Page 30 of Never the Same

Trevor noticed me next and waved, then nudged Reed in the side as if to get a move on.

“Celeste?” At my mother’s use of that name, I slowly peeled away from the object of my strange affection and turned to face her and my brothers, who remained quietly hovering by the door, watching me.

“Where’d Reed and his teammates sleep?” I looked to Gideon for an answer, but when he remained quiet, I shifted to my mother. To staring down the woman I’d surely have become one day, or maybe already was, if my memories hadn’t been stolen.

“The men are staying in the bunkhouse where the stablehands used to sleep when we kept horses here.” Before I could ask her why, she plucked an answer from her ice-cold universe and delivered it to me with quite the punch, so much so her words sent me to the bed to sit. “They’re not one of us.”

“Just because they don’t share our laundry list of names doesn’t mean—”

“It does, in fact, mean they’re outsiders.” She doubled down on her tone, then hit me with some major side-eye, as if saying, How dare you think otherwise.

I clearly inherited her spine of steel, refusing to back down. “Well, I feel more connected with the men out there than I do with you three. And why, pray tell, do you think that is?”

She didn’t seem amused at my attempt to throw Old English back at her. The sneer haunting her lips was as hurtful as the look in her eyes. “You have a weakness, my daughter, and that’s wanting what you can’t have.” She leaned forward and had the nerve to cup my chin like I was a small child in trouble. “I blame your father for that. Treating both his daughters like priceless artifacts, giving you two whatever you want, not always what you deserve.”

My insides shook, insulted by a woman I didn’t even know. Something told me our relationship had always been superficial and rarely more than skin deep.

“That’s enough, Mother.” That was the first time I’d appreciated the sound of contempt from Gideon’s voice. “She’s—”

“This is her fault, and we all know that. Don’t make excuses for her. She’s always chasing after some new thing, wanting what she can’t have, and once she finds what she’s looking for . . . she gets bored.”

Well, when you put it that way. Damn. I wouldn’t like me, either.

“We don’t know what happened to her, but this is not helping.” Gideon to my defense, again.

She stared at me, unblinking, continuing to hold on to me, and I hated that I remained stuck in some stupor, not fighting back.

“So help me, I won’t set a hand on you, but if you don’t back away from her, Hollis will remember who she is, and you know damn well the daughter you raised. She hasn’t lost to you in a decade.” Gideon’s threat lingered in the air—but what in the world was he talking about?

“My daughter’s name is Celeste, not Hollis.” She gave me a firm squeeze and let go. “And calling yourself that name, playing pretend as some normal girl with your friend Audrey”—she smoothed a hand over her bracelets, righting them in place—“just proves my point. You only want that life because it doesn’t belong to you. It’s beneath you.”

Beneath me? Rage burned up into the back of my throat. Who was my real enemy here?

She flicked at the last bangle. “You only want that soldier out there because he’s not interested in you—isn’t that right, Gideon? He said that man can’t stand you, which is one reason Gideon’s not comfortable with Reed sharing a roof with you.” She casually lifted a shoulder. “At least Reed has some good sense, knowing he could never be—”

“Stop,” I cut in this time, my stomach turning with disgust. “You can talk shit about me if you want, but leave everyone else out of it.” I abruptly rose, standing my ground, as I should have done a few insults ago.

“Don’t listen to her.” Julian circumvented both obstacles in his way to get to me. “She’s trying to bait you. Get you to fight. See if you’ll snap back to yourself that way.”

Well, she did have me up on my feet, hands balled into fists at my sides. The fighter in me was awake. My memories? Not so much.

“You two spar. Fence. Train together. And as Gideon said, you haven’t lost a fight to her in ten or more years, and it’s destroying Mum to see you so—”

“Weak,” she interjected, hitting me right where it already hurt.

I may have been a shell of a person, just the ghost of who I once was, but something told me she believed what she’d said about me.

“I already know Jason . . . um, Reed, doesn’t like me. He told me last night.” I didn’t need to tell them how I found that out, though. “He was honest with me from the get-go.” As for the other stuff she said about wanting what I couldn’t have? I had no defense without any memories to fall back on.

“And you still trust him?” Julian asked me.

“I do,” I whispered, then zeroed in on the woman who’d apparently picked a fight with me in the hope that I’d wake up from this nightmare. “You win this round,” I surrendered. “As for the next one?” A light grunt left my barely parted lips. “You better hope I stay living in the dark for as long as possible, because I’m guessing the real me won’t forget or forgive you for this.”

She flicked her wrist like a command toward Julian. “When you three are done here, take her to the vault. Remind my daughter who she is.” She glared at me. “Until then . . . I’ll go clean up whatever mess I’m sure you got our family in.”

Chapter Ten

Hollis