Page 3 of Branches of Betrayal

Now that she was an adult and had figured out her own ways of coping, she felt pangs of guilt whenever she thought of her father. He had been the one to raise her for the better part of her life, and he had never once blamed her for how she reacted to him whenever he tried to hug her or put his hand on her shoulder. But she blamed herself. Every time he’d hug her big sister, she’d feel the jealousy burning up inside of her, but it didn’t change how her body reacted every single time.

And her mom…Peyton wished she didn’t resent her the way she did. But her mom had adopted a kid from the system, and it was the entirely wrong thing to do. She didn’t know how tohandle a child withanysort of issue, never-mind the long list Peyton brought with her. When she lashed out, her mom would yell which only made Peyton angryandupset. But the times she didn’t yell were worse. Silence was a punishment and Peyton found that she hated being alone with her own thoughts. It was like her mom sensed that and doubled down, learning over time that the only way to really hurt Peyton and get her to behave was to let her stew in the dark palace of her mind.

Her parents weren’t bad people. They were severely inexperienced and privileged. Their lives had been easy and the biological child they had was perfect. They wanted a clone of her, and Peyton resembled her adoptive sister an eerie amount. They say you have a doppelgänger somewhere in the world, and it was like fate had messed up the timeline somehow, stalling her birth a few years too late. When she first met Melina, it was like looking in a mirror, though the features of the older girl showed more maturity.

Still, Peyton loved her adoptive parents. They had taken her in, given her a home and a safe place. If she was a normal girl with a normal childhood, she’d have thrived in the environment they gave her. But Peyton was complicated and the only person who could deal with her was Melina. Her darling big sister, her best friend, the hand helping to guide her through the darkness.

But Melina was dead. She’dchosento leave Peyton, and that hurt more than anything she’d been through in her short twenty-one years.

Melina was her hand in the dark, but somehow she hadn’t noticed her darkness seeping into the light her sister created. Peyton would never be able to forgive herself for not noticing just how badly her sister was hurting. She always seemed happy, striving to make the world a better place.

Until she wasn’t happy anymore.

She wasn’t anything.

A floating corpse in a river of blood, and Peyton had been the one to hold her as she found her lifeless body, the sea of red seeping into her soul.

Melina was the only thing that made her home feel likehome. Losing her meant losing part of herself, and watching her parents grieve for the child they cherished. Peyton couldn’t be a replica of Melina in life, and she definitely couldn’t be her replacement in death.

So, Peyton had left and started her life over. A fresh start. Someplace new, with no ties to Willowbrooks.

Or so she thought. Because somehow her life had imploded and now she knew more about her biological parents than she ever wanted to. If she could erase the knowledge from her mind, she would.

But no. Her life was a cosmic fuck-up and Demi Treyva was her biological mother. A backwards karmic joke, that’s what it was.

Though, Peyton wasn’t laughing.

No, she was tied to a chair with a dirty rag in her mouth as a gag, her body bruised and aching. A prisoner, in captivity at the hands of the person who gave her life. What a fuckingjoke.

The chime of a text message broke through her thoughts. Peyton slowly opened her eyes, keeping her head forward and tilted at an angle so that the men wouldn’t know she was awake just yet. One of the men nudged the other with his elbow, showing him the phone.

“Regina is outside.”Old Smokey, Peyton thought to herself, remembering the rough voice.

His partner in crime grinned, showing off his crooked teeth. “Time for some fun, then.”

Peyton listened to their heavy footsteps retreat before she let herself breathe, stretching her neck as she looked around her. They were in some sort of abandoned house. Dust clung tothe walls and coated every surface. The old fireplace had been boarded up but the wood was old and rotten, breaking away in parts that lay discarded on the floor. The wallpaper had marks on it from frames that were long gone and there was no sign of any furniture around. Peyton figured it had been a long time since anyone had lived in the house and somehow, she didn’t think there was a caretaker looking after the place.

“I see you’re awake.”

She had been so lost in her thoughts that she hadn't heard Demi arrive in the room. Not dignifying her with a response, Peyton kept her mouth shut as she waited for Demi to come into view. Her gag was roughly pulled from her mouth, causing Peyton to choke on the sudden freedom to breathe properly.

“What? No ‘thank you’?No ‘I love you’for your momma?”

Peyton narrowed her eyes. “Have you known all this time?”

Demi laughed, dragging a chair into the room with her. Her blonde hair was tucked behind her ears, showing off the sharp features of her pretty face. It was a pity she was so beautiful on the outside and so rotten on the inside.

“God, no. I thought I had sorted out that little problem long ago. It was a shock to see you at the restaurant with the Adis crew.”

“What the hell does that mean? Sorted that problem long ago? You literally gave me up for adoption.”

“And yet,” Demi said, waving her hand in Peyton’s direction, “here you are. Fucking up my entire organisation with the help of that entitled little bitch of yours.”

A growl hissed through Peyton’s teeth at the disrespect of Hadina. “Don’t talk about her like that!”

Demi grinned, showing off her perfectly straight, perfectly white teeth. She looked like a predator, waiting to pounce. “Aw, you really are in love aren’t you? How foolish. Let’s just hopethat love of yours is reciprocated, because I’m counting on the type of wrath that only a lover can have.”

Peyton tried to lunge forward, fighting against her bindings. “You won’t touch her!”

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