Page 4 of Revenge of a Queen

“Brother,” Lincoln's wary tone drawls at me.

I snap my head around and see him and Jace standing in the entrance of the room, “The fuck are you doing here?” I ask.

Lincoln swings his gaze to Elle but before either of them can speak, another excited squeal comes as Cassie barrels back into the room.

“Superman!!” she yells out.

WHAT THE FUCK!?!?!?

She knows him. Cassie knows him and is using Elle’s nickname to greet him. Which means he knows her too. What the fuck? Jace is standing next to him looking as shocked as I am as he takes in the scene before him with wide eyes. At least there is one person in this fucking town that hasn’t betrayed me.

Cassie curls her arms around Linc’s legs as he pats her head, “Hey princess,” he says with a small smile, then looks at me with a tight expression on his face like he is trying to convey some sort of message to me. Well fuck him.

He looks to Elle and briefly nods before turning to her brother, “Zack,” he greets him.

“Lincoln,” he replies with a nod.

Oh, this just gets better and better, not only did he know about Cassie, but he knew about her brother too. The cogs in my head are turning and it’s like a lightbulb goes on in there when I realize he just called him Zack.

I break my silence again, “Zack? As in Zack Zack?” I look back and forth between the two of them but settle on Zack when I realize who he is, “You’re Zack Royton.”

He flicks his gaze quickly to Elle and back before answering, “Yes.”

“How?” I can’t even form another word. I’m too shocked.

Zack Royton, tech billionaire and our fucking boss is somehow Elle’s brother. It wasn’t even on my radar to think about him when she referred to him by name outside. Now? Now I need to know how she has a brother, a brother I knew nothing about, and how that brother is somehow who I work for.

Elle speaks now, “Zack’s birth mom is Sarah King,” she says with a look of disgust before she continues, “She gave him up when she was young and he was adopted by Arthur and Helen,” she adds, gesturing to the older couple who have re-entered the room.

“Well, fuck me, this is the last thing I expected to find when Lincoln told me we were coming here princess,” Jace says, breaking the silence that followed Elle’s statement.

“Watch your fucking mouth Conrad,” Asher snaps at him and I doubt the irony is lost on any of us that he is calling Jace out for swearing in front of Cassie, while he does it himself.

Cassie gasps, “Bad word, daddy.”

“Daddy?” Jace almost shouts in shock, choking on a laugh before he takes in the room and reads the serious tension on everyone's faces. Yeah, not the fucking time for jokes brother.

“Well fuck,” he adds.

“Last warning,” Asher snaps at him as Cassie shouts, “Swear jar!”

I stand and start to pace; I can feel the anger in me pouring out into the room and clearly it doesn’t go unnoticed. Zack leans forward and speaks to the little girl.

“You hungry squirt? I got you some spaghetti.”

She squeals, “Yes, uncle Zaaa! I love sgetti,” she replies excitedly.

“Well, come on, let's go get it,” he bends in front of her so she can climb on his back. He nods his head at the man and woman, and they all exit the room together leaving just me, Elle, and the guys.

She turns to the guys first, “You guys should sit, I have a feeling this is gonna take a while,” she says grimly.

Asher sits next to Elle and it just makes the anger inside me burn, as Lincoln and Jace sit in the space next to where I just vacated. There is an awkward silence until I can’t wait any longer for her to start, so I start for her.

“How does she know me?” a hundred questions on my mind but that feels like the only one I can voice. I know I need to ask about Zack, about her and Asher, and about my dad, but the only thing I can think about is that little girl.

Elle releases a breath as she stands and leaves the room, just when I think about going to follow her, she returns with a large book in her hand. She passes it over to me and it’s only then I realize it’s a photo album. I recognize it immediately from when we were kids, she was obsessed with this thing, always adding stuff to it.

I flip through it and countless memories assault my brain, there are hundreds of pictures of us in here. Right back to when we first became friends all the way up to the summer she left. After that, it continues with pictures of me that I have no idea how she got, but they are all in order from after she left, to as recent as just before she came back. I shut it and take a deep breath; I have no idea how to process all of this.

---