Real Girl (Aston Creek High 4)

I look down at the knife that used to remind me of my father’s protectiveness but now all I see is the blood on my hands. “What did I do?” I whisper.

Lucien squeezes my shoulder, not fazed at all by the dead man in the hallway. “Oh, don’t worry about him,” Lucien tells me. “You just handled a very big problem for me, and for that, I won’t even tell the police how he died.”

“What? I…”

“Do you understand what this means?” he questions, his eyes shimmering with a wicked excitement.

I shake my head, not understanding a damn thing.

“You’re still his wife and with the ‘legalities’ of your nuptials, no prenup was put in place. It’s all yours, Skylah, every last cent is yours and because of that… You’re. Mine.”

Chapter 15

My old bedroom door is slammed behind me as the panic begins to rise. How is it possible that in the space of 24 hours, I leave a rapist to be married to another one, only to kill him and be returned to the OG rapist with millions of dollars and a promise to never see the light of day?

This is so fucked up.

I killed a man and have millions of dollars which Lucien is going to take from me. Hell, if he doesn’t kill me, hoping that what’s mine will go to him, he’ll either tell the cops what I did and have me sent to prison or keep me locked up as his sex slave and steal it all to build an even bigger empire.

Though, what’s even more fucked up is that he gave me my knife back as some kind of reward. What kind of maniac does that? He must have been too overwhelmed with joy to realize what the hell he was doing.

Lucien said he was going to bed and come morning, we’re going to discuss how this is going to work, but whatever his sick plans are, I know I’m not going to like it.

I bet this was part of his plan all along. Kill off the millionaire and take all of his assets, businesses, and pride. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if he wrote this shit into the fine print of their ‘marry off Skylah’ contract.

It’s after five in the morning and I’m fucking exhausted. All I want to do is climb into bed and pretend this night never happened. Hell, I want to pretend this whole lifetime never happened, but without that, I wouldn’t remember the good, and fuck, over the last six months there has been so much good.

Knowing sleep is never going to come, I start rifling through my closet and pull on some decent clothes, not once letting the knife slip from my hand. Who knows when I’m going to need this thing? It’s been my lifesaver so many times before but right now, it feels so heavy in my hand.

It’s stained with Marcus’ blood and I fear it’s something I’ll never be able to put behind me. I’m not glad that I did it, but I’m relieved that he’s dead. I’m sure that makes me a bad person.

I find some comfortable clothes which are rare in this hell hole and drop down against the wall, refusing to sleep in that bed. Back in Aston Creek, my closet was filled with nothing but comfortable clothing, but here, it’s a different story.

I stare at the door, unable to clear my mind.

It was my eighteenth birthday and instead of celebrating, I killed a man.

I have to get out of here. This place is turning me into someone I don’t recognize and that scares me more than the memory of what I just did.

I look down at the knife and spin it between my fingers. Usually, when I can’t sleep, I draw but I’m only just now realizing how long it’s been. I’d give anything to be able to lose myself in my art. It used to be an escape, somewhere I could go to remember my parents and daydream about Slade, but now I’m not so sure. Maybe now it’s just a way to try and pretend the real world doesn’t exist.

What am I going to do? If I stay here any longer, I know I’ll be next on the hit list. Lucien can’t resist that kind of money. Combined with what he already has, it will launch him into billionaire status and a man like Lucien with that kind of power is a man I don’t want to know.

Having me stick around is just another obstacle for him to jump over to get what he wants, but unfortunately for him, he’s going to have to wait until everything is finalized. It hasn’t even been twenty-four hours since saying ‘I do.’ Not to mention, the world doesn’t even know he’s dead yet, but I’m sure they will have their suspicions. There are probably laws in place to prevent this kind of shit, but I don’t know. People would claim it was a scam and any judge would agree with them. It’s never going to happen and when it doesn’t, Lucien will find a way to blame it on me