Triple Dare (Sterling Shore 7)

Corbin’s entire body goes rigid, and the color drains from his face.

“No,” he whispers.

Cassie sobs while keeping her head turned, and I step around Corbin when he turns to stone.

“Krysta, put the damn knife down!”

She looks at me, then at her shaking hand that is clutching the bloody kitchen knife, then back at me before dropping it and stumbling backwards. The knife clambers to the ground as she starts gasping for air in between sobs.

“I just wanted to know,” she cries, sinking down to the floor. Cassie’s eyes flutter back in her head, and Corbin remains immobile.

“She made you sick on purpose,” Krysta goes on. “She wanted him to come see her, and he’d see her when you were in the hospital, because Corbin wanted to see you.”

She’s rambling now, and my stomach is churning. I knew Cassie was sick and twisted, but…

“Corbin, please call—”

I look around, noticing he’s no longer in the room. I take off running, catching up to him just as he stalks outside.

“Corbin! Help me.”

“I can’t right now, Ruby,” he says without turning around, still walking so fast it’s practically a sprint. “I just can’t.”

“Corbin!”

He gets in his car and slams the door, and I watch in disbelief as he peals out of the driveway. I don’t have the luxury of waiting on him to wake up and realize what the hell he just did.

Turning around, I pull out my phone and dial three numbers I had once hoped to never have to dial again.

At least this time I wasn’t dialing them for me.

CHAPTER 36

CORBIN

The door slams hard behind me, and I hear the patter of feet rushing toward me. She won’t run, but she will walk fast.

Mom grabs her chest when she sees me, and her eyes narrow.

“Corbin, you just scared me—”

“Is it true?” I ask in interruption, getting pissed when she has the audacity to look confused. “Is Krysta really a Sterling?”

Her eyes go wide in her head, and I snort derisively while running a hand through my hair.

“It is true,” I say to myself, taking a step back when she tries to approach me.

Her steps hesitate, and she ends up stepping back instead.

“How did you—”

“Krysta took a knife to her mother tonight because she’s spent eighteen years asking the same question over and over.”

A breath rushes out of her, and she stumbles. “Dear Lord. Is she okay? Is Cassie okay?”

“Don’t pretend as though you give a damn. You knew? You fucking knew she was my sister?”

Her eyes turn to angry slits. “I do care if someone dies, Corbin. Answer my question!”

“No one is dead. Ruby is there sorting things out and making the necessary calls. How long have you known?”

She visibly relaxes, but I don’t believe anything out of her mouth right now. I also don’t trust her body language.

“I’ve only known for a few months.”

“Bullshit.”

She takes an audible breath, a telltale sign she’s trying to control her temper. I’m past the point of control.

“All these years you’ve hated Ruby. At least now I know why. She put Dad and Cassie in the same room. You wouldn’t blame him and her. You had to blame Ruby, too. Didn’t you?”

Tears waver on her eyelids, but she tucks a stray hair behind her ear, and after another breath, the tears disappear.

“I’ve never hated Ruby. I pitied her, Corbin. I was her once upon a time.”

Before I can say anything, she adds, “Maybe not as wild and verbally free as she is. And I certainly never marked my skin permanently the way she does. But I was once a different woman. One who loved life. Then I married your father, and I put on a costume and wore a mask so I could fit into his world. He’s such a good man,” she says bitterly. “That’s his legacy. He builds amazing hospitals all over the world. He runs charities that deliver medical supplies to poor countries. He’s a saint.”

She walks over and takes a seat on a sterile, white couch, and she looks up at me with true pain in her eyes.

“One day, those costumes just became my attire. That mask became my true face. Everything I was became lost in dusty memories of a girl who no longer existed. Your father slowly turned me into exactly who he wanted me to be, only he realized too late that he missed the girl I no longer was.”

I spent years thinking they had a loving marriage. It wasn’t a passionate, warm love, but it was love. Now…

“You thought I’d do something like that to Ruby?” The disbelief pours out of me, and her eyes shine with sympathy.

“Ruby never belonged in our world. She was dealt a poor hand with that mother. The woman is so selfish that she endangered her child’s life for glimpses of attention from your father. I knew he was sleeping with her. It started shortly after you met Ruby. I had no idea he’d be stupid enough to get her pregnant.”