Page 1 of Forgive Me For I Have Sinned

Prologue

VERONICA

Senior Year of High School

"Are you sure no one will find out if we go?"

Alicia rolls her eyes. "Relax, your parents won't find out. They think you’re sleeping over because our end-of-the-year project took longer than expected. My mother assured me it was alright with your mom. You want to see him, don't you?"

"Of course, I do. But I don't want to look desperate or stupid, showing up there uninvited."

Alicia snorts. "If my brother Reid gets to go, I get to go. And that means you can go too. Fuck what anyone else thinks."

I smirk, looking at her through the floor-length mirror in her bedroom. I turn to the side, knowing the black skirt is shorter than what my parents would allow me to wear and the thigh-high socks that stop an inch from the hem are way above mid-thigh, before I turn to face her completely.

"Stop lying," I tease. “You want to go because he'll be there."

Alicia has a major crush on Chase, but Chase is a scholarship student in his junior year at Kenyan and is considered Prey. It wasn't supposed to be serious between them; she isn’t supposed to get attached when she has to marry within the Order, but to Alicia, it is, and that is what I’m afraid of, but if he makes her happy, then I'm not going to fill her head with what ifs. Since we both barely turned eighteen, me in August, and Alicia at the end of September, we’ve waited to go out and hang around college boys because we were both minors and still in high school.

This is technically our first college party and the first party of the year at Ohio University. Only the rich and, of course, the sons of Kenyan are invited. Even Draven, the evil Bedford twin, will probably be there, so they can confuse the shit out of the girls they fuck, thinking there is only one of them when there are indeed two.

"They will both be there, and this is our chance to get them to notice us!" she says with excitement.

"I-I don't know, Alicia. Do you honestly think he'll notice me?"

Pfft. "With those eyes, gorgeous hair, and awesome personality, Alaric would be an idiot not to notice you."

I know she’s just being nice and doesn't want me to back out because that would mean she would show up alone like a lamb to a slaughterhouse, but my self-doubt comes from the other times I have seen him at family functions, and he didn't even say hi or notice that I was in the same room. I always blamed it on the age difference and the fact that I was probably too young because I was still in high school, and he’s a hot shit college student, powerful, smart, and gorgeous, and one of the sons of Kenyan.

I swear there’s never a time when he doesn’t have a gorgeous woman on his arm, and that only fills me with jealousy because I want to be the only one on his arm holding his attention, even though I know it’s impossible. But I would be happy with just one night with him. One night. It’s all I’ve prayed for every night since the first time Alicia showed me a picture of her amazing cousin on her phone. Alaric Riodrick-Riordan.

Everyone looks up to him like he’s a god.

Even me.

* * *

"You're my cousin Alicia's best friend from school…Veronica, right?” A warm feeling slides across my skin, hearing my name on his lips. Especially the way he says it.

"Yeah," I say softly, glad he can hear me even with the music blaring from inside the house.

"My name is Alaric."

I smile, trying to hide the nerves causing my heart to beat too fast and the palms of my hands to sweat. Thankful for the light October breeze beginning to caress my skin, hoping he doesn't notice how nervous I am.

"I know."

"How's that? I don't think we've ever met."

I was right. He never noticed me either time we were in the same room or when people talked about Alicia's best friend with the rich father that was a member of the Order. I‘m used to it, though––no one giving a shit about me or who I am, except Alicia. To everyone else, I am invisible. But right now, I'm not. At least not to him. And it's all I ever wanted.

Not wanting to sound naïve and boring, I reply, "Then how do know my name?"

He grins. "You are…kind of a smart ass," he says, taking a sip out of a cup in his hand. It's whiskey. I recognize the sweet smell from my father's study when he calls for me. I always hated that smell, but right now, the fact that Alaric smells like it every time he speaks to me changes my perspective.

I glance to the left to see a group of guys who are drinking, looking this way with smirks on their faces. Two girls with them are covering their mouths in a fit of giggles. I'm unsure if they're drunk, and that's the reason, or if they know I'm still in high school and don't belong at a college party. I try not to think that they’re judging me because my eyes are too light and my hair is nearly colorless, but most say the color is white.

I used to get teased all the time and sometimes still do. Veronica looks like an old hag with white hair, or her eyes are too light, the color of evil. Soulless. I would complain to my parents when I came home from school, but my father assured me I was beautiful and that having the lightest shade of eyes and hair makes me pure. He would say that it keeps the demons out of my head and not to listen to the kids at school because they are just jealous of me and my last name.

---