“You got your memories back?” I hedge.
She ignores my question as she keeps her attention on her brother. “To teach is to learn. To learn is to excel. To excel is to thrive. To thrive is to live.”
Masen splutters, “Please?—”
She cuts him off before he can continue. “I lost everything. I had no memory of what happened that entire week and it’s only now that I realize I didn’t forget everything, did I, Mase?” Her tone is cold and full of rage. She pushes to stand so I help her. She ignores the presence of everyone else in the room except for her brother.
“Toren—”
She doesn’t let him finish. “I remembered that fucking chant,” she yells, making him flinch. “That stupid fucking phrase kept me sane. Do you know what it’s like to have the whole world against you? Become a fucking meme?” She’s screaming now, but no one dares to interrupt her. “I had my whole life stripped from me. You let our own father send me the fuck away for somethingyoudid!” I recoil and stare down at her in utterfucking disbelief. Steven moves and stands beside his son with a scornful look on his face.
“That’s enough, Toren. We can continue this discussion at home,” he chides her like she’s a fucking toddler.
“Fuck you, Dad,” she grits out. “You locked me up for a fucking year!” Steven doesn’t react or even show an ounce of remorse. “You blamed me for something I didn’t do. You let me believe the lie you told.”
Where the fuck was she for the past year?
When Kellan’s father whispers something in his ear, it catches her attention. She looks over at him and scoffs in disgust.
“You lying sack of shit.” Kellan stands there with a ghost of a smile on his smug fucking face. “You knew the truth the whole fucking time. You allowed me to be blamed and used. You’re a fucking vile son of a bitch and I hope you burn in hell.”
“Not before you do,” he claps back.
“Shut the fuck up, Kellan,” Masen hisses.
“Oh, fuck off, Kellar. The gig is up. She knows and it’s time to stop hiding from it. So fucking what, Toren?” Kellan taunts as he throws his arms in the air. “We lied. You got screwed over. Doesn’t change the present though, does it?”
“It changes everything, Kellan!” Toren says in a tone bordering on devastation and resolution. She turns to her brother and something inside her shifts. “You were my everything.” Masen sucks in a sharp breath. “It was me and you, Mase. I didn’t need anything else so long as I had you. You were my light in the dark, my knight, but then you stabbed me in the back.”
The sight of tears filling his eyes stumps me. I look over at Cas to gauge his take on this, only to find him looking as fucking perplexed as I feel. I look over at Lorenzo and Frank and narrowmy eyes to slits—those fuckers know. Whatever it is she isn’t saying, they already know.
“I’m so sorry,” he chokes out.
Toren scoffs then turns to me. My face is void of all emotion. I watch as she reaches up and unclasps her necklace. She reaches out and grabs my hand, then places it inside my palm. When our eyes clash, fresh tears leak from her eyes.
“She was so beautiful,” she whispers through her tears. My face slackens. I try to open my hand to see what she put in there but she covers it with hers.
“Tink,” I growl.
She ignores the warning as she carries on. “She kept me grounded, she helped me… heal.”
My brows bunch. “Who?”
I see it in her eyes, she’s begging for me to understand without asking it. “When I was sent away, I met a beautiful girl who was so kind, her kindness meant everything to me in that moment. She was fierce and loyal. I always wondered why Harper would never speak to her or ever include her in our group hugs. She would only answer if I asked her something. It used to grate on my nerves but now I understand. She was never there for Harper, she was there for me, to make sure I made it out of that place so I could keep my promise I made to her the night of the crash.”
“Who the fuck are you talking about, Toren?” Fury laces every word. I’m barely holding onto my composure, and knowing in my gut who she is talking about is fucking tearing me apart.
“Emery,” she breathes her name with a soft smile. I tug my hand free and take a step back, glaring at her.
“You think you’re fucking funny?” I hiss.
“Her last words were,tell Xay I love him.” The fucking room spins. I look down and the sight of the gold heart pendant Ibought my sister on her birthday ten years ago stares back at me tauntingly. The fucking necklace she has been wearing from the moment she arrived here. She had it this whole fucking time!
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
TOREN
Xaden hasn’t said a word, Lorenzo ushered us all back downstairs to the dining room and we’ve been sitting here in tense silence for the past ten minutes. I can’t look at my brother. The sight of my father and Kellan disgusts me. They all knew the truth, yet they let me believe I was a killer!
