Broken Empire A Reverse Harem High School Bully Romance - Callie Rose Page 0,83
neck, molding me against him.
When I pressed against his chest a little, he loosened his grip, not letting me go entirely but giving me room to look up at him.
“I didn’t really do much.” My fingertips trailed over his chest as I spoke. “It was all you. But…” I bit my lip, hoping he wouldn’t take my question the wrong way. “Why didn’t you ever look this stuff up on your own, or try to get help before?”
His gaze went unfocused for a second as he considered that. Then he sighed. “I dunno. I was… embarrassed, I guess. My dad always made it seem like there was something wrong with me. That I was stupid or something. Maybe I started to believe it a little.” Then he shook his head and shrugged, grinning down at me as if he was trying to brush past the vulnerability he’d just shown. “I dunno.”
God. The ways our parents fuck us up.
“You’re not stupid, Finn. Maybe one day you can work with a reading specialist, and they can help you more. But no matter what, you’re not stupid.” I stretched up to kiss him one more time. “And I know you’re gonna kick your finals’ asses.”
Philip called on Friday to ask what my plans were for the summer, and to offer up their house if I needed a place to stay.
I told him I’d think about it, and I meant it.
In actual truth, I’d been so distracted with everything else going on that I hadn’t had much time to consider what I’d do after graduation. At the very least, I could stay with my grandparents for a couple of weeks while I found a place and figured out my next steps. I liked the idea of living on my own though. It felt like it was time.
Scott had given me the go-ahead to cut back on my sessions with him until after I graduated, promising me that once I had more free time, he’d find some new and inventive ways to “torture” me. I knew the day would come, probably sooner rather than later, when I’d have to say goodbye to him. And although it would be a good thing when it happened, I would actually miss the man—and I was sure Philip would miss his best golf buddy.
Cutting back on physical therapy freed up more time to focus on schoolwork, and that was what ninety percent of my brain was occupied with. But there was one thing that kept pricking at my mind, a name that just wouldn’t go away.
Adam Pierce.
If my mom had truly never told her parents who the father of her baby was, maybe I would never find out whether my dad was Leo Parker or Adam Pierce or someone else entirely.
But I couldn’t just let it go that easily.
Erin had refused to tell me who’d hired her, honoring the person’s wish to remain anonymous. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that it had been Adam Pierce—and that if I could just find him, I could get answers to so many burning questions about my mother, my life, even myself.
Cole left on Friday to go home for the weekend like usual, and on Saturday, Mason, Elijah, and Finn all had a field trip. Leah was back home too, so I decided to take advantage of the quiet around campus to dig through every document and piece of paper Erin Bennett had given me. She wouldn’t tell me who had hired her, but maybe there would be something in one of them that would give me a clue.
I pulled everything out of my desk drawer and spread it out on the floor in the living room, using the opportunity to stretch my hamstrings while I meticulously combed through the pages. I had copies of court filings she’d made, but there was no mention in any of them who had hired her, just who she was representing.
The question that kept nagging at me was why, if Adam Pierce actually was my father and had hired Erin to free up my trust, he hadn’t wanted me to know he’d done it.
Unless he was trying to honor my mother’s wishes somehow? To keep the truth of my paternity a secret just like she had done?
Why, though?
It made no fucking sense.
Frustration built up inside me as the pile of papers left to comb through dwindled, and the pile I’d already examined grew taller and taller. When I was finally out of documents, I got up