Page 93 of A Hurt So Good

“That’s what he said,” I tell him.

“If he is, I never knew about him.”

“With all due respect, Mr. Staton, just how many women did you fuck back then?” Sasha asks him. I bite back a laugh, but dad doesn’t. He laughs. Like, actually laughs at her question.

“I would be lying if I said a few. It was more than that.”

“That’s pretty obvious.”

“We’ve never met. I’m Jarrod,” he says, offering his hand to her.

“Sasha.”

“You look a lot like your mom, Sasha.”

“Thank you. I wouldn’t know what my dad looked like, so I have no idea if I look anything like him or not.”

“Well, that shouldn’t bother you. You’re beautiful like your mom.” Sasha smiles brightly before laying her head on my shoulder. Dad has never met Sasha, and Denz wanted to keep it that way, but we can’t do that anymore. His reasoning was them having the same mom. It didn’t make sense to the rest of us, but to him, it did, and we kept our word of not introducing them until now.

“Are Denz and War handling things?” Dad asks. I nod my head as he nods his. “Do we know anything about this person?”

“Just that he claims to be our brother.”

“That makes no sense.”

“Maybe there’s one you didn’t know about,” I tell him. He lets out a big sigh and nods.

“I suppose there’s always a chance,” he answers.

“I don’t know … I don’t know what to say here. Denz and War are handling it, but if he’s really our brother, that’s pretty fucked up,” I say, thinking about it all. Dad pulls his phone out and sends off a message before he speaks again.

“I’m asking for a photo of his face so I can have someone look into him. If he’s in any database, they’ll find him, and we can confirm.”

“You know he’s a dead man either way, right?” Dad nods his head.

“It seems that’s what he deserves for what he did to Arya.”

We all sit in silence as we wait to hear anything. It’s ridiculous having to wait this long. Dad even lied and told them he was her dad so that we could get information faster. Even that didn’t work.

Sasha’s knee bounces up and down as we wait. My nerves are firing off one by one. Dad got the message back from War and sent off the picture to whoever the hell it is he knows, and now we wait.

It seems like forever when they finally tell us we can see her. The three of us leap from our seats and follow the nurse down to her room. When I step inside, my heart stops. She moves her eyes to look at me, and a single tear falls down her cheek. Dad has to give me a little shove to get my feet moving, but as soon as they do, I’m right at her side. I grab her hand in mine and hold on tightly.

“You scared the shit out of me, Arya.”

“Yeah. If you were going to die, I was going to kick your ass!” Sasha snaps at her. Arya tries to laugh but then brings her hand to her throat.

“The nurse said nothing vital was hit and that you’d have a pretty nasty scar, but you’d be fine,” Dad adds.

“That’s what they told me, too. What’s one more scar, right?” she asks.

“Your scars are beautiful, Arya, just like you are,” I tell her.

“Do you think the others are going to hate it?” I shake my head and laugh a little.

“Have you not met War?” Now, she smiles again.

“This is all so crazy. You guys went out, and this guy came out of nowhere. He had to have gotten in the house somehow.”

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