Page 51 of My Forever Sin

I need proof. I need to end this corrupt council because only then will we be able to live.

I know she’s returned full of vengeance. I can see it, and I’m the only person who can. The act she puts on for everyone else doesn’t get lost on me. If only she would talk to me, then we could do this together, but she thinks I’m working with them.

For now, all I can do is feed her ire, and make sure she doesn’t lose herself in the process.

I focus on her sleeping frame. Her eyebrows are pressed into the middle, a tense look resting on her face.

Climbing out of the car, I move to the passenger side. Without disturbing her, I peel open the door, undo her seatbelt, and scoop her into my arms. Her head rolls around my chest as I kick the door closed and lock the car.

She’s completely out of it, mumbling nonsense. I smile as I take in the smudged makeup, her slightly parted lips, and her messy curled hair. Her breathing is slow and unaware that she’s currently in my arms, or maybe she just refuses to fight me any more tonight.

Misty fog surrounds us as my feet crunch on the gravel. It’s silent, and every step feels like a confession.

“You’ll probably hate me even more for this,” I whisper.

I carry her through the door slowly and carefully in fear I might wake her because when she does wake, her eyes will harden, her voice will be sharp. And she’ll hate me all over again. Wear that anger like her armour. But right here, in my arms, she’s completely defenceless.

With the drugs leaving my system, I use this chance, this silence, to confess what she doesn’t want to hear.

“It wasn’t me,” I start, taking a single step at a time to the first floor through the dark halls. “But, fuck, right now I wish it was. Then maybe you hating me wouldn’t hurt so fucking much.” I round the banister, taking a right down our hallway. “I wish that one day you can forgive me for everything. That, maybe, I’ll finally find what I need to make you realise I had nothing to do with it.” Selfishly, I hold her to me a little tighter as I open the door and carry her over to the bed.

I need to put her down.

But Lord knows I don’t want to.

Inhaling a long breath, I let her sweet, chocolate scent fill my nostrils like I might forget what she smells like.

I glance at the neatly tucked side of her bed—the untouched side, a side I have no business in claiming—and an empty chocolate bar wrapper rests there.

Gently placing her down on white sheets she’ll inevitably be changing tomorrow because she hates dirty bedsheets, I slip off her heels before covering her with the quilt.

Sighing, I move to the door. “We’ll make it through this together,” I whisper before stepping into the hallway shutting her bedroom.

“Where were you?” Dorrian’s voice throws a spiked chain over my calmness.

What is this prick doing up at this time?

“Christening the church forest,” I drawl, pulling a grinder out of my back pocket and facing him, the space between us long.

He glances at it but doesn’t comment. He—they don’t scare me and I stopped caring about their abuse a long time ago. It’s the one thing I don’t need to numb, it just happens on its own.

His muscular arms are folded over his T-shirt clad chest. This is probably the most normal I’ve seen him in years where he’s not wearing a suit. “Was Jordan with you?”

Something’s been shifting in him, and I’m wary of every single one of his moves.

“No.”

“Kain, stay away from her,” he snaps too quickly.

I glare at him but his face doesn’t give anything away. “How do you know?”

“I mean it.”

I sigh. “I can’t hang out with my stepsister now?”

He leans against the wall. “No. She’s off limits.”

I don’t know what his agenda is here, but I’m not playing into it. “I know, dear brother. I’m just looking out for her to make sure she doesn’t get into any more trouble. Wouldn’t want her sent back to St Anton’s.”