Mercy (Somerset University #3) - Ruby Vincent Page 0,1

A wonderland of gold and white, draped in elegance for the mingling alumni to enjoy. I spotted Sofia among one such group, but Jade tugged me on before I could think to go to her.

“Once I realized I was being silly,” Jade continued, “I took up your task.”

“My task?”

Jade stopped behind a group of people and tapped a shoulder covered in blue ruffles. “Say hello to our new president.”

The woman turned. My breath caught, held by the fist that punched my gut. Eyes gaping, I looked at her, connecting the person before me with the one I met over a year ago and coming up with one name.

Teagan Kainer.

“Teagan?”

“Hi,” she said cheerily. “It’s great to see you again. I can’t believe the hopeful I talked to all those months ago is now the president who organized this. Isn’t it amazing, babe?”

The guy next to her faced me, sliding his arm around her shoulder. Sawyer Burn smiled even wider than Teagan. “Incredible. Hey, is Ezra around?” he asked. “We’ve gotta catch up.”

I couldn’t answer. Couldn’t think. Couldn’t comprehend what I was seeing in front of me.

“I’m so happy they accepted the invite,” Jade said. There was a blatant note of triumph lacing her voice. What she had won, I had no idea.

She gripped my hand tighter.

“Once a sister, always a sister.”

Chapter One

Maverick

Val was whisked away from me so fast, I lost her in the crowd.

The party was for the alumni of Zeta Rho Sigma and Nu Alpha Theta. As I scanned the crowd, I noticed that included a fair amount of Evergreen’s high society. I wanted to believe this many influential people couldn’t be involved in the mystery behind this Greek façade. I wanted to, but I better than anyone knew that secrets were woven in the thread of this community. It’s basically what it was founded on.

There.

A wisp of blue chiffon caught my eye. I veered away from an incoming server and made a beeline for Valentina, seeking her bobbing head over the crowd.

“Ricky.”

A hand on my shoulder pulled me up short. I barely got the greeting out before my dad slammed me to his chest, pounding me on the back, and rumbling me with his laugh. He released me only for Mom to move in.

“Hi, sweetie.” She kissed my cheeks and then pulled out her handkerchief to wipe off the lipstick. “This party is something. Valentina did an amazing job. Where is she? We want to congratulate her. You’re sitting at our table, aren’t you? I feel like I hardly ever see you. Why don’t you come home this weekend?”

My mother’s rapid-fire questions pelted me from all angles. It was her gift to mix a little guilt in there too. “Val ran that way. I’ll catch her up and then we will be sitting with you. How about I come over on Saturday and spend the day? Adam will love running around with the dogs.”

Mom smiled—satisfied. It was in her smile that I saw our resemblance. I looked so much like my father that Mom and Dad called me “mini-me” most of my life. For a while, I thought it was my given name. His clone I might be, but her baby boy I was always. It took a few tries to slip out of her embrace and return to tracking down Val.

The ballroom was filling up as more people arrived, and the last place I spotted her was taken up by a gaggle of her sorority sisters—one of them Sofia.

I stepped in that direction and the crowd parted. There she was.

Standing next to the short woman in the black dress who whisked her away, Val was deep in conversation with a couple whose faces were angled out of my sight. As I watched, Val grasped the lady of the couple’s hand and drew her to the side. The shorter woman tried to follow, but Valentina put her hand up with the stern set to her jaw that I spotted from halfway across the room. The woman stopped and let Valentina lead her captive to the far corner of the room next to the stage. She might as well have shouted something was going on.

I took off, converging on her in time to hear the tail end of her sentence. “—happened to you, Teagan?”

Teagan? As in Elizabeth Teagan Kainer?

The woman from the defunct Facebook page smiled. There was no doubt it was her. I’d been searching for a digital trace of her for months and there she stood in