Chapter 22
I found it wedged under the couch cushion, right where I’d left it. The locket. Silver, scuffed at the edges, still faintly warm from the sunlight filtering through the window. My fingers closed around it like it was something
sacred.
Then the door slammed open behind me.
“Well, well, well,” Jenny said. “Caught you.”
I stood up too fast and nearly knocked the coffee table with my knee.
Jenny leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed, an eyebrow cocked so high it could’ve launched into orbit.
Her lips curled into a smile that wasn’t a smile at all.
“Seriously? You?”
I slipped the locket into my pocket and tried not to look guilty. “I was just picking something up. I left it here.”
Jenny took a slow step into the room, her heels clicking against the floor like punctuation marks. Her gaze
swept the lounge, pausing on the couch, the blanket still folded from when Richard had brought it in.
“Funny. I heard Dad’s been keeping someone up here. I thought it was just a dumb rumor-until I realized no
one would tell me who. So I came to see for myself. I didn’t think it’d be you.”
My jaw tensed. “It’s not like that.”
She laughed, quick and sharp. “Right. So you just happened to break in?”
“I didn’t break in,” I said. “Your dad knows I’m here. I’ve been staying for a little while, that’s all. After I broke
things off with Adam, I didn’t have anywhere else to go.”
Jenny blinked slowly. No shock, no gasp. Just a knowing little shrug.
“Of course you broke up. I mean, I’ve been saying for years-there was never really anything solid between you
and Adam. You two didn’t make sense together.”
That stung. She’d said it before, but hearing it now, so casually-like my entire relationship was some
predictable mistake-made my stomach twist.
“I called you,” I said quietly. “The night it happened. You didn’t answer.”
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Chapter 22
She gave a little shrug. “I’ve been busy.”
“Right.”
Jenny’s eyes narrowed. “So you’ve been staying here ever since? Like, actually living here?”
“Not living. Just crashing until I find a place.”
TAD BUNUD
Her gaze hardened. “You and my dad aren’t… something, right? I mean, I’m not saying you are. It’s just… weird
that you’re here and he didn’t say anything to me.”
I flinched. “Jenny, seriously? Is that really what you think of me? That I’d sneak around behind your back? That
I’d throw myself at your dad the second I moved out? Am I really that desperate to you?”
She crossed her arms tighter. “I don’t know what to think. He doesn’t let people stay here. Especially not… like
this.”
I forced myself to stay calm. “Nothing is going to happen. And honestly, if we’re going to talk about
complicated relationships, maybe we should talk about how hard you’ve been trying to make your parents’
story turn out the way you want it to. Like if you just believe hard enough, they’ll pick up where they left off. But
that’s not how people work. That’s not how any of this works.”
Jenny didn’t speak. But she didn’t look convinced either.
“You don’t know anything about my family,” she muttered.
“Maybe not. But I know what I see. And I don’t see two people planning to get back together. I see someone
trying to move forward, and someone else trying to rewrite the past.’
”
Her voice cracked. “They still have dinner sometimes. That means something. They still care about each other.
You don’t know what that’s like.”
“I’m not trying to take anything from you. I didn’t even want to be here. You weren’t answering, and I was falling apart. I didn’t know where else to go.”
“You always make everything about you. Like you’re the victim.”
My hands curled into fists. “You say that like I haven’t spent years trying to earn respect while being looked down on for not having a wolf.”
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