Page 23 of Heir

This didn’t feel real, and perhaps that was why I wasn’t as scared of my situation as I should be.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew I should be.

I should be terrified.

* * *

Two days had passedsince I’d moved in with Blue. Getting into a routine was easy, and sometimes I wondered how different my life would have been had I gone no-contact with my family and just lived with Blue after graduating high school like he had wanted.

Perhaps things would be better for me now.

I wouldn’t be like this.

Almost thirty with no prospects in the future.

I didn’t even know what I wanted to do with my life anymore.

Working at the museum was great since I got to deal with art, but then what?

They knew where I worked, and right now, I was counting on the job being in public to keep me safe.

Mom had already called me thirty-one times.

The longer I let her calls go to voicemail, the more suspicious she would get.

Tears stung my eyes as I looked at the TV screen.

I didn’t even know what I’d been watching for the last twenty minutes.

Everything was such a mess, and it hurt more that Iwasn’tmoresurprised by her actions than I should be.

I had been happy with my family when Dad was still alive.

I remembered that much.

He died when I was eight, and everything seemed to go to shit.

Mom kept a closer eye on me, or, more specifically, the food I ate.

The diet she put me on probably started a month after Dad’s funeral, and it went on until I was eighteen and left home for the first time, for college.

Perhaps she resented the fact that I looked too much like my dad and not enough like her.

It was true.

Everyone always said I was the spitting image of my dad, from his dark-brown eyes to dirty-blond hair and everything in between.

People even said our mannerisms were the same—awkward and distant.

There was very little of my mom left in me.

I blinked when the screen suddenly turned off, and I turned around to find Blue standing there with the remote in his hand.

“You’re going to tell me what’s going on, Gemma. Sooner rather than later, got it?”

I sighed and nodded. I would have to tell Blue soon. “Yeah.”

“I need to know what I’m protecting you from.”

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