Page 94 of The Bleak Beginning

I hesitate, weighing my options. “I was exploring,” I finally say, opting for a vague half-truth he didn’t deserve.

“You went in there because you were considering trying to teach yourself how to swim,” he says nonchalantly, and my mouth almost drops open at how easily he guessed my intentions.

How did he know? Had he been watching me? A shudder runs through me, this time tinged with unease.

“What’s it to you?” I snap, drawing my arms close. “I didn’t realize you were so invested in my extracurricular activities. I didn't know you found me so interesting.”

His eyes flash, his muscles stiffening along his biceps. Had I struck some sort of nerve?

“I don’t,” he says flatly. “But if you’re planning on drowning yourself again, I’d rather not be the one to fish your corpse out of the pool.”

I hate how his words get under my skin, considering who it’s coming from.

“I’m not going to drown,” I retort.

“Really?” His eyebrow arches skeptically, his lips curling into that infuriating smirk that I find both alluring and maddening.“Because a few weeks ago, you sure proved you’d sink like a stone.”

“I’m a fast learner.”

He scoffs, shaking his head. “Swimming isn’t something you can just pick up overnight. It takes time, practice…and a teacher who knows what they’re doing.”

“What I do with my time is none of your business,” I snap.

“But it is my business, Prescott. Everything that happens in this school that involves you is my business.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I demand, trying to keep my voice steady.

Bishop’s smirk widens, his eyes gleaming with something I can’t quite place. “It means exactly what I said. I can’t allow your family to screw things up for the rest of us again.”

Gah! I was so sick of this.

“What did my family honestly do that was so wrong?” I say, genuinely over thisandhim. I didn’t want to play in the stupid Altair games.

He takes a step closer, invading my personal space. His distinctive scent of cigarette smoke, one that I've come to associate with him, fills the air around me. “Your father betrayed his own kind. He abandoned his team on the very last day of the games,” he says. “He didn’t show, choosing your mother over us. Our families were left to deal with the embarrassment, while your father ran off with your whore of a mother.”

I flinch, and I know he catches it, but it’s not for the reason he thinks.

It’s not because he’s gotten to me by insulting my mother. It’s because I had no idea about the specifics of what happened. If what he’s saying is true, then my father really did betray the other Legacies, choosing my mother over them, for whatever reason.

“And in that year, how many…”

“All four,” he spits out venomously. “Our parents were the last to experience all four Legacy families in one class.” His voice drips with bitterness and resentment.

I take a step back, needing to put some distance between us. Bishop’s intensity is overwhelming, and I can’t think straight with him so close.

“I…I didn’t know,” I admit quietly, hating the vulnerability in my voice. “My dad never told me about any of this.” I hadn’t even realized the weight my last name carried until I arrived at this university.

Something flickers in Bishop’s eyes—surprise, maybe—before his expression hardens again. “Of course he didn’t. He was too busy running away from his responsibilities and playing happy family, leaving the rest of us to pick up the pieces.”

I wince again. My childhood was anything but happy.

I want to defend my family’s name, to argue in our defense that there must be more to the story, but I can’t. The truth is, I don’t know enough to contradict what Bishop’s just said. And that realization hurts more than any insult he could throw at me.

I take a deep breath, trying to steady myself. “Look, I get that you’re angry. But I’m not my father. I didn’t even know about any of this until now. You can’t hold me responsible for something that happened before I was born.”

“Maybe not,” he concedes reluctantly. “But you’re here now. And your presence threatens everything our families have worked to rebuild.”

“I didn’t choose to be born into thislegacy. And I certainly didn’t decide to come to Altair by my own choice.” But here I am, feeling like a misfit in a place that is supposed to be my new home. All I want is to be left alone, forgotten in my own little corner.

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