Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 72496 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 362(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72496 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 362(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
I nodded to the DJ and then stood, holding my hand out to Bella.
She looked up at me, her clear green eyes so captivating my breath caught in my throat.
She leaned up and pressed a gentle kiss to my mouth.
I would have preferred rough.
The gentle kiss was too intimate.
Vulnerable.
And a reminder of what I would never have with her. Ever. What I gave up the minute I said yes to Junior’s request.
She ran a hand through my hair and turned toward the crowd. “Lights.”
The lights completely shut off, revealing all of the video screens on the walls, videos, pictures, and below them written in glow in the dark paint, the names of all of the people who were confessing.
Everything was recorded previously for us to keep account of.
“I cheated on my boyfriend with my best friend.”
“My mom and dad are embezzling money from the city.”
“My family is broke.”
“My family is involved in a drug trafficking ring.”
“I cheated my way to get to Eagle Elite.”
“I think I’m a vampire and my parents put me on medicine, but I can’t tell anyone because my dad is running for senate.”
“I poisoned my professor.”
On and on the confessions went, we allowed at least ten minutes of them. Bored, I finally lifted my hand and nodded to the other girls. We all grabbed the red paint cans next to our chairs and walked back down to the corner of the room, some called it haunted, others refused to even look at it.
It was an outline of a fallen De Lange. A relative.
The outline was from the time when the notorious Mil De Lange was killed by her own brother for betrayal, for keeping secrets in order to profit from them—she betrayed Chase Abandonato, Bella’s uncle, she betrayed the Five Families with her secrets, which is why it was so important that they were confessed here if you wanted protection and loyalty from us.
The exchange was high—but the power and prestige the students received was higher, and in the end, it gave us little soldiers around the school doing our bidding, protecting us because they knew in the end we protected them.
Bella walked up to the white outline with the small white candle on the table next to it and grabbed the brush from her paint can and drew an X over the body. “Blood.” She swiped.
“In.” Lydia followed.
“No,” Raven whispered, making another X.
“Out.” Tempest finished.
When it was my turn, my hand shook as I grabbed my own brush, knelt down and drew a final X over theirs, as if to represent the Five Families, and made a cross in front of me. “Amen.”
Anya and Ariel stepped forward and poured vodka over the floor, then each of them tossed a match into the alcohol.
“Your sins,” Anya whispered.
“Are now accepted and forgiven…” She looked up and smiled. “Let’s have a great year.”
The videos clicked off, and the music started again. We left the paint cans as students started dancing once more.
I still stared down at the outline of her body.
She’d been young.
Stupid.
Greedy.
She was my blood.
And I hated her for it even though I never knew her.
The ending of my story wouldn’t be like that, if I went out it wouldn’t be because I betrayed the Families or my own.
If I died—when I died.
It would be because I did what she couldn’t.
Save them all.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“I never worry about the past or the future, the present is the most scary because how do you prepare for what you’re already going through? You can’t. You fucking can’t.” —King Campisi
Bella
Four days later
I hated funerals.
I told myself I wouldn’t cry—that I needed to be strong for my sister even if that meant all I did was feed Bam-Bam fruit snacks and hold his hand. He didn’t understand and kept looking up at me, asking where dad was.
I couldn’t get the words out.
I simply looked at him and shook my head, afraid I’d break, afraid I’d cry, and I knew Serena had already done as much as she could.
She was sitting still as a statue in between Phoenix and Bee. Her face was covered with black lace from her hat, but I could still see the fact that she’d already cried off all her makeup.
Every single one of the guys that got up to speak burst into tears. I’d never seen anything like it in my life, some of the toughest men in the world brought to their knees.
Undone.
The church was at capacity, loads of family flew in from Italy, New York, and Seattle. I recognized some of them, but hated making eye contact because it just meant they’d give me a sad smile or tell me that this was Family business.
It wasn’t though.
It wasn’t fair.
And it sure as hell wasn’t fair that Ivan sat still next to me like he wasn’t the one who held the knife. Nobody as much as blinked in his direction, people still gave him a head nod of respect.