Page 78 of Wicked Promises (Fallen Royals 3)

“Who the hell was that?” Riley yells.

I laugh. I can’t help it.

Three fucking years, and I stumble upon her by accident.

“My mother,” I say through my giggles. “My stupid drug addict mother who abandoned me—”

I abruptly cut myself off.

“Caleb must’ve known she was there,” I muse.

Riley pulls onto the shoulder of the road. It’s one of the back ways to get between Beacon Hill and Rose Hill, and it’s deserted.

“That was your mom?” She cranks the heat.

My whole body trembles. “I’m so sick of surprises.”

She sighs. “I thought we were going to find Unknown. You know? Like in Pretty Little Liars.”

“I never saw that show.” I shake my head. “Were they threatened by a mysterious texter, too?”

She chuckles. “Yeah, they were.”

“Huh.”

She types on her phone. “I’m going to make a list. We’ve got to narrow this down.”

“Caleb said he might know who it is,” I admit. “But… I don’t know. Matt abducting me was a bit…”

“Of a shocker?”

“Right.”

She nods. “Yeah. He seemed nice at the football game. Okay, so… Unknown texted you before you started school. So they had to have your number somehow.”

I grimace. “I got that number when I was thirteen. Angela got the cell for me.”

“Angela—your social worker who lied about how your dad went to prison?”

“That’s the one.” I’ve never had a lot of contacts in my phone, just foster siblings I wanted to stay in touch with and new friends from school, Angela, and a lawyer who represented me when I was ten.

“They also had to see Ian dragging you off at school.”

I put my hand over my stomach, getting phantom pains just from thinking about it.

“Unknown said that was the only nice thing they would do for me,” I add.

“Asshole.” Her head is bent as she types. “And… there was the party. With the video.”

“Ugh.”

“What else?”

“They seemed to have insider knowledge. But… not inner circle stuff.”

Riley grins. “You’ve ruled me out, then?”

“Unless you have a secret phone I don’t know about…”

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