Page 124 of Revere
Except I need to do this alone.
Just me and my mother. Then I can be free.
I cut the engine and stare at the front door before climbing out, but it doesn’t open. Mom sent most of the staff away after my father disappeared. Weeds make a mess at the edges of the driveway, and leaves carpet the cobblestone.
Taking a deep breath, I spin the diamond band on my left ring finger and let that settle me. It might have been trauma that brought Jacob and me together, but it’s love that binds us now.
When he first proposed, I thought he might have lost his mind. Too high from what we were doing to think clearly. Butafter he dressed me, gave me water, took care of me, and walked me out of Sigma House, he dropped to his knees in the forest dirt and proposed again, erasing any doubt.
He wants me to be his in every way.
It might be ridiculous or sudden. And it might go against everything I’ve said I wanted in a life free of Sigma House. But looking into Jacob’s green eyes, it doesn’t matter who he is to the fraternity. It doesn’t matter that he’s my professor or that there are seventeen years between our ages. It doesn’t even matter that we both went through hell to get to each other.
Only one word sat on the tip of my tongue because I love him enough to stand at his side through the good and bad. Through Sigma Sin.
So I said yes.
After all, this is a world only the two of us understand. One where our roughest edges fit together. He’s it for me.
Taking a final deep breath, I climb out of the car and make my way to the front steps. Birds chirp in the trees. A few break a branch when they take off quickly, and it makes me jump.
The front door creaks as I swing it open, finding it unlocked. And every step echoes on the polished marble floors.
I don’t find Mom in any of her usual places. It isn’t until I see the door to the basement open that I realize where I’m being summoned. A black pit that has the hair on the back of my neck standing tall.
With every creak of the wooden stairs groaning beneath me, my knees ache. My heart races. And when I find Mom standing in front of the cross at the bottom—her blonde hair in place and her outfit ironed to perfection—my mouth is suddenly dry.
Candlelight flickers around us, painting a long shadow of the cross on the floor.
“He was supposed to come for me.” She doesn’t look at me, but she must hear the scuffle of shoes on the concrete because she knows I’m here.
Tucked away in a corner is the stool Mom used to bend me over when she whipped me. The sight of it makes my skin hurt.
“He’s gone now,” she says as my toes bump the chains on the floor.
“Dad?” My eyebrows pinch with my guess, and she nods. “Where is he?”
“Your brother took him.” She glances over her shoulder, but her stare is on the ground, not on me. “If I had to guess, he’s withyour husband.”
Finally, her eyes meet mine, and there is nothing but the fiery pits of hell shining through.
“Dad lied to Sigma House.” I swallow hard. “It’s their place to deal with him.”
Mom laughs. “Now you’re spouting to me about the rights and rules of the House? What has Ezra done to you, Patience?”
“His name is Jacob now.” I fix my gaze on her.
“Yes, I suppose it is.” She turns, and that’s when I see the gun in her hand.
“Why do you have that?” My heart thunders between my temples.
“You’ve finally become something, and it’s what I was always meant to be.” She ignores my question. “A Sigma House queen.Hisqueen at that. I suppose he should thank me after all.”
“What are you talking about?” I shouldn’t entertain this conversation, but I can’t run without risking her aiming the gun at me, so I have no choice.
“I helped him with Molly.” Her tone is distant, like she’s taken something. “Ezra—Jacob’s—first love. She was a weak girl. Couldn’t handle the House like a Lancaster can. She was never going to be strong enough to stand at his side.”
Mom drops her hand from the cross and starts to pace again.
