Page 390 of Axis of Fire

"You're surprisingly useless."

His eyebrows shot up.

"And you, Anastasia Lang, have absolutely no appreciation for other people's hard work."

I opened my mouth to answer.

But Alicia and her little entourage finally walked away.

Without another thought, I headed straight for Joelle.

She didn't notice me at first.

When she finally did, she frowned immediately.

"Have I been cursed by the Lang family or something?" she asked dryly.

"Were you and Alicia already enemies before I came along?"

I held her gaze.

Joelle let out an exaggerated sigh.

"You were hostile toward me from the very beginning," I continued.

"I remember the way you looked at me the first day we met."

Back then, I hadn't understood what those looks meant.

She'd been the first to provoke me.

The first to push every button she could find.

Now...

She simply stood there in silence.

And I wasn't about to let her avoid the question.

"My roommate during first year..." Joelle said at last. "Was your sister."

I froze.

That wasn't the answer I'd expected.

"But Eugene said you lived alone..."

"We shared a room for three months," Joelle cut in sharply. "Until that bitch destroyed my life."

"What do you mean?"

"Your sister stole the man I was going to marry."

There wasn't a trace of emotion left in her voice.

Just exhaustion.

"And then she made sure the friends I'd grown up with turned against me."