Page 27 of Reign of Psychos

Gross.

“That’ll teach him to fu…hang outwith those slatterns from the Three Bells near the docks. I told him those whor…femaleswere not nice girls. But of course he didn’t listen. Stupid fecker deserved it.”

Aoife nodded sagely. “I told him too, cuz. That Siobhan is an awful slut. She fucks anything.”

Eden gasped, scandalized. “Aoife Kelly! If your father heard you use that kind of language, he’d wash your mouth out with dish soap and send you back to St Joseph’s!”

Aoife seemed unconcerned by the threat. “Eh, he could try, but I doubt those miserable old cunt nuns would have me back. Not after I set fire to Sister Angela’s car.”

The girl looked like butter wouldn’t melt in her sweet rosebud mouth, so to hear so much foul language from one so young left me speechless.

Maybe I’d made a huge mistake leaving my naïve little sister in her company.Sweet Baby Jesus. Still, I couldn’t help but respect a girl who set fire to a nun’s car for shits and giggles.

Then I remembered what happened to Fausto and the brownie in my stomach turned to ash.

“Are there any chocolate brownies left?” Aoife peered inside the tin and scowled. “Wow, I can’t believe you ate them all.”

“I’m heartbroken. Sugar is my new best friend,” Eden sniffed. “One day, you’ll understand.”

“Nah. Boys are a waste of space. They stink, they’re selfish, and they’re dumb as bricks.”

“Yes, all these things are true, but they have something we like, so good luck cutting them out of your life, sweet girl.”

From the way Aoife rolled her eyes, she wasn’t at all convinced.

“Besides, they’re notallbad,” Eden snorted. “Thea successfully wrangles five of them and manages not to lose her shit!”

“Err, I wouldn’t go that far,” I muttered. I still hadn’t seen Milo or Cassian, so it was entirely possible they both now hated me. Especially my sweet little nerd. Running out on him so soon after taking his V-card was pretty shitty. If he’d done that to me, I’d have stabbed him to death with a rusty spoon.

“Fear not, my preggo friend. Theyalllove you.”

Aoife’s jaw dropped, and her eyes nearly popped out of her head in shock.

“She’s PREGNANT? Which one is the baby daddy? OH MY GOD! This is better than when we found out Tom cheated on Ariana with Raquel on Vanderpump Rules!”

I had no fucking clue what she was on about, but that wasn’t my most immediate concern. Eden cringed when I locked eyes on her.

“Oops…”

15

Thea

Fucking Eden. I wanted to wring her neck for blurting out my not-so-happy news. Aoife had promised not to tell anyone, but we all knew she’d never keep her promise. Verity would soon know, and once she did, my window to do anything about this pregnancy had closed.

Not that I planned to get rid of the baby. I firmly believed women should have the choice of terminating a pregnancy if they wanted to, but it wasn’t the right decision for me.

No matter what happened, I’d willingly look Satan in the eye and dare him to harm my baby. And since Torrance was still out there like the indestructible cockroach he was, it might come to that.

I stepped into the elevator to go back up to our apartment, having left Eden with the girls. The new college semester started in a week, so I needed to figure out what to do with my sister before then, as Eden planned to go back to Abernethy.

She had been upset when I said I wasn’t going to return, but after I explained the only reason I’d been there was to spy for my father, she said she understood.

“But I have no friends there if you don’t come back!” she’d wailed. I pointed out she also hung out with a few other girls, and eventually she agreed that maybe her social life wasn’t as bad as she thought.

Just as the elevator door slid shut, a foot wedged it open. “Thea. A word, if you please,” Declan said, his face as inscrutable as always.

Damn. I’d been hoping to avoid him, knowing full well he must have run out of patience with me by now. Clearing up my messes was rapidly becoming a full-time job. But since I could hardly refuse to talk to my temporary landlord, I pasted a smile on my face. Hopefully, he wasn’t in the mood to remove me from the chessboard and pretend I ‘disappeared’, like a well-known business rival called John O’Rourke, who mysteriously went missing just before Christmas.

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