No one here wants to hear me out.
I’m the enemy.
I’m the enemy that I’ve tried desperately not to be.
I swallow again as three identical sets of eyeballs aim in my direction.
“You’ve been lying?” Decker says.
“Only about my name and a few small inconsequential details.” I can’t make my voice any louder than a whisper. “I’m not Margie Johnson?—”
“You’re not Margie?” Jack’s brow furrows.
“No. That’s not my real name. But I honestly am your half sister.”
“Make her leave,” Mrs. Sullivan says.
Laney sighs. “She can leave, but it won’t fix what’s broken.”
“They’ll hurt my boys.” Mrs. Sullivan’s voice cracks again.
“No one will hurt—” I start, but Jack interrupts me again.
“Who are you?”
“I’d like to know that too,” Lucky says.
The confusion and hurt in his face—dammit.
This isn’t how I wanted to tell them.
But if there’s one thing that life’s taught me, it’s that you’re never really in control.
You just think you are.
“My name is Margot,” I say, looking at each of my half brothers in turn. I pull my glasses off, grateful when Rhys easily slips them from me and puts them in his pocket. He’shere. Quiet, but I can feel his support. And that means he’s risking a friend.
For me.
Do I deserve that?
Do I?
“I didn’t tell you my real name because—because it’s not—because we’re related to—” I huff out a frustrated breath.
Why won’t the right words come?
Because there are no right words.
“Because she was protecting you,” Rhys says for me.
I cringe.
If I were truly protecting them, I wouldn’t be here.
I would’ve sent a team of attorneys to handle this on their behalf in a way that would make damn sure my father could never hurt them.
So yes.
