Page 4 of Fallen Legacy

I chew on my lip. “I’m not sure I can ever give you what you’re asking for.”

He shrugs his shoulders at me. “Never say never, princess. Anyway, I have some errands to run. Will you be okay here on your own?”

“Sure,” I reply. “I could come keep you company?”

He shakes his head as he stands to his feet. “I’m going someplace a girl like you is too good for. Just enjoy the quiet time. I’ll be back in an hour, tops.”

“No worries,” I tell him with a nod of my head. It feels too vulnerable to tell him I don’t want to be alone with my thoughts. That I need him to distract me. My nightmares are back. They are plaguing my nights, but it’s not just the nightmares, it’s also the dreams I’m having about Archer fucking Savage. He consumes my sleep. I dream of him touching me and holding me and whispering his sweet lies into my ear.

ELIZA

“You ready for today, princess?” Silver asks me. He grabs his car keys, and we make our way outside to his car.

I nod my head confidently and hitch my bag up over my shoulder. “I’m ready. Fuck all of them.”

Silver grins in approval as he slides into his seat. “There’s the girl I know.”

“Are you ready?” I ask him as I fasten my seat belt. “This could bring trouble your way, you know?”

Silver chuckles as we head down the road towards school. “You mean Savage is going to likely knock ten tonnes of shit out of me?” He shrugs. “Not like we haven’t fought before. At least now we have something worth fighting over.”

My smile falters at his words. “He’d only cause a fight over me because he sees me as his possession.”

Silver bobs his head from side to side. “Maybe. I think maybe you made a bigger impression on Savage than you might want to believe. I’ve seen the way he looks at you when you walk into a room.”

“Yeah, like something he thinks he owns,” I say with a snort. “I’m just a means to an end. To get revenge on my dad and to ensure he gets his inheritance.”

Silver doesn’t reply at first, then he says, “I wouldn’t be so sure.”

When we step out of Silver’s car at school, everyone notices. I take a deep breath and pull my shoulders back, but falter when I spot Archer, the boys, and Vee standing over by their cars. My heart thunders in my chest when our eyes meet across the car park. It hurts seeing him. It hurts seeing all of them.

I see Archer clench his fists at his side. He takes a step forward, but Seb and Rafe hold him back and I can see Seb trying to reason with him.

I turn to Silver in a panic. “I can’t do this. I’m not ready.”

“Come on, you can, and you will, because you have to, Eliza,” Silver urges me, placing a hand at my elbow. With one last look at the four people who are partly responsible for my pain, I turn my head forward and head into school.

Everyone we pass stops what they are doing to stare. Me showing up with Silver was always going to be big news. So much for me just slipping quietly back into school with no one noticing.

“I wish they’d quit staring,” I hiss as we near the main doors.

“And just when we’d hoped that they had removed the trash from our school.”

I look up to find Georgie in our path. Arms folded. She bitch-smiles at me. “Have you finally realised that trash should stick with trash, Eliza?”

Silver goes to speak, but I put a hand on his arm to stop him. I’ll deal with this. “No, George. I realised the real people from the fakes. Now move or I’ll move you.”

She scowls at me but does as I ask and moves to one side. “Bitch finally got her comeuppance,” I hear her gloat to her friends. If only she knew the truth. That I have refused the one thing she has always wanted. The urge to throw it in her face is tempting, but I don’t want everyone at this school to know my business, so I keep my lips sealed and keep walking.

“She is a piece of work,” Silver snickers as we head inside.

“You haven’t been there, then?” I ask him out of curiosity. I mean, Georgie is a poisonous bitch, but even I can’t deny that she’s attractive.

Silver looks at me like I’ve told him the moon is made of cheese. “Have I fuck! I keep to the girls on my side of the bay. The girls at this school only want a guy like me for two reasons.” He holds up a finger. “One, they want to rebel and slum it with a boy from the other side of the bay so that they can say they’ve lived dangerously, and two,” he says, holding up a second finger, “they want to piss off daddy and get his attention. I don’t need that drama in my life.”

* * *

Vee isin my first class of the day, and I feel her eyes follow me as I take my seat at the other side of the classroom. I chance a glance her way and she latches onto it and smiles at me. I immediately look away; I can feel her disappointment from across the room. She was the one girlfriend I had at this school. I thought she was my friend, but friends don’t keep the kind of secrets that she did.

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