Page 105 of Chaos Kills

“How are your sisters?” my eldest sibling, Carina, inquires. “Ellie is so sweet.”

I feel Bay go still, and I know then Ozzy hasn’t told her yet.

When Torin called Child Protective Services on the Astor family, my father and mother took the girls in, thanks to Ozzy’s heads-up.

Torin hasn’t figured that out yet, not that he’s asked.

Carina meets my eyes when Bay doesn’t answer, sending a silent message of apology because she assumed Bay was well aware.

So that leaves me to fill in the blanks.

“When Torin took your sisters,” I explain, dropping my fork along the edge of my large bowl. “Ozzy told my father. He brought them here and kept them out of the foster system.”

“I can assure you,” Mom chimes in right after. “I took very good care of them. They had their own room, ate three meals a day, and Mae enjoyed playing in the pool out back.”

“I hope you don’t mind,” Carina quips softly. “But Ellie and I played with all my makeup. I didn’t allow her to wear it at school, just around the house. I didn’t want that to be a problem for you when she returned home.”

“I bought Mae a few Barbies,” Luisa conveys slowly, careful around the tension filling the air. “She made me google a few because she said they needed friends. However, I didn’t want to randomly send them and cause any issues for you since we know you have a lot on your plate.”

“We tried not to spoil them too much, my dear.” Bay’s attention falls on my mother on the other side of the table across from my dad. “It’s been a long time since I had a daughter that young who just wanted to play make-believe.”

“They’re so sweet.” That comes from Carina. “I adore them both. You should be extremely proud of them.”

“May I be excused?” Bay breaks through, jarring me for a second that she just asked for permission to do something.

“Of course,” Dad replies instantaneously. “If you need some air, just go through the family room and beyond the French doors.”

Bay pushes her chair back, trying to do it slowly and lady-like, but the chair still scrapes across the hardwood floors as though she can’t get out of here fast enough.

I can see her attempting to jump the stone wall around the property to bail, but I don’t need her breaking her fucking neck.

When her body disappears, I meet Ozzy’s dark blues; however, I don’t expect him to follow her.

It’ll be left up to me.

And when my father’s movements catch my attention, he jerks his head and orders me to see if she’s alright.

Rising from my chair, I toss my napkin to the dinner table and amble in the direction Bay disappeared, feeling my family’s heavy gaze on me as I leave.

I find Bay pacing back and forth outside the white double doors my father instructed her to with her arms crossed along her chest. She couldn’t appear more troubled if she tried.

The moment my ass open one set of doors, Bay’s blues cut into me, her nostrils flaring.

And here we fucking go.

I’m surprised she has the audacity to wait until I close it to yell at me.

“What are you doing?” she clips out, still marching back and forth as if she can’t stand still.

“I came to see if you were—” She points to the house, fury burning in her eyes as she glares at me.

“No, what is yourgame? Why did your family take my sisters in? Are you all trying to be nice to me so I’d side with you?”

“No.” I watch her keep a safe distance away from the pool for obvious reasons. “My father didn’t want your sisters to end up in shitty places like I had before I was adopted.”

“I don’t believe you,” she immediately spits out. “This is a ploy. I don’t trust you.”

“I don’t expect you to,” I counter back gently because she has no reason to. I’ve made it very fucking clear I didn’t want her around, and now my family is protecting hers. “However, my father was always friends with yours. They’d spoken before Roger had his?—”

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