Page 35 of The Vipers and Their Vendetta

It’s a risky move, but she clearly doesn’t want him to know she’s here. Perhaps even less than she wants to talk to us. Which is the lesser of two evils for her?

Her face twists and she glances at the ground before looking back at us, her gaze halting on me, glassy as she speaks. “Reagan was my sister. My half-sister.”

The look on both the twins’ faces are mirrored—wide eyes, mouths open. Of all the things we’d expected to hear, it hadn’t been that.

What?I sign.How?

“Jarl Olsen was…with…my mom. She got pregnant, and he got rid of my mom and took the baby. He threatened her, told her that if she ever tried to make contact with her daughter, he’d kill her.”

“Kill the baby?” Saint checks.

She nods.

I shake my head in dismay and scribble down,Sick fuck.

“I still don’t understand what you’re doing here,” Saint presses. “Did you think you’d find her and become best friends? She’d never met you before.”

She nibbles the inside of her cheek, as though considering what to tell us. “My mom died, and on her deathbed, she told me where I could find Reagan. I didn’t even know I had a sisterbefore then. I mean, I’d always hoped for one when I was little. It is lonely as a girl in the club, but it never happened, and then I found out this amazing thing—that I had a sister. How could I not come?”

“But why all the secrecy” Lex asks. “Why not just tell us?”

“Because I didn’t want it getting back to either Jarl Olsen or my father. My dad didn’t know about Jarl Olsen and what he did to my mom, and she was terrified that if he ever found out, it would start a war. And she didn’t want Jarl Olsen to find out about me in case he decided to…do something.”

Do something?I sign.

She ducks her chin, as though she’s ashamed and can’t make eye contact with us. “In case he hurts me just because I’m my mother’s daughter.”

I catch my breath. Would that happen? It must have been years ago that Jarl Olsen had anything to do with Vani’s mom.

But now he’s lost his daughter…what if he decides he can take his revenge on Vani? Mess with her somehow?

I decide then and there that Jarl Olsen will never learn about Vani’s existence. Not under my watch

She swipes at a tear. “I never once thought that Reagan might be dead, though. Maybe it was naïve of me, but I thought she might have moved schools or even countries, but I’d believed we’d meet one day.” The muscles of her face tighten. “But then I was told she’d died, and that you three had something to do with it.”

I shake my head.We didn’t.

She stares between the twins. “Whose car did she fall on?”

“Mine,” Lex admits.

“I heard you were more worried about your car than Reagan the day she died.”

His jaw drops. “What the fuck? No, I wasn’t. I think I yelled something like ‘holy shit, look at my car,’ meaning, ‘look atwhat’s just happened,’ but of course everyone took it the wrong way. It got twisted to mean that I was worried about my car, when that wasn’t what I meant at all. I mean, I was pretty upset about?—”

I jab my elbow into his ribs as an indication that he needs to stop talking while he’s still ahead. I’m worried about how he planned on ending that sentence.

She presses her lips together and shakes her head. “I still don’t see why I should believe you. Honestly, the thought of the three of you with my sister makes me want to throw up, and the possibility that she died because of you…”

I scribble furiously on my notepad and shove it at her.Reagan was nothing like you. She was shy and quiet and wasn’t even interested in us. We weren’t into her either. We had no reason to want her dead.

Her eyes skim across the paper, and she lifts her chin to look me in the eye. “Then why was everyone making it sound like you did?”

“Because people wanted to fuck with us,” Saint says. “You’ve been in this place long enough to know everyone has an agenda. Taking us down a peg or two works for certain people.”

She arches her brow. “Accusing someone of murder is hardly bringing them down a peg or two.”

“Not murder. Just the reason she threw herself off the tower.”

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