Page 101 of Cruel Revenge

There’s shouting coming from inside the house, though I can’t make out the words or who is yelling at whom.

She looks at me as we round the car. “It’s not too late to cancel on them and go home. They definitely don’t know that we’re here yet.”

I press a hand to the small of her back, guiding her forward. “I’m not scared of your family yelling at each other.”

“You should be. They’re feral when they’re fighting.” She opens the front door and steps inside, the shouting coming to a halt before it picks up again.

“I’m not a child anymore!” Summer stands in front of Aiden in the kitchen, squaring off against him. “You need to stop treating me like I’m ten and don’t have a clue about the world. I’m an adult.”

“Yeah, because this is what an adult does?” Aiden slams his hands on the counter. “We’re not going to keep arguing about this! You’re going to get your shit together, and you’re going to stop causing problems for me to clean up!”

Maybe tonight isn’t the best night to tell them about me and Skyla.

Although, they’re already angry, so now might be the perfect time. After all, how much worse could it really get?

“I can’t spend the rest of my life just being Jade’s twin! Or your little sister! Or dedicating every part of my life to the family like the rest of you seem content to do! I want more for myself.”

Skyla looks up at me. “Still think running for the hills isn’t a good idea?”

I roll my eyes. “No. We’re here to have dinner with everyone, and things are going to be fine.”

With a nod, Skyla steps into the middle of the mess. “The two of you need to both get your shit together and actually listen to what the other is saying for the first time ever.”

Aiden scoffs. “Stay out of this, Sky. You don’t even know what she’s done this time.”

Summer throws her hands up in the air while the rest of the siblings watch on from around the kitchen. “What about whatyou’ve done? There’s nothing wrong with me going out on a date or two and having a good time!”

“There is when it’s with some asshole who is never going to treat you right. I told you I didn’t want you seeing any of the soldiers, and yet you go and ignore me every single time. You think that the rules don’t apply to you because you’ve spent most of your life being spoiled by me and Skyla, but that’s done now.”

Skyla sighs and physically puts herself between the two. “We’re going to table this conversation for now. We can talk about it more later when everyone has a clear head and Ellie hasn’t spent the day working on dinner to feed all of us.”

Ellie shoots her a grateful smile as she finishes plating up the food. “Dinner is ready if the rest of you want to go sit down.”

The others filter out of the kitchen and into the dining room, though the feeling is still tense.

Skyla and Ellie grab several of the plates, and I take a few more, following them into the dining room and setting out the food in front of everybody.

Within a few minutes, there’s nothing but the sound of Bianca babbling to herself in her high chair and forks scraping against plates.

A couple of minutes later, they’re talking and laughing as if none of them were ever fighting with each other. The conversation ebbs and flows, moving from one conversation to the next with a speed I can’t quite keep up with.

Ellie turns to me with a smile, Sean sitting on the other side of her and barely paying attention to what’s going on around him.

She leans closer to me, amusement in her eyes. “You shouldn’t be worried about this bunch. We may fight a lot, but at the end of the day, there’s nothing we wouldn’t do for each other.”

Jade snorts from the other side of the table. “Except apparently tell each other when we elope.”

Skyla stiffens on the other side of me, looking at her sister from across the table. “Well, would it make you feel better to know that we’re not married, and this entire thing has been for show?”

The table falls so silent you could hear a pin drop.

Jade pauses with a fork halfway to her mouth. “Excuse me?”

Skyla mutters something under her breath and looks down at the food on her plate, pushing it around to the edges and ignoring all the sets of eyes on her.

I clear my throat, looking at Aiden, hoping that he’ll back me up when this all goes to shit. “We were never marrie?—”

A fist collides with the side of my face, blood filling my mouth.

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