Page 110 of Snake

Ophelia picks up smoothly where he left off. “They did have a choice, and they chose the right one.” She looks over at Donatella, almost fondly, before carrying on. “It wasn’t too late to terminate the pregnancy, but they couldn’t do it, Nim. You were too special to them. They’d planned to run away, to elope somewhere out of town so they could raise you.”

“But it would have brought shame to every family involved,” Vicky says. Jet is staring down at his plate, a dark look in his eyes, like he’s trapped in the past and reliving the terrible decision over and over again.

Jetlooks over at Vicky. “Miss Zara over there came up with an ingenious solution, like she always did. She saved the day, again.” He turns to Nim. “She saved you.” He shakes his head, his throat moving as he swallows. “We could never have...terminated,” he says, his voice sticking on the word, “but my father would have had no issues doing it. Even if it wasn’t safe for Dona.”

“Mom?” Romi puts her hand on her mother’s arm. “Does that mean...”

“Nim is your half-sister, dear,” Donatella says, nodding furiously as her eyes begin welling with tears. “Are you happy?”

Romi’s mouth is hanging open, and there’s such shock in her eyes as she turns to Nim that I’m not sure what she is. Nim looks over at her too, but her eyes are glazed. She hasn’t said a word since Jet began speaking, and I don’t know if she can.

But then she lets out a warbling, “My parents adopted me?”

Jet nods, but Ophelia shakes her head. Donatella lets out a strangled sob and starts crying into her napkin as Geri and Romi stroke her back.

Vicky taps a nail against the side of her wine glass, drawing everyone’s eye. “Colton—Jet’s father—would have rooted you out somehow, Nim. If there’s something you must understand about Cinderhart, is that there are strict rules in place. Jet and Dona, they broke a cardinal rule. The Harts and the Galantis were on opposite sides of a war that had been waging for over a century.” She tips her head to the side, letting out a soft chuckle. “They were Cinderhart’s very own Romeo and Juliet. Except, in this version no one drank poison, and Jet got Dona knocked up.”

Dona gasps, but a second later Jet and Ophelia start laughing. Vicky joins them with another quiet chuckle before talking again. “There couldn’t be paperwork. If anyone found out whose daughter you were, there’d be a race to see who could get rid of you first. Money would have exchange hands...” She trails off, staring down moodily into her wine. “You wouldn’t have made it out of town.”

“But your parents already wanted out,” Ophelia says, when it’s obvious a moment later that Vicky’s gone to a dark place. “I don’t know if they ever told you, probably not because it was a bit too close to the truth, but they’d been trying to have a child since high school already.”

Nim blinks at Ophelia. “High school?”

Ophelia breathes in deep, letting it out in a soft sigh. “Your parents, Nim...My God, they loved each other so much. I only knew them for a short time after Jet and I became engaged, but they wanted nothing more than to have a family.”

Nim’s face crumples into a frown. It’s obvious she disagrees, but why she doesn’t say anything, I can’t figure out.

“Two birds, one stone,” Ophelia says, waving a hand toward Vicky who comes out of her reverie with a blank look on her face. “The Winters desperately wanted a child they couldn’t have, and Jet and Dona desperately needed a way out of Cinderhart for you.”

Ophelia sits back, picking up her wine glass and sipping at it as she takes in everyone’s reaction.

Knox is staring at nothing, a deep frown between his black eyebrows. Silas is shaking his head, but for once his face isn’t creased with a scowl. If anything, he looks kind of...satisfied.

Nim still looks angry. “So what changed?” she asks briskly, picking up her wine glass and taking a big gulp from it. “Why’d you suddenly decide I was good enough to come back to Cinderhart?”

The temperature inside the room plummets. Romi looks at Nim with wide, shocked eyes, and Gray looks pissed off at her attitude. I don’t blame them—they’re both fiercely loyal to Cinderhart. Jet’s son is only a senior in high school, but he has big shoes to fill one day and I’m sure his parents haven’t been reading him bedtime stories at night, but versing him on the intricate history of Cinderhart politics.

Poor kid.

“They were protecting you,” Ophelia says, sounding surprised at Nim’s vehemence.

I get it, though. Nim’s just found out her real parents shipped her off with a bunch of strangers. How different would her life have been if she’d managed to stay in Cinderhart?

No one will ever know.

Nim shakes her head, sitting back in a rush on her seat as her eyes flutter. For the first time, I see a hint of tears in her lashes. God, I wish I hadn’t been seated across the table from her. But thankfully Knox is beside her, and he slides his hand on her thigh, giving her a reassuring squeeze under the table.

“Sometimes there’s a reason people can’t have kids,” she says bitterly. “I loved my parents...but they didn’t love me half as much as they loved themselves. If they had, then they would have tried to bring me back.”

Jet’s face hardens, his words harsh when he says, “We would have brought you back sooner if we could, Nim. But my father was a strong man. Despite his poor health, Colton Hart lived to a ripe age. His body wasn’t even cold before I started making arrangements to get you back.”

There’s something like guilt on Nim’s face, but she doesn’t back off. “That’s not it,” she says. “It’s about the money. My parents...they were blackmailing you, weren’t they?”

I straighten so fast my knee hits the underside of the table.

This time, no one sends an irritated look my way. They’re all too busy gaping at Nim.

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