Defiant Princess (Boys of Oak Park Prep #2) - Callie Rose Page 0,1

the bus stop. I’d been back in Idaho for two and a half months, and I could tell I’d lost ground in my strength and flexibility. I hadn’t danced since the last week of classes at Oak Park—partly because I didn’t have the time or money to go to a studio here, and partly because even dancing made me think of the Princes, and I wasn’t ready to face that.

Instead, I’d thrown myself into work, juggling two jobs and picking up extra shifts whenever and wherever I could. It kept me out of the foster home I’d been placed in as much as possible, and when I was there, I was usually asleep.

Mina, the woman who’d agreed to foster me, had two other kids living at her place as well. She was doing it for the money and no other reason, which meant she didn’t even try to enforce any kind of curfew or house rules on me. As long as I didn’t get myself arrested or make her look bad when Child Protective Services did their check-ins, she didn’t give a shit what I did.

Janet Pelletier had sat me down for a long interview after retrieving me from the airport the day I got back. I’d half expected Jacqueline to have completely turned her against me, convinced her I was a total juvenile delinquent who’d be better off behind bars than in the system, but Janet’s treatment of me was entirely neutral. Maybe she was just trying to cover her own ass, since she was the one who pushed so hard for me to go stay with my grandparents in Roseland.

She’d promised she would work hard to find a home that would be a good fit for me. But either she’d lied, or—more likely—there just weren’t that many good options available.

I probably should’ve been glad to be placed in a house where no one really cared where I went or what I did. It made my revenge plans easier to pursue. But “no one cares about me” is a pretty shitty mantra to live your life by, and when I thought about the two remaining blood relatives I had left in the world, my chest ached like there was a black hole in my heart.

For just a little while, I’d let myself believe in the optimistic picture Janet had painted when she’d first told me about Jacqueline and Philip. Had let myself believe there might be a family out there who loved me. I’d realized pretty quickly after arriving in Roseland that I’d never have that kind of relationship with my grandparents.

But I hadn’t expected things to end so badly.

Reaching up, I brushed my fingertips along the curve of my cheekbone as I gazed down the street to watch for the headlights of the bus. The bruise that Jacqueline’s stinging slaps had left on the side of my face had faded long ago, but just like my memories of the Princes, I swore I could still feel it sometimes. As if it’d all happened yesterday and not months ago.

It’s over, Talia. Let it go.

But I wouldn’t.

I couldn’t.

I prayed daily for the memories to fade into obscurity, to become fuzzy, half-remembered images in my mind. But at the same time, I nurtured them, clung to them, refusing to let them go.

As painful as it was, I didn’t want to forget. I wanted to remember every lie the Princes told me, every false promise and empty look. Because if I ever forgot those things, maybe I’d forgive them for what they did.

And I could never do that.

When the bus finally rolled up, I slipped on board and made my way to the back. A homeless man slept in the handicapped seats by the back door, sprawled out across the bench—I wasn’t even sure the driver knew he was there, but I didn’t say anything as I settled into my own seat. In the dim white light of the bus’s interior, I tugged a sheaf of papers out of my backpack and paged through them.

I’d gone over it all before, but I kept looking anyway.

Mina didn’t have wifi—she claimed it was so none of her foster kids could abuse it—but I’d been going to the public library on my days off or in between shifts, using the computers there to do research on the Prescott, Van Buren, Whittaker, and Mercer families.

The Princes had taught me that. I’d seen them dig up information on Evan Baxter’s dad and use it to destroy his