Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 94513 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94513 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
I sat there, wanting to burst into tears, but refusing to do it. He had a point. I didn’t know. I wasn’t sure they’d look for me or not. But I had hoped I could find them one day, when I had the money to look.
“Halo, Carina told your stepmother about your pregnancy. She’d read your texts. She helped your stepmother pack up the house and leave while you were at work. She wanted to leave you behind.”
“You don’t know that!” I shot back at him, angry that he was making up stuff that wasn’t true.
“Yes, I do,” he said, then reached over and pressed a button on an iPad.
“Hey.” The familiar sound of my sister’s voice filled the room.
“Y’all get packed up and out of there?” Ares asked.
“Yeah. On the road now. And I left the money alone that she keeps hidden in the closet. So, don’t worry.”
I sank back in the chair, listening to voices I knew, but couldn’t understand how they were talking. Ares was at boot camp. How had he called Carina?
“I left the key to the house under the mat out front. I won’t be there when y’all arrive. Got held up.”
“Who the hell is gonna carry the heavy stuff? Nicco won’t be in Mobile to help. He said so after he finished loading us up.”
“I’ll get what you can’t in the morning. Chill.”
“What do you want to eat?” Iris’s voice called out.
“A number two, no tomato,” Carina replied.
“Did you leave her the letter?” Ares asked.
“Mmhmm,” Carina said.
“On the counter, like I said to?”
“Yep. Your favorite sister will see her letter.”
“You’re daddy’s angel. Don’t be a bitch.”
“Yes, I am. Besides, she’s not your sister. Thank God. If she were, your gross obsession with her would be incestuous.”
“Carina, shut up!” Iris barked at her.
“God, you’re a little shit,” Ares snarled.
“Whatevs. I have a burger to eat. Go whack one off, imagining Halo. Just think, she’ll be living in that apartment with you. You can watch her shower all the time now and not use that creepy spy camera,” she said into the phone.
Iris shouted Carina’s name again.
“If you keep on, I’m not helping you move your shit in,” Ares told her.
“Fine. Bye.”
Then, the room went silent.
No one spoke. The words were on repeat in my head. Would there ever come a day that I didn’t have something punch me in the stomach?
“When—” My voice cracked. “When was that call?” Although I’d been able to tell. It was the day they left me. Ares wasn’t at boot camp. He’d not gone. It had been a lie, but why lie about that?
“The night they moved out,” Linc replied. “You didn’t get a note, did you?”
I shook my head, and my throat burned with bile. I didn’t want a note from Ares. What I’d heard … I didn’t want to think about that. It was disgusting. He was my brother.
I was afraid I was about to be sick.
“How did you get that?” I asked.
“We have a lot of connections, and those within our ranks can pull just about anything from anywhere. Did you know Ares wasn’t your brother?”
I looked up at him. “He is. What she said about—” I grimaced, swallowing the sour rise in my throat. “That’s not true.”
Linc sighed, then reached for a piece of paper.
I took it. “What is this?”
“DNA results from a test Ares had done to prove he wasn’t Nick Talley’s son. Seems he had known it for a while, but that was for you. To show to you. I believe it was probably one of the things he left you in the note that your sister didn’t leave for you.”
I handed it back to him and stood up. Holding out two hands, I shook my head. “Please stop. I’m going to be sick. I need air.”
Bane moved quickly, jerking open the door, and I hurried out into the hallway, realizing I had no idea where the nearest bathroom was.
“Here,” Bane told me as he grabbed my arm and led me into a bathroom.
I didn’t look back as I dropped to my knees and heaved.
Sixteen
Halo
Ten Years Old
Standing in the corner of the living room with the basket of clean laundry Iris had given me to fold and put away, I watched Nick and Carina. He had been away for seven days, working on a shrimping boat down on the Gulf. The doll he had brought Carina had silky blonde hair, like hers, and she was clutching it to her chest with a bright smile as she sat in his lap. I thought maybe since he’d been gone so long this time that he’d speak to me or ask about my report card, like he had with Carina and Ares.
Carina’s eyes met mine over his shoulder, and she beamed at me, waving her doll for me to see. I nodded and did my best to smile back. I’d never had a doll like that one. Iris had bought me one at a yard sale once, but its hair had been cut in an odd way, and its face had some marker on it. I didn’t play with dolls anymore anyway.