from me.
“This dinner is to decide what to do with the families.”
“Founding families?” My heart rate picks up at the words. Founding families. The ones who supposedly held all this power.
“Yes. They’re what makes this town thrive. Our parents decide what’s to come, what is needed of us.”
I don’t understand why or how, but I nod anyway so he doesn’t stop talking.
“Since Cass is gone, they want you in the mix. The only problem is, you’re not trained or even slightly prepared. It’s bullshit.”
“What do you mean?”
He grimaces, cupping my jaw a moment later. “It means that you’re not mentally or psychologically prepared for what is about to happen, but, Colt...” He pauses, tracing my jaw with his thumb. “I really fucking need you to pretend. Act like you’re confident. That none of this bothers you. Keep yourself fucking safe. You got me?”
An ache festers between my ribs as the heat of his palms brings me no comfort. Not wanting to show him my weakness, I don’t tell him, but I’m terrified. Between Yang’s murder, and my fear of what Cass was a part of, I’m feeling anything but confident.
“Colt,” he tries again, his hold fiercer, and my eyes connect with his. The emotion he never allows to show is there. Fear. Palpable. Realistic. Graspable. “Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
He drops his hands and acts as if we didn’t just have a conversation that bordered an intimacy we’ve never shared. Instead of making a joke or lessening the intensity of the moment, we head inside the tower.
We—as students—aren’t really allowed in this particular tower. It’s off-limits and incomplete. Literally, the last ten floors up top are supposedly empty. It’s barren and messy, incomplete, and unnecessary, a result of making a building too large for too little occupants.
I follow him like the good little Hudson I’m supposed to be. Am I about to lose everything I hold dear?
Lux, along with everyone else, has dispersed, and I’m here, trying to navigate this place, wondering where everyone is and what exactly I’m supposed to be doing. I haven’t seen my parents or any of the others; it’s almost like they’re in some secret meeting and I’m an outsider. Ross waited for me while I showered but after I dressed, but he was gone. If he’s supposed to be my bodyguard or person to stop me from escaping, he’s doing a shit job of it.
Rounding one of the halls, I notice a room that’s lit up but only dimly. It’s one of those business-like meeting rooms, like in the Crystal Tower, where we’d have all of our student council meetings.
Voices filter through my ears the nearer I get. They’re too mumbled, too hushed, and too close to gibberish for me to decipher anything clearly.
Tiptoeing my way to the opening, I make sure to check around me, hoping no one notices my snooping.
“What about the baby?” a man I don’t recognize asks someone.
Turning to peer into the room, I see two figures. One is most definitely a woman, and the other is a man. Right now, she’s sitting in a fancy antique-looking chaise lounge, her face hidden from me.
“Solomon will be okay. I’ll raise him,” she states. It’s a lot more confident than her facial expressions show.
Who is Solomon?
“Who is his father?”
“I-I’m not sure,” the woman mumbles, her face breaking with worry. “She never mentioned a father.”
My heart hammers, my breathing heavy and overwhelming. Who is her? Why is this baby important? I’m so confused.
“If that’s the case, we will have to take the child and raise him in the estates as every orphan child is raised.”
The woman breaks into a sob while the man stares at her. No one has seen me, but I feel like I’ve walked into a different dimension, one where girls babies are up for debate, and somehow, they are raised with random ass people. Already, I feel a closeness to this child, the need to protect the stranger lighting up my entire frame with desperation.
“P-please don’t take my grandson away, Xavier.”
Xavier.
Xavier.
I roll his name around on my tongue, wondering where I’d heard it before. Xavier Clemonte. Fuck.
“Your tears do nothing for me. This child is no more than an extension of the Emeralds’ future. He’s the first male born in your family name for decades. He must stay at the Edgington Estates along with the other abandoned children.”
“P-please,” she whimpers, and my heart aches for her. I can feel her attachment, the love she has for that child in the simple