Series: Cobalt Empire Series by Krista Ritchie
Total pages in book: 234
Estimated words: 226965 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1135(@200wpm)___ 908(@250wpm)___ 757(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 226965 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1135(@200wpm)___ 908(@250wpm)___ 757(@300wpm)
They’re the most exclusive and elusive nights that his family spends together, and it’s one of the greatest Cobalt Empire mysteries. Ben explained how he can’t even describe them to me. To elaborate on what happens during those nights is the ultimate familial betrayal. I would never assume I’d be allowed to attend, not even if we were dating.
“What happened to La-Z-Boy?” he asks me. “You two become a couple?”
I lean more of my weight into Ben, his arm already around me. “Well, not really. He ignored me in school.”
Ben’s eyes darken. “Asshole.”
My heart flutters at his protectiveness. But I quickly say, “No, it wasn’t like that. I preferred that he ignored me. That way, I was able to concentrate on my schoolwork. He never badmouthed me or spread rumors to his friends. He just…invited me over occasionally to have sex and let me sleep in his basement. It was nice, actually. I was sixteen, so…I didn’t have anywhere else to spend the night. Other than my car.” I shrug tensely, but his arm is more secure around me. He’s holding me closer.
It feels better than he realizes.
Ben lets out a deep exhale. Concern has ensnared his face. I can tell what he’s thinking. I know I’ve skirted this topic so many times, and I know he’s patiently waited for more details. So I’m not surprised when he says, “If we’re doing this hard-hitting thing, then I’m going to ask some personal questions, Fisher.”
“I know.”
“Why were you homeless?”
My throat swells. “She kicked me out.” I explain how my mom was on her fourth or fifth boyfriend at the time, and she hadn’t always hated me. Maybe resented me for being smart like my dad. Maybe resented me for caring about school and grades. But no hate. Not at least until I hit puberty.
“It was a flick of a switch,” I tell him. “As soon as I had boobs and men started to notice me—she despised me. I didn’t want their attention. It was fucking gross to have her old nasty boyfriends stare at me. I just had to pretend not to notice. She’d end up cutting things off with them, then turning it around on me, telling me I was the problem. I was wearing slutty outfits to turn them on. I was flirting with them, which was all news to me.”
My esophagus is dry and raw, and my voice sounds scratchier as I keep going. “I could deny it every day. I wanted nothing to do with those dudes, but in her head, I was the source of all conflict. Then she met Wilson, and he was less of a dickhead and more of a moron. But a sweet moron. Someone who brought her roses on Valentine’s and saved their anniversary on his calendar. I tried my best to stay in my room. To avoid. To be invisible. But with Hope, it was impossible. Wilson was just being nice when he bought me a new pair of drumsticks for my sixteenth birthday. She threw them in the garbage, spit-screamed in my face and told me to pack my bags and get out.”
I stare off at the quilt. It’s been almost three years, and I can still hear Hope’s voice ravaging my brain.
“I have had enough of you,” she seethed. “You ruin everything. You don’t know how not to. Get out of here. Go, Harriet. Call your dad and let him deal with you.”
I did call my dad. I hear his voice too.
“Harriet? I can’t talk. I just got paged for an emergency thoracotomy.”
“She kicked me out,” I told him.
There was a pause before he said, “Call your Aunt Helena. I’m sure she’ll let you stay with her. I have to go.” He hung up.
I never asked my Aunt Helena if I could live with her. She’d never leave her little rental in San Francisco, and I wanted to finish school in Pittsburgh. So I just made it work with my Honda and my resolve.
Ben lifts my chin, and my eyes reach his again. His compassion burrows into my body and warms me just like he promised he’d do. “Hypothermia really is impossible with you,” I mutter.
He’s not smiling. “I really hate your parents. What your mom did to you—it makes me viscerally angry. You shouldn’t have had to go through that.”
“Don’t hate my dad,” I whisper. “He didn’t know I lived out of my car. He assumed I went to stay with my Aunt Helena.”
Our legs have tangled, we’re so close now. He tucks a strand of hair behind my ear. The movement so simple yet pulses my heart in unsteady beats. His voice goes hushed too. “Why didn’t you just ask if you could stay with him?”
“Because I was scared of the answer. There’s a chance he could have said no. He made a whole new life for himself after he divorced my mom. One that didn’t include me. His new wife, his son and daughter—they’re everything to him. I always just got the occasional call on my birthday, but that ended when I turned eleven. And for all I know, he could’ve hated me because I have fifty percent of my mom’s DNA.” I raise my chin, looking directly at Ben. “But I have a plan. I’m going to become a trauma surgeon just like him—and then he’ll realize that I’m more Grant Fisher than Hope Danes. Maybe he’ll even let me shadow him and invite me on vacations with my half-siblings.”