Page 1 of The Ruthless Rivalry

Chapter 1

Alex

Iawaken to a throbbing pain in my head and the taste of copper in my mouth. The world is a blur of muted colors and distorted shapes. As my vision slowly clears, I find myself lying in a hospital bed, its sterile white walls rising around me like a prison.

“Vera?” I call my mother’s name out weakly, my voice echoing in the cavernous space. There’s no response.

I try to sit up, but a wave of dizziness forces me back down. My hand encounters gauze when I touch my head. Panic starts to set in as I realize the gravity of my situation. I must have beenunconscious. How long was I out? I struggle to the edge of the bed, my limbs feeling like lead weights.

As I swing my legs over the side, a sharp pain shoots through my ribs, causing me to wince. I take a deep breath, steeling myself for what comes next. No sooner do my bare feet touch the cold tile floor that I spot my dad coming through the door.

He’s here?

“Hey kiddo,” he greets, tentatively stepping into the room and settling on the edge of my bed.

“Dad?” I croak, as I settle back into the bed. “What…what happened?”

His face crumples, a mix of relief and worry etched into the lines around his eyes. “You were in an accident. At the natatorium. We’ve been so worried.”

A tsunami of realization crashes over me, forcing the broken shards of my memory into a complete picture. The Legacies trapped me in the natatorium, using my own mother as bait. She’d confessed that she had gone to school here, but then her anger took over, and everything went black.

“We?” I ask, puzzled.

“Your friend, Sutton,” he clarifies, glancing over his shoulder at Sutton, who stands timidly in the doorway. “She’s the one who discovered you and called for help.” Sutton gives me a nervous wave.

I try to process this information, but my mind feels sluggish, like I’m wading through molasses. “How long have I been here?”

“Since this morning,” he replies, reaching out to take my hand. His touch is warm, familiar, but it does little to quell the rising tide of panic in my chest.

“Vera,” I manage, the name tumbling from my lips before I can stop it. “Where’s Vera?”

“Your mother?” My father’s tone is tinged with confusion. “What would she be doing here? You know she’s at her…facility.” He swallows hard, his gaze shifting to Sutton.

“She was definitely here,” I insist, pointing in Sutton’s direction. My hands seem to have a faint red tint to them, but I push that thought aside. “And Sutton knows it too.” After all, she was the one who helped trap me in there, along with the other Legacies.

Sutton’s eyes flicker with some emotion before she clears her throat. “She was muttering that name when I found her. I had no idea who she meant.”

I stare at Sutton, disbelief and anger bubbling up inside me. How can she stand there and lie so blatantly?

There’s something in her gaze that doesn’t quite match her words. A flicker of…guilt? Fear? I can’t be sure, but before I can call her out, my father squeezes my hand, drawing my attention back to him.

“You’ve been through a traumatic experience, Alex. It’s not uncommon for the mind to create false memories in such situations,” he says gently.

I want to argue, to insist that what I remember is real, but doubt begins to creep in. Could it all have been a hallucination? The weight of uncertainty settles heavily on my chest.

But I know what I saw. What I experienced. I know what they did.

“No,” I say, my voice growing stronger with conviction. “She was there. I remember it clearly.” I turn to my father, desperate for him to believe me. “Dad, you have to listen. Vera’s not in her facility. She was in the pool room, they’re—”

I’m cut off by a sharp pain in my head, causing me to wince and clutch at my temples. My father leans forward, concern etched on his face.

“Easy there, kiddo. You’ve been through a lot,” he says, gently pulling my hand away from the bandages. “I guess it was fortunate that I was already on my way up here for parents’ weekend, huh?”

Parents’ weekend? Oh yeah, that’s why I was in this situation. I woke up to find a note on my door. It’s all coming back to me now.

“The note,” I whisper, my eyes widening. “Dad, there was a note on my door. That’s why I went to the natatorium. It said it was the location to meet up with our parents.”

My father exchanged a glance with Sutton, his brow furrowing. “What note? There’s no note.”

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