Page 1 of Knot All is Crystal
PROLOGUE
Grief makes you smaller.In the days since my brother-in-law, Joseph, died, my sister Eve has become a shell of her former self. This is especially apparent as I watch her shake hands with people who give their condolences, offering dull platitudes about what a great man Joseph was.
How great a man could he be to die of a drug overdose while his wife is seven months pregnant?
Were the drugs more important than Eve and his unborn daughter?
I know addiction is more nuanced than that, but I cannot be empathetic when I just watched my sister waddle to his coffin with tears dripping down her face.
I can’t take my eyes off her massive belly wrapped in a black dress.
Why do they make black maternity dresses?
Logically, I know that black dresses have so many other uses than at funerals, but on her, it looks garish. It churns my stomach.
Stumbling to the bathroom, I lose my lunch in the small half-bath by the garage.
How am I supposed to be there for her through this? How do you support the person who’s always held you through the worst moments of your life?
It was always just me and Eve. When our parents died in a car accident when I was eleven and she was nineteen, Eve stepped up. She gave up college, her freedom, and her youth to become a surrogate mom to me.
And did I thank her for it?
Oh, of course not. Grief messed me up, and I took that out on her.
When I presented as an Omega, she took out giant loans to pay for me to attend the Omega Academy, in the hope that I would find a kind pack.
A better life than she could offer me is what she would say.
And did I appreciate it? No.
I haven’t met a pack yet, and now I don’t know if I will ever go to another social or make the effort to find one.
I have to be strong for Eve. I have to be there for her in the way Joseph couldn’t.
She needs me now and will need me even more when my niece is born in two months.
I swish some water in my mouth before leaving the bathroom to stand in the receiving line with my sister. But before I get there, my eyes stutter over a pair of men hanging out in the back of the parlor.
They were both at the gravesite, and I assumed they were Joseph’s friends at the time. But something about them makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
Both are in solid black from head to toe, with nothing to identify or make them memorable. They must be Betas because I’m not picking up on any Alpha pheromones.
One of them catches me looking, and his mouth rips open in what he means to be a smile, but it turns out more like a grimace. Before I can turn and leave, the other is by my side.
“Crystal, right? Joseph was your brother-in-law?” His voice is gravelly, like he smoked too many cigarettes last night, and a shiver runs down my spine. A prickle of awareness in the back of my mind makes him feel familiar, even though I’m sure I’ve never seen him before.
“Did you know him?” Years of ingrained politeness rise to the surface despite myself.
The man nods sharply as his partner comes to stand behind him. “We were …associates. We were looking to speak with your sister, but she is a hard lady to get alone.”
My internal alarm system is blaring like I just burnt the bacon, and my nails dig into my palms from how I clench my fists. “Well, she would be at her husband’s funeral,” I nearly spit. “This is about the drugs, then.”
A startled laugh comes from the creepy one who smiles at me. Up close, I can see a scar on his cheek. I don’t know why I focus on it. “Straight to the point. I like that in a woman.”
His partner, the one with the gravelly voice, is a handsome Black man with a shaved head who rolls his eyes. “Joseph owes our employer significant money, and we’re here to collect. Nasty timing, I know, but he is a businessman.”
“It was his product that killed him, you mean,” I hiss, gesturing for them to follow me outside. I don’t want my sister to hear this. She has enough on her plate without realizing that her husband not only left her daughter without a father but also his family with a debt that they may be unable to repay.
