“You framed me and sent me to prison, and you want to know why I didn’t call you when I got pardoned?” Peter took a deep breath, trying to school his expression. He failed, leaning forward and snarling, “Fuck you!”
Angela rolled her eyes. “You weren’t pardoned, Peter. Your new mother-in-law fixed things so that her son buying an omega from the delinquency program wouldn’t become public knowledge. And for the record, I didn’t frame you.”
Peter’s rage turned to fear. How did his sister know that the pardon was fake?
Seeing the question on his face, Angela sighed. “Peter, you wouldn’t have the first idea of how to get a pardon. Also, I spoke to some of the employees from the local matching center and one of them recognized you.”
“Why did you do that?” Peter asked, the rage gone from his voice, leaving it hollow and weak.
His sister could ruin everything.Again.
“All I want is the password you wrote down on the banking form I had you sign.” Angela leaned forward, her expression soft and reasonable. “Give me that and I won’t mess up this new life you seem to have made for yourself.”
“I really fucking hate you,” Peter said, hugging his arms over his chest.
“I know,” Angela said with a tight smile. “But for the record, I didn’t think that there was a real risk that we would get caught. Our lawyer said the likelihood of being audited was almost zero. And when you were arrested, I figured… judges tend to go easy on omegas. Better you get a year in prison than I get ten.”
Peter hugged himself tighter, looking away from his sister and her awful excuses. “I got sentenced to ten years, you bitch. So fuck you and what youfigured.”
Angela was quiet for a moment.
“That surprised me,” she finally said. Peter looked at her, surprised to see that there was real regret on her face.
It might have been convincing if he didn’t know that she had spent his sentencing day at a resort in Mexico.
“Your alphas, are they nice?” Angela asked, a hopeful note in her voice that made Peter think she might actually care just a tiny bit.
“Pretty nice,” Peter said. “All things considered. They didbuyme.”
That made Angela wince, and Peter was glad. He wanted to hurt her.
“I don’t remember the password, but if it was for banking, I probably used my banking password. It’s Pebbles-thirty-two, with a capital P. There may be a dash between the three and the two, or between Pebbles and Three. If it’s not that it would be Angela-one-two-three with a capital A.”
Angela nodded, taking out her phone. “Thank you, Peter. Let me check that right now.”
Peter watched as Angela typed away on her cellphone, a look of satisfaction settling on her features a few minutes later.
“Thank you, Peter. That was the right password.”
“You won’t tell anyone about the pardon thing?” Peter asked, a lump in his throat making his voice sound weird.
Angela shook her head. “No, I’m happy that things worked out for you. It makes me feel not so… guilty.”
“You should feel guilty,” Peter hissed. “You ruined my life.”
“Did I?” Angela asked, looking around. “Far as I can tell, your life isn’t ruined.”
“It could have been,” Peter said. “It was really stupid of me to enter the matching program.”
It was the first time Peter admitted to himself just how terribly he’d fucked up. He was so lucky that Tex and Carver had chosen him, but it could have gone so very wrong.
There were some awful alphas out there.
“I’m glad it worked out,” Angela said. “I know you don’t want me here, so I’m going to leave. If you ever want to talk… give me a call.” She handed him a business card.
“I probably won’t,” Peter said, putting the card in his pocket.
There was a tense moment of silence, and Angela sighed.
