Page 116 of Snake

“It started long before we were married.” She lets out a harsh huff that might have been an attempted laugh. “It was the reason we got married.”

I hear the faintest, “What?” to my side coming from Knox. I can see him frowning in my peripheral vision, but that’s his only response.

I don’t like where this is headed, but as Vicky carries on talking, that photo flashes into my mind. The one with Lorenzo standing in the back, his eyes fixed on Vicky.

Obsessed.

“He worked as a stable hand at the Academy,” Vicky says, looking over at me with gleaming blue eyes. “I’m sorry I lied, sweetie, but I couldn’t…this is a lot to take in, I’m sure, but it’s a lot to give out, too.”

I clasp my arms, shrugging a little. My heart is still racing, my palms starting to grow sweaty.

“He…he was always trying to talk to us. To become a part of our group. I think he couldn’t understand how different he was. The Pellegrinos are an old mining family. Old, but as low down on the social ladder as you could go.”

“Lower than the Millers?” Silas asks carefully. I’m surprised to hear that he’s not angry. I guess it’s news to him that the Pellegrinos weren’t as influential as he’d thought.

Vicky looks over at Silas, shakes her head. “No, sweetie. But low enough that no one in their right mind would conceive one of them marrying into the Zaras.”

“But that’s exactly what happened,” Jet says coldly. “Lorenzo knew if he could snag himself a Zara, then he wouldn’t have to be a stable hand anymore. He could be whatever he wanted.”

Vicky dips her head, shakes it as she squeezes her eyes together. Her hand is trembling when she takes another sip from her glass. “Who’d have thought he’d become the devil?”

Jet grabs Vicky’s shoulder, squeezing her through her designer dress. His lips are in a line, and he throws me a look that almost looks like a plea.

Don’t make her do this, it says.

My eyes fill with hot tears, but I can’t tell her to stop. Not now. They’ve kept the truth from me my entire life. I’m sorry if it hurts, but I need to know.

I’ll never be able to go back to the dark again. To those impenetrable shadows where everything is a lie.

“He found out about the baby,” Vicky says. “About you, Nim. He knew what a scandal it would be. He knew how important it was that Jet’s parents never found out.” Vicky lets out a choppy sigh. “So he struck a deal with us. With me.”

“She did the unthinkable,” Jet says, giving Vicky’s shoulder another squeeze. “She gave him his life, in exchange for yours.”

Those fierce eyes make me want to back up until I hit a wall, then turn and run. But somehow I manage to stand my ground. Maybe it’s the way the Serpents shift, coming to stand just a little closer to me.

They weren’t kidding when they said they had my back.

“So it was him,” I say, pausing to swallow down the knot in my throat. “Lorenzo had been blackmailing you, and you decided it was time to stop backing down.”

Jet swallows too, and then tugs hard on his cigar like he’d forgotten about it. “He’d been blackmailing us for years. When it became clear he was pushing to get majority shares in the mine, that was the last straw. He’d taken so much from us…from Vicky…we couldn’t stand idly by anymore. We put together a plan to get you back. Oscar and Ruth were clueless until we sent them the invitation to the reunion. Maybe they had their suspicions, maybe they just thought we were nostalgic. We’d planned to tell them that weekend. You would stay until you began your term at CA, but then…” Jet shakes his head. “Man makes plans, and God laughs,” he says bitterly. “We’d lost our friends…and then everything fell apart. Lorenzo went missing. My father fell ill.”

“Even though Ruth and I had grown apart over the years, I couldn’t handle the grief when she died,” Vicky says woodenly, staring down into her tumbler like she wished she had the strength to drown herself in it. “I was taken to the hospital that night and kept under heavy sedation. I couldn’t even make it back home to tell you what had happened, Nim. I was supposed to help arrange everything, and instead, I could barely get out of bed. It felt so much easier just to let you go back to the city. So easy to put everything out of my mind until I could cope with reality again.”

My head feels heavy, my eyes drawn to the thick carpet between my feet. I’d never stopped to think how this all affected Vicky. And from what Knox told me, she was already dealing with so much emotional baggage from Lorenzo’s constant abuse that, thinking back, I’m surprised she even managed to put a smile on her face.

I guess whatever medication she’d been on at the time helped.

“But now…” Jet stands, a good two feet taller than me as he watches me. “Now we’re ushering in a new era. Cinderhart will be reborn.” He steps closer, holds out a hand as if to take mine. “And we want you to be with us when it happens, Nim. You’re a Hart now. Always have been. We want you to come home.”

I stare into Jet’s eyes, then down at his hand. But before I can decide if I want to take it, before I can drum up even a word, Knox lurches forward and bats it away.

“This doesn’t make any sense!” he yells. “You’re lying. Again. Still! Why won’t you just tell her the truth?”

Jet draws back his hand, eyes narrowed to slits as he takes in Knox’s anger, his frustration.

“Son, if you’ll just—”

“This is bullshit. You should check your fucking timelines before you start making up stories.” He glares at Jet, then Ophelia, then Vicky. “We’re young, but we’re not morons. Whatever it is, she can handle it. Just tell her the truth.”

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