Bitter Kisses (It's Just High School #3) - Thandiwe Mpofu Page 0,115
me I don’t deserve your brother and that I sit on a throne of lies.”
“Okay, I admit it. I’m a hypocrite.” I chuckle humorlessly, but he just goes on. “I was wrong, cupcake. Julian’s the one who doesn’t fucking deserve you.”
“We don’t deserve each other,” I say instead, then swivel around to look at him. “Apparently, he deserves a Bishop twin. Or both.”
And bingo!
Liam’s face clouds with anger, turning red like a freaking fire engine truck. I see his hands ball into fists at his sides.
“Apparently,” is all he says.
“That’s all you have to say about that?” I probe, watching him intently. “Come on, Liam, I know you must have something to say about your new in-laws.”
“I. Don’t,” he grits out. I know I should drop it but me being a self-damaging bitch who claims to not want anything to do with Julian from this point on, can’t help but prob the wound deeper with a singular intent. Drawing enough blood for all of us to drown in the misery that’s been taking me down from the day I met Julian Fitzgerald.
“Well, that’s not what I heard,” I say calmly. From the corner of my eye, I see him studying me, tracing every step I take. I can see him debate whether or not to bite the bait.
“What do you mean?” he finally demands after a while.
“Well, just the other night, I had a little interesting and highly informative chat with Roxy Bishop.”
“You did?”
“Shocking, isn’t it? She came to visit me.”
Liam frowns, just barely. “She visited you? In the hospital?”
It looks like he doesn’t know Roxy was originally visiting someone who’s in here. Or someone who was in here. Urgh, that girl is a fucking mystery that makes my head ache.
“She said she heard I was here, and she came to…” What did she come to do? Rub in my face that she’s getting married to Julian? Or is it about Liam?
“Come on, Mia. Don’t have a brain fart now and leave me hanging! I fucking hate cliffhangers,” he mumbles.
“Hey, I was thinking! I have no idea why she really came, but she knew where to find me and what happened to me. Does everyone else know?”
“What do you know?” he questions, folding his arms as he leans back on the wall beside the door.
“Uh, I know Sean is dead.”
“Good fucking riddance.”
“Shane is missing.”
He scoffs at that, a hard glint in his eyes. “Not for long. I promise you that.”
“Wait, what does that mean?” I demand.
“Never mind that, what else do you know?”
“No, don’t wave your hand at me like a little beauty pageant diva. What do you mean by not for long?” I demand.
I really study Liam now. To be fair, he was always a bit reserved and unpredictable but now, I have no idea what to make of him at the moment.
“Trust me cupcake, the less you know, the better. You’ve been through enough already and frankly, someone will have my head if I involve you in something not even he knows about.”
“Julian doesn’t know?” I frown. Julian usually knows everything about his brother. Even the things Liam thinks he doesn’t know. “Are you two doing okay?”
“Well, as much as we can when you discover your brother’s been keeping quite a pile of shit from you.”
Ah, of course.
Julian takes overprotective to the farthest degree. I’m not surprised that this time, it pushed Liam over the edge. I guess it explains the hints of anger in his dark gaze.
“What do you mean?” I ask softly.
With a heavy sigh, Liam briefs me on everything about his family, John’s mother, the fact that Courtney is the worst mother-bitch ever who seemingly disappeared for some reason. And then he finishes with the marriage contract bullshit he didn’t know about until the day I was abducted.
“Wait,” I whisper. “Aidan was your uncle?”
“Yup.”
Oh God. That explains some of the heaviness I could sense from Julian as he held me in his arms a few night ago. Then there was the guilt of what happened to me. I could hear it in his voice.
He’s been through so much but still held me as I cried in his arms. He took care of my need of wanting to connect and see if my body is still attractive. He paid attention to me through it all.
“And your mother—” I start but he cuts me off angrily.
“Her maternal rights have been revoked, please feel free to call her by her government name or better yet, la bitch.”