Page 38 of Tell Me Something True

“My sister.”

And just like that, all the righteous indignation she’d been holding onto so tightly evaporated.

Replaced by remorse and shame.

For the second time that morning she was left reeling. Shaken.

Desperate to run.

But she didn’t run. She held her ground, which she was going to take as a win, if only for her self-esteem.

She whirled around to look at the girl, once again noting her red hair and blue eyes. Then back to the dark-haired, dark eyed Miles. Then back to the girl. And yet once more to Miles.

They looked nothing alike.

Seriously. Nothing. Alike. There wasn’t one shared feature between them.

Except for the way they were both glaring at her. Those scowls were definitely identical.

“Your… sister?” she finally managed to ask.

Miles nodded again. “Verity.”

“Oh,” she said, more exhale than an actual word.

She’d known Miles had a much younger sister along with four brothers. She hadn’t met any of them, but she had seen pictures of Verity who, at the time, had been a chubby, round-cheeked eight-year-old with bright red hair and a wide, sweet smile.

Now she was an almost-adult who looked ready to impale Tabitha on her bike’s handlebars.

“I—I thought…” But she couldn’t finish. Embarrassment was strangling her vocal cords. Her face was hot. Itchy. Sweat formed under her arms and at the base of her spine.

There was no sympathy from either Jennings sibling. Verity sneered while Miles’s expression remained hard. Unyielding.

Unforgiving.

“We all know what you thought,” he said, cold and dismissive.

She reminded herself that he had the right to be angry. Every right to treat her this way. She knew full well she was in the wrong here.

“It was a mistake,” she said, but words that she’d meant to be contrite came out stiff. Defensive. That newly acquired pride of hers rearing its ugly, stubborn head. “I misread the situation.”

His sister rolled her eyes. “I think the words you’re looking for are I’m and sorry.”

Tabitha blinked. Verity was right. She should apologize.

But she wouldn’t.

She’d had good reasons for jumping to conclusions. Reasons these two wouldn’t understand. How could they? Even after the tragedy of their parents’ deaths in a car accident when Miles was a teenager, he and his sister and their brothers still had each other. They’d been taken care of. Had a warm place to live and enough food to eat. They’d been loved.

Safe.

Not everyone was that lucky.

She took a small step back. “I should go.”

“Yes,” Verity said. “You really should.”

Tabitha turned.

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