Page 162 of Anton

There’s a soft knock on the hospital door before I see her face. Blair enters with tears streaked in her eyes that she tries to hide, blinking them away.

“Hi,” she sniffles, coming to my bedside. “I leave you alone for a few days and you get your ass kicked?”

She shakes her head with a broken laugh, then throws herself at me, tenderly hugging me until both of us are crying.

“In my defense, I wasn’t actually looking for trouble this time.”

She sighs, gripping my fingers as she backs off. “When Jace called to tell me you were hurt, my heart dropped. I thought…” She clears her throat. “I’m just happy you’re alive.” Adjusting herself on the edge of the bed, she asks, “What happened? When I got here a few days ago, no one would tell me anything.”

“I promise I’m okay now. Except for this nagging headache, which the docs have said is normal for the extent of my injuries.”

I still can’t believe Charlie—no, Drew—did this to me. That he’s not even Charlie. That he’s…my brother.

“What the hell happened?” she asks again.

I don’t even know where to start, so I start at the very beginning. “My real name is Penny.”

When I finish, her expression is filled with a mix of disbelief and empathy.

“For twenty-five years, I thought I knew exactly who I was,” I tell her. “And it turns out the whole thing was built on top of a lie. I don’t know how the hell I’m supposed to feel. I still love my family, but they stole my whole identity. How do I move on? How do I grieve the person I was?” A tear slips sideways into my hair. “Is that insane? Grieving a stranger who happens to be me?”

“Absolutely not. This is some Lifetime movie shit, okay?” She presses two fingers into her temple. “You can feel however you want to feel. Want to break something? Go ax throwing with your parents’ faces on the other end? I’ll join, because I’m pissed for you.” She lowers on the bed beside me, both of us staring at the ceiling. “But I know they love you. However they got you, they love you. Not that I’m excusing them in any way, shape, or form, but life…it’s complicated.”

“I know.” Exhaustion fills me. “And Drew? How am I supposed to feel about him?”

I skip the part where Anton plans to kill him. And if he doesn’t kill him, my family will. He is beyond saving, and there’s nothing I can do about it.

“Don’t decide anything today.” She squeezes my fingers. “There’s no handbook for this.”

I nod, inhaling a shallow breath. “My heart hurts for him, and if what he said about my bio parents was true, then they were monsters.”

“Shit, if they did keep him locked in a basement, I can imagine the lasting trauma, especially after he watched them die too. That kid never stood a chance.”

“Exactly. I don’t know if I can forgive him. Not yet. Maybe not ever. But I understand him, and a part of me still aches for the kid he used to be.”

“You and your wounded animals.” She laughs.

“What can I say? I’m a sucker.”

“Nah, you just have the biggest heart of them all.”

CHAPTER FIFTY

ANTON

FIVE DAYS LATER

With her blessing, I stand inside her family’s barn, facing the man I’m about to kill.

Her brothers and father are behind me, all of them watching the piece of shit who nearly murdered Thora face his reckoning. I know she feels bad for him, but she understood why this had to happen. His death was set in stone the second he took her.

In our world, no one comes back from something like this. Brother or not.

“What did you think would happen?” I ask as Jace passes me my katar. My fingers slide around the H-shaped handle, the blade ready to find its home in his stomach before I rip him open. “I’m going to enjoy killing you slowly.”

“Of course you would.” Drew chuckles from the ground, tied up and sitting with his knees drawn to his chest. “You’re all killers.”

“And what are you?” I drag the edge of the blade over his scalp, watching him shudder. “You killed your own aunt. You were going to kill Thora too, if I hadn’t gotten there in time.”