Page 12 of Collateral Damage
She takes a deep breath and steadies herself like she’s simply ironing out wrinkles in a dress and not covering something that has shaken her to the core.
She takes her leave, following in Conrad’s footsteps.
“We don’t have to go out there,” Ethan whispers to Arden.
My sweet baby cousin’s face has turned as white as a sheet. She blinks rapidly, holding back tears. She might even be on the edge of one of her panic attacks. Ethan catches it the same time the rest of us do, and he shoots his twin brother a scathing look.
“You could’ve warned me,” he hisses before ushering his wife out a back door.
They’re going home andnotreturning to their own party.
“Let’s go, too,” Hayes says, taking our brother’s hand. “Mom will tell us everything at home. I’ll call us a car.”
I can tell Chandler wants to protest, but he doesn’t. Within seconds, I’m alone with Cooper.
“Shame they all left,” Cooper mutters. “He wasn’t supposed to hand over the test until the party was over. I do regret that part, at least.”
Is he trying to make himself feel better?
“What’s a shame is you not telling me what the hell is going on.” I get close to him, angling my face slightly upward as I glare at the man who has the answers I need. “I have a right to know.”
A long auburn curl falls across my eyes. I don’t touch it; I’m too angry to even think about it for more than a millisecond, but Cooper reaches out and gently tucks it behind my ear. I slap his hand away.
“Slapping me again, Valentine? I didn’t know you were so violent.”
“Only for you,” I sneer. “Now tell me.”
“Your mother will tell you soon enough,” he deadpans.
Frustration overtakes me, and I try to shove him, but he doesn’t budge an inch. “Does our friendship mean nothing to you?”
He snorts. “Friendship? You ditched our friendship years ago. Gave me up like I meant nothing. We don’t have a friendship, Valentine.” He leans in close, and the spicy-clean scent of his cologne surrounds me. “Actually, I don’t think we’renotfriends anymore… We’re less than that. We mean nothing to each other. Maybe we even hate each other.”
Right now? Yes. I hate him.
“I didn’t mean that we have a friendship, you dipshit,” I hiss. “I meant all those years of friendship we shared… You act like they never happened. Like you owe me nothing.”
His jaw ticks. “I learned from the best.”
I shift, putting space between us while acceptance floods my system. “Fine,” I say coolly, brushing past me to leave the room. “Don’t tell me. Someone else will.”
“Arden is your sister.”
Four words.
Just four simple words, but they change everything.
They ricochet through the kitchen like a bullet, and I stop, turning to him, the world shifting on its axis. “What did you say?”
“You heard me. Arden is yoursister,not your cousin. Well, technically, she’s your half-sister. You share the same father.”
I shake my head. “You’re lying.”
But I already know he’s not. He can’t be. Not by the way everyone reacted.
“Your father had her DNA test results altered to suit his agenda. My father knew the truth all along. When he called your father about it, he agreed to let Gregory play Arden off as a long-lost cousin to spare Amelia’s feelings.”
The breath leaves my body. “Why would he care to spare her feelings?”
