Reclaim - Aly Martinez Page 0,47

had the chance to go inside.

“Nora, please stop.”

“Let me go!” she seethed, yanking her hand away. Tears streaked her cheeks, but make no mistake about it, she was a lion ready to strike. “You’re a Caskey!” It wasn’t a question. It was an accusation in every sense of the word.

I planted my hands on my hips and spoke with heaving exhales. “Not really… My… Mom was… But my dad—”

“Then you’re a Caskey!” Like a shield, she crossed her arms over her chest and rounded her shoulders forward. “Oh my God. Oh my God. This isn’t happening. I told a Caskey. I told a fucking Caskey.”

“Stop saying I’m a Caskey. I’m not anything like them.”

“But you are!” she yelled with wild eyes. “You’re rich, aren’t you?”

I must have looked like a fish standing there opening and closing my mouth, not a single word coming out. I wanted to say no. I wanted to yell at her that she had no idea what she was talking about and that I was nothing like either one of my stupid, psychopath cousins.

But she wasn’t wrong. My family did have money, and technically yes, I did have Caskey blood running through my veins. It wasn’t the same though. My mom… She was different than they were. The good kind of different.

Nora took a step toward me. “That’s it, isn’t it? Back in Alberton, that’s why everyone hates you. All that bullshit about God giving you ten dollars after church and then showing up with dirty cut-offs and holes in your socks was all just an act.” She shook her head, and while she had all the false bravado in the world showing on the outside, her voice broke as she said, “I trusted you, and just like everyone else in my life, you lied.”

“You can still trust me.”

“How? How, Camden?” She stabbed a finger at my chest. “We spent a whole summer together and you never once thought to tell me your uncle was the mayor?” Another stab. “Or that your grandparents were bazillionaires who owned a farm of racehorses?” Another stab. “Or…or…or…maybe that your cousins were Jonathan and Josh fucking Caskey! You knew he was the same age as Ramsey. You knew your family name would have meant something to me, so you just never mentioned it?” She pushed up onto her toes and yelled into my face, “Why?”

“Because I didn’t want you to know!” The words flew from my mouth before I realized a coherent thought had been formed.

I hadn’t lied to her. Not exactly. But I hadn’t told her the truth, either. It had never been a conscious decision to keep the truth about my family from her. But after years of being the only rich kid in a small town, you learned to guard your secrets or risk having no one to tell them to.

Yeah, I wore my crappy clothes to the creek. My parents would have killed me if I ruined the nice stuff they’d bought me, but mainly it was because I wanted her to like me.

Nora had made it clear during her rantings the first night when I’d followed her home from the store that she didn’t like rich kids. And honestly, after getting a taste of her life over the last few days, I couldn’t blame her.

Money solved all problems, right?

In my experience, it made them worse.

I wasn’t a normal snobby rich kid. My dad wasn’t anything like Josh and Jonathan’s dad. Camden Donald Cole had grown up in Alberton, sweeping the floors in the papermill. He’d worked his ass off to get a football scholarship so he could afford to go to college. He worked even harder to get his degree and then continued working his ass off until he saved up enough to buy the very same papermill. He believed in never giving up and always earning the things you wanted in life, and he was hell-bent on raising his only child with the same thought process. My parents bought me school clothes every year, but it was my responsibly to buy my own play clothes, socks, underwear, and shoes. Let me just tell you none of those things were high on my list of the ways I wanted to spend my measly allowance. But I did it to keep Dad off my back.

My parents’ bank account had nothing to do with who I was, but okay, fine, I’d purposely never mentioned who my grandparents were—and thus the rest of my family.

I liked Nora. I