entire reason for existing. He was soft for her, only for her, and it wasn't hard to see why. She was incredible. I only met her a couple times that I can remember, but I know she adored me when I was a baby, and she loved Derek like he was her own. It broke off another piece of him when she died.

“Who did you promise?” Damon pushes, pulling me back to the moment as he tries to put the pieces together. “Who raised her?”

When Elijah opens his mouth, I panic, not wanting him to say her name. “My mother’s younger sister,” I say. “Mine and Derek’s aunt. She raised me.”

Elijah’s eyes soften when he sees the look in mine, and I bite the inside of my cheek.

“What?” Kai asks, looking between me and his dad. “What is it?”

“She’s dead,” Elijah says quietly. “She was killed a few weeks ag?—”

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