Page 22 of The Revenge Plan (Forbidden Descendants 1)

Her gaze flamed angrily at Haven’s dad as she answered, “You’d be surprised the things a mother will do to get to her child.” Then she promptly drove over his foot.

On purpose.

Jerking his shoe back, Haven’s dad yelped, “Ouch! Shit,” and hopped around in pain. “What the hell, babe?”

His wife merely sniffed. “Guess you shouldn’t have left me in the van.” Then ignoring him completely, she turned to focus on Haven, where her scowl melted into sympathy. “Oh, honey,” she cooed.

“Mama.” Haven’s bottom lip trembled as she surged forward and climbed onto the wheelchair, directly into her mot

her’s lap, where her mom wrapped quivering arms around her and pulled Haven close.

“Topher cheated on me,” Haven sobbed, burying her face in her mom’s neck.

“Son of a bitch,” her dad hissed, kneeling so he could set his hand on Haven’s back. When he met his wife’s concerned gaze over Haven’s shoulder, their marital spat seemed to dissolve so their daughter’s misery could take front and center.

“In my dorm room,” Haven went on, her voice muffled against her mom’s shoulder. “With my roommate. I came home, and they were there, naked on the couch, still…you know…in the middle of it. And…and…he had to pull out of her to…” Words failed her as she drew in a shuddering breath. “It was awful. It was so awful.”

“Fuck,” I said under my breath, my hands squeezing tight into fists down at my sides as I watched Haven try to pull herself together. Next to me, Izzy grasped my arm as if trying to comfort me.

“I thought I was seeing things,” Haven choked out. “It just seemed so impossible and unbelievable, and yet…” She cupped her face in her hands as she shook her head and glanced between her parents. “All I know is that I can’t go back there. I’m not ever going back to that apartment again.”

“Of course, you’re not,” her mother reassured, stroking her hair. “We’ll go get your things, and you’ll be done with that entire building forever.”

Haven started to nod until she paused. “Don’t get the couch though,” she instructed. “I don’t want that couch anymore.”

“I might set it on fire,” her dad announced, dead serious.

Haven sent him a trembling smile until more tears poured down her cheeks. “Oh, Dad. I feel so stupid.” She dived off her mom’s lap to hug him around the neck.

He caught her to him and rocked her back and forth as he stroked her hair. “You are not stupid,” he commanded harshly. “Don’t ever think that.”

“But how did I not know, or see it coming, or even sense it a little? I mean, I knew he was…. You know. He was Topher, but this…this just blindsided me. And…and…and then I think I overreacted. Like completely through-the-roof, crazy overreaction. People break up and get cheated on all the time, right? But here I took my reaction to the extreme. I was so upset I blacked out completely, and I don’t even remember how I got here. I can’t believe I was so weak and pathetic, or that I—”

“Hey, shh,” her dad scolded in a soft yet stern voice. “You are not weak or pathetic. We all fall apart at times. Especially when our foundation gets ripped out from under us. Hell, I’ve held your mother while she’s fallen apart in my arms, and you and I both know she’s the strongest person there is.”

“That’s true,” Haven mumbled, glancing at her mom as she wiped her nose with the back of her hand. “She really is.”

“And I’ve done the same for your father,” her mom added with a soft smile. “The point is that we find a way to get back up after we fall down.”

Haven nodded as if trying to bolster her resolve, only for her face to crumble as she admitted, “I just can’t believe he knocked me down in the first place. Not literally, of course,” she hastened to add when her dad tensed and curled his mouth into a snarl. “Just, you know, metaphorically. I can’t believe he would do this to me. I thought…” She shook her head helplessly. Then her chin trembled. “I thought we loved each other.”

Something acidic roiled through my stomach as those words echoed through my head. Glancing away because it suddenly felt as if I were intruding on a private moment, I touched Izzy’s arm to get her attention.

When she looked up, I hitched my head to the side, silently telling her we needed to go somewhere else. But as soon as we took a step toward the hallway, Haven’s mom caught sight of us.

“You must be Wick,” she said before her gaze moved to Izzy and softened. “And…Izzy, right?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Izzy bobbed her head like an eager puppy. “It’s so nice to meet you, Mrs. Gamble. I’m sorry we, uh…” She winced when she glanced at me, then snapped her attention back to Haven’s mom. “Sorry we made you guys jump through so many hoops before we told you where Haven was.”

“Hoops?” Haven echoed in confusion as she slipped from her dad’s hug and stood, looking Izzy’s way and then mine.

“Yeah, your friend’s a real peach over there,” Mr. Gamble answered bitterly, scowling at me as he pushed his way to his feet as well. “After Topher called us, looking for you, and freaked us the fuck out, we tried to contact you on your cell, but these two answered. And they refused to tell us where you were—or maybe I should say he refused—until we proved to him that we were good parents and would take care of you.”

“Really?” Seemingly amused by that, Haven snorted out a laugh and turned my way. “I’m sorry I missed that conversation.”

When she made eye contact with me, I felt pinned and dissected. It almost made me ache and miss those few moments she’d been out of her mind and had needed me so strongly because the girl looking at me now would never need anything from me. Even as distraught as she was, she was capable, composed, and utterly independent. And she saw too much. She saw me as…me, as if she’d just stripped me down to raw, bare bone, exposing every flaw and deficiency I’d ever had or would have.

My noble, heroic moment was definitely over.

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