Page 49 of Wicked Promises (Fallen Royals 3)

I should go to bed, but I can’t tear my eyes off the door.

My fingers move along the handle of the knife. I get used to the feel of it in my palm and try to imagine a world in which I’m not defenseless. Not meek or cowardly.

I take a deep breath and finally jolt myself out of a standstill, closing my door.

And then I practice.

Wolves have teeth, and it’s about time I grow into mine.

* * *

Angela is prompt, and I am exhausted.

She doesn’t say anything at my messy hair or the dark circles under my eyes. I was still awake at seven o’clock this morning when Caleb and Eli left for school. I’d only just drifted off, then Norah knocked on my door telling me she had breakfast ready.

And twenty minutes later, Angela arrived to take me to the hospital.

“He’s been moved out of ICU,” she says. “I talked to Lenora this morning, to make sure you’d be able to see him.”

I watch the houses flash by. The ICU is strict—I learned that the hard way before we left the hospital yesterday.

Yesterday.

So much has changed in less than twenty-four hours. I learned that Caleb and his friends interrogated Matt. Although I don’t know if interrogated is the right word. Maybe they just beat the shit out of him and… what, let him run away?

I sigh.

“You okay?” Angela asks.

I shove away thoughts of Caleb and Matt and focus on her. She’s the one who had me believing my dad went to jail for drugs, not manslaughter.

“I tried to look up Dad’s trial coverage,” I say, watching her reaction.

“What were you hoping to find?”

“Anything,” I answer. “But… apparently he wasn’t sentenced for drug possession, or whatever you told me. He wasn’t dealing… or even using.”

Her lips purse, then smooth out. “I don’t remember saying anything about drugs.”

“What did he go away for, then?”

“Margo.” Her tone is exasperated. She opens and closes her hands on the steering wheel. “You were young. I’m sure you’re misremembering something. With your mother’s drug addiction, it would’ve been easy to transpose that onto your father.”

She’s trying to make me think I’m crazy.

I slowly nod. “You must be right.”

We’re quiet for a minute, and then she says, “It’s sad, really. Your parents… The whole thing is unfortunate.”

“Lydia came to see me, didn’t she?”

Angela hesitates.

I’ve taken her by surprise.

“Lydia Asher? Um, yes, I think she did. She was like a second mother to you.”

I focus back on the road. We’re nearing the hospital.

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