Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 123575 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 618(@200wpm)___ 494(@250wpm)___ 412(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 123575 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 618(@200wpm)___ 494(@250wpm)___ 412(@300wpm)
“Look, I don’t want to beat a dead horse, but I know there’s something going on. Maybe you’re afraid to tell me or aren’t ready to talk about it. I don’t fucking know. What I do know is that you’re lying to me, and I don’t like it.” Lee pushes off the doorframe, moving closer. “First you ghost everyone, then you stop answering calls and text messages. I mean, you can’t even bother to hang out with me anymore, and now you’re just what? Leaving?”
If he knew that I was only playing the role of best friend, while his real best friend is stowed away in a call at the warehouse, would he be pushing so hard to befriend me?
“I won’t lie, it feels like I don’t even know you anymore.”
That’s because you never did.
“Maybe I’m finally choosing to grow up?” I continue packing, adding some of Aries’s designer clothes to maintain appearances. “I’m not leaving. I’m just taking a break from campus life. We can’t live at The Mill forever. Plus I need to focus my attention on the family business.”
“That’s bullshit.” I pause at the venom coating Lee’s words. “It’s well-known that you hate the family business. For fuck’s sakes, you spent all last semester talking about your plans to break away from it, and how you plan to get out from underneath your father’s thumb.”
He’s right—according to my research, Aries had been planning to reject Father’s company position. Another way my twin tried to distance himself from our family’s sins.
Stupidly, I find myself wanting to explain, to tell Lee the truth. Not because it would hurt Aries—though it would—but because a small part of me craves being honest with the first person who’s shown me real friendship.
It’s a fleeting thought. No point in explaining myself and putting the plan further at risk. It’s bad enough with Lilian knowing what she knows.
Gritting my teeth, I zip the bag closed and turn to him, forcing a smile onto my face that doesn’t feel even a little real. “Weren’t you the one to tell me that people change? Maybe I have too? Maybe this is me trying something new, trying to change.”
“Yeah,” Lee says quietly, “people change, but this isn’t you changing. I know it. You’re my best friend. This feels like…you’re surrendering. Like you’re giving up.”
The newspaper clippings crackle in my pocket as I move around the room. Ten years of carefully constructed lies printed in black and white.
Local Teen Hospitalized After Boating Accident. They didn’t even use my name—just the Hayes youth. It’s almost like I was already being erased. Fuck them. All of them. I remember that day with perfect clarity, and I guess most people would. The day their life ended. The flare gun in Aries’s hand. The look of panic on his face when it went wrong. The split-second decision I made to step forward and take the blame. Not out of brotherhood or love, but because I thought it would finally make them see me. Acknowledge me.
Instead, they saw an opportunity to solve their problem child situation permanently. I’d spent so long trying to be seen, trying to get them to understand me that I never realized how much space they had put between Aries and me. They were preparing him to be the golden child long before they removed me from the picture.
“I’m here for you, man. You’re my best friend.” Lee’s voice slices through the memories, pulling me back to the present.
“You can be my best friend and allow me to live my life. I’m not giving up. I’m exploring my options.”
“Your options?” Lee’s voice carries a note of apprehension with it. Have I blown my cover already? “Do you hear yourself right now? Working for your father was never an option, Aries.”
“Everything is an option. I was just trying to decide.”
Lee shakes his head, but hope shines in his eyes. “Is this about Lilian? I saw you two at the party together. She was here last night.”
The blood in my veins turns to ice, while I try to keep my voice nonchalant. “What about her?”
Lee shifts uncomfortably. “Are we still playing this game? Really? After all this time? I’ve seen how you look at her. The way you danced with her. Word spreads like a wildfire around here.” Fuck. My performance as Aries at the party drew more attention than I intended.
All because I couldn’t resist touching her, marking her as different from the rest of the Hayes family rot.
“Okay? She’s my stepsister,” I say, forcing dismissal into my voice.
“And your point is? You’re only related through marriage, not blood.”
“Dancing with someone doesn’t mean I’m fucking them.”
“It doesn’t mean you aren’t, either.” He winks.
“Drop it, Lee.” And this time, I let some of my real voice seep through—the tone that makes orderlies step back and doctors reach for sedatives.