Page 160 of Heartless Legacy

I see red, as she shoves a picture of my mother from that damn newspaper article under my nose. “Where did you get this?” I snatch the printout from her hand, crumpling it into a ball.

“The link was in a Prospectus alert. Aren’t you raising money for information about your missing mommy?”

There’s only one way they could know this photo existed. I’m not even surprised. They’ve told me they’re on my side before, and made a big production about spending time with me, but in the end, their default setting is always the way they grew up and the people they’ve grown up with.

This is retaliation for using their bank accounts for those donations and leaving them stranded in Mexico. I was doing a good thing. I could have left them in Connecticut, or they could be floating out in the middle of the ocean.

How could they’d do this after what I did for Finn? I should’ve left those knives behind. He deserves to go through the hell I went through.

Marching back the way I came, I call Alexz’s direct line. “Egononi?”

“They told everyone. They shared the link of that article about my mom and now they’re gossiping about her on campus.Their little trip wasn’t about helping me. It was a league mission.”

“Are you sure?”

“What other explanation can there be?”

“I don’t know. But I’llfind out. In the meantime, keep it together and don’t do anything reckless.”

I pace back and forth in my dorm room. My skin buzzes, my blood boils. I need to make someone pay for this. Come at me. Attack me. That’s fine. But my mother… she’s not crazy. She’s a victim. Iknowit. Now, whatever leads we find in the files will go cold, because someone posted the link to the article on the damn Prospectus app, for leagues members all over the planet to see.

On my third trip past my dresser, I see the gift Pax sent. This is his father’s fault. He’s the reason my mother no longer exists. He tried to make me not exist, too. Pax deserves to feel as powerless as they made me feel. That’s the only present I want from him.

I snatch the bag off my dresser and head back out, stomping an angry path across campus to Vale Tower.

Chapter 93

Pax

Someone’s pounding on my door. I snatch it open to reveal Thea standing in the hall, eyes wild like a caged animal. Something’s happened. Before I can ask what, she hurls a box at me. “I don’t want your gift, Pax. Or shall I call it a bribe?”

“I-”

“I hate you!” She screams. “There’s nothing you can ever do or say to make up for what you did!”

I don’t know what’s set her off, and I try not to take her words personally. She’s playing it safe. Has been playing it safe, and I want my feisty, take no shit from anyone, girl back. “You’re at the wrong door.” I move to push the door closed as I say, “Go find one of those bodyguards you’re hiding behind and cry on their shoulder.”

She steps forward, cracking me across the face.

“Is that all you got?” No sooner are the words out of my mouth, and she’s hitting me. A solid right cross to my jaw. I can think of a few guys who would’ve gone down after a hit like that. I’m standing, but it knocks me back a little. “Better, but still inadequate. Haven’t you learned you can’t beat me?”

She rushes at me, and I chuckle. “Awe, isn’t that cute? You gonna windmill at me next?” She kicks at my knee and slams her fist into the side of my head. That blow causes me to bite the inside of my jaw. Swallowing the blood, I say, “Let’s see what you got, Nem. I can take it.”

I dodge and avoid her blows, but I don’t hold back on dishing out hits of my own. We swing, dodge blows, and grapple. My breathing picks up from the effort of our fight and the way our bodies keep coming together. She kicks my legs out from under me, sending me to the floor, then climbs on top of me.

“Give up?” She pants.

I roll us, getting the upper hand. “No, do you?” She lifts her hips, trying to knock me off. I climb to my feet, chuckling. “I take that as a no.”

Thea comes at me again. I easily dodge her attempt. She’s almost too slow to escape mine. She’s winded and out of practice, sparring with me. “Are you still working out at the gym, or is the only exercise Deacon’s giving you between your legs?”

“Jealous?”

“That you’re slower than before and about to pass out? Hardly.”

“I meant jealous that he’s between my legs?”

“Yes.” I admit. She lowers her guard, blinking at me, dumbfounded. “Hands up, Nem. If you can’t talk shit and fight at the same time, you don’t belong in the ring.”

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