Page 110 of Wicked Games (Fallen Royals 2)

I shook her hand, if only to maintain a bit of peace. No use starting a war on their first day.

Hanna shoved into my room. Her attention latched on to our hands. “Claire didn’t cheat you out of this room, did she?”

I snorted, and Claire groaned.

“Has she done it before?” I asked Hanna.

The younger girl laughed. “She’s good at getting her way.”

“Not here,” I said. “I’m not a pushover—and neither are our new foster parents.”

Claire just smiled. “Yeah? Well, you passed. But they haven’t met me yet.”

Famous last words.

* * *

Present

I wake up to Robert watching me.

“You okay?” he asks. “You were muttering in your sleep.”

I sit up, taking the water bottle he extends in my direction. “Yeah, I think I was dreaming about the first time I met Claire. She tried to trick me out of my room.”

He sits on the coffee table, facing me. “This was at your last foster home?”

I nod and take a sip. “She was always on the wild side. Some kids get to be like that. You know.”

“Our last foster was like that,” he says. “She liked to push our buttons.”

“With the curfew,” I mumble.

“And other things.” He smiles at me. “Don’t let that dissuade you from going through a wild phase. Although I think dating Caleb might give Len enough of a heart attack to last until we’re old and gray.”

I crack a smile. “Yeah, he’s…”

Robert shrugs. “I get it. I had him in a few different classes and never had a problem with him. It’s just the perception of him that Len has an issue with. That, and he purposefully tried to turn us against you—which isn’t going to happen.”

“Lapse in judgement.”

“Angela called,” he says. “She’s going to swing by this evening and chat with us. I invited her to stay for dinner.”

My expression falls. “Why do we need to talk to her?”

He squints at me. “It’s nothing bad, Margo. We just want to see what the next steps are to make you a member of this family. Len asked about it a few days ago, but we wanted to have the chance to talk to you.”

“It still seems…” Out of reach.

“Impossible?”

“Something like that.”

He looks down at his hands, then back up at me. “Len might have a harder time saying this, but I don’t. We love you, Margo.”

We love you. It echoes inside of my, banging around my chest. It hurts, but it isn’t bad pain. It’s a sore muscle stretching for the first time. A heartbeat I thought had died long ago.

But there’s always another shoe to drop.

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