12. Penelope

12

PENELOPE

THREE YEARS AGO

I know it’s Linc before I even turn around. “I tell you to stay out of my life, so you follow me?”

I wanted to be alone. I wanted to calm down and recoup, but he can’t just leave me alone.

“Yeah, tailing a fucking bus isn’t easy.” He looks around at the deserted park. The place we met. “This place has really gone to shit. Why did you come here?”

I’m sitting on a bench, looking at the basketball court. He’s right, it was bad back then, but it’s a hundred times worse now.

“I moved around a lot over the years, but somehow this park was always within walking distance. It’s always been a place I could go.”

“What happened to you? What are you so afraid of?”

Why can’t he just drop it? “Nothing happened. I was punched in the face, and that’s it.”

He moves to sit next to me on the bench, his long legs stretched out in front of him as he settles onto the rusty bench. “No. Something must have happened to you at a different foster home for you to want to stay in your current shithole.”

“Two years. I have two more years, and then I’m legally an adult.”

I refuse to look at him as I stare at the empty court in front of us. “Tell me.”

“No.”

“Damn it, P.” Now I turn to look at him. Colt and Linc have a lot of similarities. When you look at them, you can instantly tell they’re brothers. Both have intense eyes. Both have high cheekbones and strong, square jaws. Both devastatingly handsome. The same wavy, thick brown hair. The differences come out when they speak. “You don’t have to pretend to be so fucking perfect all the time. You’re not some fragile flower.”

“I never said I was.”

“Oh, please.” His lips purse in anger, and he doesn’t ease up. “You walk around on eggshells as if someone in my family is going to see the crack in the porcelain doll persona you’ve created.”

“You have no idea what you’re talking about.” Please stop talking. Please . I hate that he sees through me.

He turns his body toward me on the bench, his fury and frustration radiating from him. “You think the Sterlings are so fucking perfect? Take a long look.”

I shake my head, hating the confrontation, but my legs won’t carry me away. My curiosity leaves me frozen. “Your family is more perfect than any I’ve ever seen.”

“Bullshit. My dad is gone all the time, and when he’s home, he’s on his fucking cellphone. All. The. Time.”

His dad has always been preoccupied with work, that’s true. “He’s successful. You should be proud.”

He laughs, and it’s cold and cruel as if I’m some na?ve, little child. “Yeah, I’m sure his mistress tells him how proud she is as he tosses money at her.”

I place my hand over my heart, the shock of his words making it beat faster in my chest. I don’t know if it’s true, but the sureness in his tone tells me it is.

“And my mother . . .”

“Your mother is a goddess,” I interrupt. There’s no way he can have anything bad to say about Nora.

“She’s a doormat.” I look at him, stunned. “She’s always tiptoeing around, keeping everything perfect so my dad won’t leave her, knowing he’s fucking around on her but still desperate to keep him there.”

I shake my head vehemently from side to side, my hand sliding up over my throat, the truth strangling me. “Stop, Linc.”

“Lola doesn’t know who the hell she is. She tries so fucking hard to be like my mother. Asher is withdrawn and acts out at school, and don’t even get me started on Colt.”

“Colt is perfect,” I bite out, angry at Linc for never backing down. I finally will my legs to walk as I stand up from the bench and walk toward the basketball court.

Of course, he follows me, catching my arm and turning me to face him. “He’s afraid of everything, terrified of disappointing dear ole Dad. He’s going to explode one day, P,” I watch his throat bob with anguish, “in a way none of us will see coming.”

“Stop, Linc. Please,” I beg him as he holds my arm, and then he pulls me to his chest, tugging me into a close embrace that I accept because I’m worn out and tired of fighting all my insecurities.

I let him hold my body to his, his large arms enveloping me, making me feel safe. He softly strokes my hair with tenderness, which I didn’t even know Linc had in him. “What happened, P?”

I breathe him in, letting him comfort me for a moment, knowing it won’t be long before we’re butting heads again. “Nothing happened to me, Linc.” I look up at him. “The girl I lived with before this house told me what happened to her at her last foster home.”

I push away from him and walk back to the bench, sitting down feeling defeated.

He joins me, leaning back against the bench, his knees bent casually, but I can feel his tension. “What happened to her?”

I’ve been careful to keep details about my home situation and my reality quiet, but even if Linc grew up privileged, he does seem to understand the harshness of the real world. “Her foster father used to . . .” I swallow, feeling sick just thinking about it, and when I lean forward slightly, wrapping my arms around my stomach, I feel his large hand on my lower back. “He used to rape her. For a full year, he would sneak into her room and do whatever he wanted to her body.”

He doesn’t gasp in shock, and when I dare to look at his face, he doesn’t look horrified, more furious but still calm. “Fuck.”

“Yeah. She even reported it to her caseworker, but the guy lied and said that she was mistaking affection for abuse because of her past. And she had lied about something minor before to get moved out of a different house and has a history of lying, so they didn’t believe her.” I fight a frustrated cry as I look into his eyes, still hunched over. “But I could see it in her eyes. I know she wasn’t lying.”

“I believe you.”

My voice is weak. “I don’t want that to happen to me, Linc.”

His eyes darken as he pulls me to his side, wrapping his arm around me. “I’ll never let that happen to you.”

“I have two more years.” I’ve had a countdown running in my head since my mother left me.

“Move in with us.”

I scoff at that. “I can’t do that.”

“Yes, you can. You have to. It should have happened years ago. My parents adore you, even my dad, and you know he’s an asshole.”

I shake my head and sit up straight. “It takes forever to apply to be a foster parent.”

He shrugs. “Money talks.” He looks determined. “For once, let it do some damn good.”

“I can’t.”

I stand up again, needing to get away from him. He stands behind me as I watch the sun starting to set over the horizon. “Why not?”

I turn to look at him, my eyes serious with no hint of bullshit. “You know why.”

He does. We both know. There’s a tension between us, something I can’t explain. I catch him looking at me, and I’m sure he’s caught me doing the same. It’s wrong. I love Colt, but there’s always been an infuriating, confusing attraction to Linc.

“I’m leaving for college in a few months. You and Colt will be free of me.” He takes my right hand in his. “Just do it so we know you’ll be safe.”

“I don’t know.”

He presses our hands over his heart. His voice barely above a whisper. “I need you to be safe.”

I can’t catch my breath as I feel my hand in his, pressed against his thundering heart.

I know this is a terrible idea, but the only place I’ve ever felt safe my entire life has been with Colt and him.

And yet, it’s also the most dangerous place to be.