Page 142 of Seizing Control: Part One

We say our goodbyes. The M&M girls are heading back to the city, and dispersing in their own directions. Seraphina is going back on tour with her band. Ziva will return to Philly to finish her next book, and Serena is going to accompany her before she flies out on a modelling assignment. In her final year at boarding school, Indigo Michaelson has her overbearing best friend and his brother to deal with after she hitched a ride on Sera’s private jet without telling them.

Too soon, it’s just me and Nadia.

“I can stay,” my best friend ventures in a gentle voice. In her eyes, the ghosts of my trauma stare back at me. “You shouldn’t be alone.”

“Nads... you’re the first person they’ll track.” When Nadia opens her mouth to argue, I link my arms around her back and squeeze her tight. The shorter woman is stiff at first, then she cuddles me hard. “Live your life. Be happy. Fuck men. I need you to do all the things I can’t face right now?—”

“I’m fucking your brother, so this is a strange request, Anna.”

Her joke breaks the tension.

I shake my head as I let her go. “You know what I meant.”

Nadia pulls a face. “Yeah, yeah... the incest vibes are overpowering.” She ducks out of my reach when I try to swat at her. “Ring me if you need anythin’... day or night.”

“I will.”

The dust kicked up by her hatchback as she leaves invades my nose.

It makes my eyes water.

At least, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it...

Turning around to face the farmhouse where Zeke silently suffered through his mother’s neglect and her emotional abuse, I scan the weatherboard walls and the pretty vines that grow up the side of the building. It’s rustic. Welcoming. My safe harbour for the foreseeable future.

My father’s fraternal twin lives next door.

Uncle Cassius helped me hide out for forty-eight hours.

Now that the Blackards have departed, it’s my time to be alone.

I plan on licking my wounds in peace.

Shedding the tears that burden my heart.

For Zeke.

For Slash.

For the club that my mother loved so much.

Dad’s betrayal is a festering wound. He’s stabbed us all in the back. Broken my brothers. Used me as a pawn in a game that none of us understand. The damage he’s caused is beyond belief. I can’t comprehend his duplicity. Will never forgive the role he’s played in my heartbreak.

Hades’ is in hospice.

Slash needs to reunite the Shamrocks.

Sander’s injured and suffering.

My middle brother is permanently crippled.

Wyatt and Nate are broken.

And Zeke is dead.

As always, my heart rejects the loss of my first love.

My head refuses to allow me to deny reality any longer.

---