Page 23 of Believe In Us

There he was. My brother, standing wordlessly before me looking nothing like the last time I saw him. His hair longer and disheveled, his body covered in tattoos, and those green eyes just like mine clouded with shock and guilt as he stood there watching me. Stained with disappointment, as he blatantly confessed to killing my father

Chaz is dead.

I feel an odd sense of relief, to never have to worry about seeing his face again, but as I stared at the group in front of me, as I watched my brother standing before my friends acting like he knew them, Scarlett, Ace, Bass, all with knowing glances upon their telling faces, the only thing I felt was betrayal.

Especially fromhim. After all I gave him, after I gave him everything I could and so much more, Sebastian Silver just went and betrayed me leaving me alone like everyone else has, like they always do.

There was only one thing I could do.

Run.

So I ran. Ran as fast as my legs could take me. Ran with no end in sight. Ran with nowhere to run to. And I knew no one would follow. All I knew was I needed to get away from these monsters around me.

But what will happen when I have to come face to face with my destined fate? What will become of me when I must come to grips with my new reality, the monster living inside me?

Chapter

Eleven

JADE

Present Day

Two Weeks.

That’s how long it’s been since the people closest to me betrayed me. That’s how long it’s been since I came to seek refuge in the only place I’ve ever felt safe, where I knew I wouldn’t be forced to accept my fate. Two weeks since the last time I sawhim.

Though, a lot has happened in two weeks.

It wasn’t a long walk, give or take ten miles, to my old foster home from the house I was at where I found my brother. After all it was here in Pleasant Hills and I’ve come to realize when running from monsters one usually runs pretty fast. I managed to get away, I escaped the treacherous monsters who betrayed me, the only question that remained was for how long. Because if I’ve learned anything in my few months here in Hillcrest Hills,it’s that these monsters are ruthless and that can only mean they will soon come knocking on my door.

For starters, I had to turn off my phone which was ringing incessantly with calls and messages from Sebastian, Scarlett, and Stella. I refused to answer him, I couldn’t even look my own sister in the eye let alone speak to her, and well Stella, she was punished by association. If she knew where I was, I'm sure they’d somehow convince her to tell them, some bullshit excuse about it being for my own good. That I wasn’t mentally stable enough to survive on my own or something of that sort and she’d cave, and the last thing I need is for them to come and find me.

However, as much fun as it’s been and as much as I’d like to stay here and hide away for the rest of time, this place, my safe haven, has now been tainted. Because it has also now become the place where I found out my entire life is about to be turned upside down, flipped horizontally, and twisted vertically. So although I so desperately need to stay here and wallow in deserving and totally justifiable self-pity, there’s so much I need to prepare for. And there is no better day than the present to make my surely awaited return.

Because today is Sebastian Silver’s eighteenth birthday, and I’m carrying one hell of a present.

Last week I overheard my foster mom Sarah on a phone call with Scarlett while I was coming downstairs for dinner. Sarah assured her I was doing okay and that I just needed some time to cool off and think things through, after all I had just found out my father was dead, that my brother was the one who killed him, and that my sister and the guy I was currently fucking, both knew. So sue me if I needed time to recover from that corrosive bomb. Of course shortly after I arrived, my foster moms found out about my other, slightly more precarious predicament. Not by choice, but because I haven’t been able to keep anything down since I first found out the delightful news. However, that doesn’t stop me from wanting to scarf down everything and anything in sight, especiallyif it’s sticky, fried, and coated in a glaze of sugary confection. The horrors of cravings versus morning sickness.

Although my moms’ swore to me they wouldn’t say anything, I’m not sure how long I can keep this to myself. I’m not ready to tell Scar, or anyone for that matter, especially not Sebastian. Hell I’m not even ready to accept the reality of what is clearly happening even if it’s blatantly obvious. I’m having a baby, and not just any baby, a baby with one of Servite Academy’s Elite, a baby with one of the notorious Four Horsemen. In typical Jade fashion, I went for the broodiest, sexiest, and all around most heartless son of a bitch there has ever existed, and there’s not a damn thing I could do about it.

Nonetheless, I can’t say that this came without warning. Since the day I arrived I’ve known something was wrong. My emotions had been running high for a while, but my body just seemed a bit off. Combined with all the stress accompanied with my sister’sdisappearance, with the Dalton’s henchmen who attacked me in Galen Grove, being constantly hot and cold with Sebastian, and how I’ve been desperately hoping to find some clue as to where my brother could be, I hadn’t realized that my period had been late. Three weeks late. Which if Sarah’s calculations are correct, makes my date of conception around the second week of January, the dreaded night I ran into Sebastian’s unsuspecting arms after the huge fight I had with my sister. A week into my stay here I finally found the nerve to grab a pregnancy test, five to be exact, from the Walmart down by the mall. I figured I’d have less of a chance of running into someone I knew there then down at one of the pharmacies or convenience stores closer to the high school. I almost asked my foster moms to go for me but I realized it would be best if I kept my suspicions to myself. That didn’t last long..

I took the tests, and fell asleep numbly in my bed, not a damn tear leaking out of my sockets. Not like I had much left after crying myself to sleep for a week straight after I saw Roman. Mygood friend Tequila kept me in good company on those long tearful nights.

Shit.

I curse myself for drinking myself into oblivion for a week straight, for weeks actually since the fight with my sister, and even before that there’s always been a bottle glued to my hand, but how the fuck was I supposed to know I was preg…

I can’t even get myself to finish the sentence. I can’t be fucking pregnant.

What a cliche I’ve become. Orphaned girl from the wrong side of the tracks, seduced by the rich bad boy, another goddamn teenage pregnancy added to the statistics. Of course, I’ll be eighteen in less than a month, but that doesn’t make a difference. Not that I’m judging those who have been in my position before, but I wasn’t sure I’d ever want kids. Especially not now at this age. It’s not like I had the ideal childhood to be in a hurry to start my own little pack, but here I am. Just shy of eighteen, pregnant, having a child with my—well I don’t even know what we are—and I guess that’s the bigger problem.

Because on top of being just another cliched teenage pregnancy, I’m also fucking alone.

If my mother could see me now.

I close the door of my old bedroom behind me as I drag my feet down the stairs, my overnight bag with a few changes of clothes and other essentials I also grabbed at the Walmart over my shoulder, as I head to the kitchen for dinner. I decided I’m leaving tonight, heading back to Hillcrest Hills, back to the Academy, and back to the liars and traitors I once called friends. So what if I’m being overly dramatic. I’m fucking pregnant for fucks sakes.

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