Page 175 of Redeemed

“Did you know he was Wes’s stepdad?”

“What the fuck? No.”

She sniffles again. “Yeah, it caught me off guard, too. There’s been a lot of that going on lately.”

As we head to a small park a couple blocks away, Athelia keeps talking. She goes into detail about all the things Wes, Kellan, and Cal have done. They actually apologized for bullying her—something I never thought would happen—and they’re apparently trying to make it up to her.

She tries to explain how they’ve gone from tying her to a tree Halloween night to where they are now, but it doesn’t make much sense to me. I don’t think I could ever forgive them if I was in her shoes. I have no intention of forgiving Colton, Xander, and Lucas, that’s for sure. All I’m doing is using them until I don’t need them anymore.

As we cross the park to a picnic table under a maple tree, I eye a man walking down the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street. He seems to be minding his own business, his long black hair blowing in the wind. But then he holds his phone at an odd angle, and I realize he’s taking a picture of us.

Oh, for fuck’s sake.

Is this how the boys have decided to keep an eye on me? By sending out one of their “informants” to make sure I’m safe and reporting back to them? I almost send a text to the group chat telling them to fuck off, but something stops me. In case Isaiah does show up, I really do want someone watching my back.

Just let them do their thing. It’s part of the agreement, after all.

“… and that’s when I decided I wanted revenge.”

Shit.Athelia has been talking this entire time. Maybe that’s why things aren’t making sense. I’m too busy making sure we’re not being followed to pay proper attention.

“Revenge?” I ask. “You’re… sure that’s a good idea?”

“Positive, and my plan is foolproof.”

“Go on,” I say, and I can’t help how uneasy I sound.

“They keep saying that they want to make things up to me, that they never should’ve started bullying me, blah blah blah. They want tokeepme, Haven. Like, forever. They even took me to my hometown hairdresser and paid for this.” She waves to her hair.

“You’ve got to be joking.”

She shakes her head as we sit at the picnic table. “Nope. They actually think they have a chance with me.”

I frown. “It kinda looks like you’re giving them one.”

“That’s the idea. They broke me, over and over again. Now it’s my turn to do the same to them.”

“W… what?”

“They’re already doing everything they can to get me to fall for them. All I have to do is play along and get them hopelessly attached to me.”

“And then…?”

“And then I leave, and I never speak to them again. It means moving back home, so I’ll have to switch over to online classes for the spring semester, but it’ll be worth it. They won’t know what hit them.”

“I… I don’t know what to say, Thelia. Wow. That’s one hell of a plan.”

I want to believe her, but she’s acting oddly nonchalant about this, and it feels forced. There’s no way she wants anything to do with Wes, Cal, and Kellan, so maybe it’s that she doesn’t want to leave me? Or Pemberton in general?

“They’re falling for it?” I ask.

“So far. What do you think?”

“I think they’re gonna be pissed, and that they might try to retaliate. I’ll also miss you.”

A lot.But if this is what she wants to do, I won’t stop her. Honestly, if it means moving back home, it’ll be a lot safer for her, too. Her parents live a good five hours from here, so she’ll be far out of Isaiah’s reach.

“If I can actually get them to love me, then by the time I cut them off, they’ll understand,” she says.

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