Wild Girl (Aston Creek High 3)

“My brother?” I question, on edge. The only people that Blake knows that I don’t are people from back home, the ones that Lucien would have been able to manipulate. “How do you know my brother?”

“I met him a very long time ago,” he explains. “You too, actually. Thirteen years to be exact.”

I take a hesitant step back, that number ringing loudly in my head. “Who are you?” I demand, clutching onto the door handle, my knuckles turning white.

The man lets out a shaky breath and does his best to appear as small as possible though, with his sheer size and the muscles bulging from his arms, it’s an impossible task. “My name is Samuel Rivers,” he says monotone, “and I’m the boy who murdered your mother.”

My world stops.

My jaw drops, my hand falls to my side, and my heart crushes.

I shake my head. “No,” I say, stepping back, distantly remembering that Anton had said his son’s name was Samuel Mathers, but this guy said Rivers. I couldn’t possibly be standing in front of that kid.

Samuel holds his hands up, showing he’s not going to hurt me but that doesn’t stop the fear that flows through my veins, threatening to make me pass out. “I…uh, how…umm.”

I swallow back not knowing what the hell to say to this man. I spent years rehearsing what I was going to say to Anton, so when I went in there, the words just came pouring out. But this guy isn’t who I remembered. In my head, he’s always been just a kid. I hadn’t imagined what kind of man he’d grow into but here he is, all tall and broody with an aura that warns me to run.

Samuel takes a step backward, placing himself off the front porch and onto the path, still with his hands up. “I’m not going to hurt you, Skylah. You have my word. The boy who I was forced to be thirteen years ago is not the man who I am now.”

I stare at him, the images I’ve had circling through my head for thirteen long years now vividly flashing at the forefront of my mind. This is that boy. The one who stood before my parents with a knife in his hand, the one who would keep looking back at me and Blake with fear heavy in his eyes, the one who was beaten every time he refused to touch her, and the one who couldn’t take it anymore and gave up his fight, giving in to the darkness and stabbing the knife deep inside my mother’s chest.

Tears fill my eyes and I stand here unsure of what to do. Do I run? Do I kick him in the balls? Or do I ask him to hold still while I dash into the kitchen and grab a knife to avenge my mother?

“I’m sorry,” Samuel says, quickly glancing back to the woman by the car. “I didn’t mean to just show up like this. I thought I owed you more than a tacky email or Facebook message and at first, I suggested approaching you in public but Tullz thought that could be seen as us following you and I didn’t want to freak you out.”

“Yet, you show up on my doorstep. That’s not creepy at all.”

He presses his lips into a tight line and it’s clear that this is making him just as uncomfortable as it’s making me. He looks back again and cringes and with a sigh, the woman starts dawdling over, holding her protruding stomach.

She steps up beside him with a beaming smile and it’s clear these two are something special to each other. “Hi,” she smiles wide. “I’m Tully Cage. I’m this guy’s girlfriend. You must be Skylah?”

“Um…yeah,” I say, hearing Shaylee making her way around the house behind me. “Why are you here?”

Tully looks up at Samuel, her eyes beaming with pride. “Because there is too much darkness in his soul and now that he has a child of his own on the way, he needs to learn how to forgive himself. He’s held onto that night all of his life. It’s shaped the way he lived and the people he allowed in. He has refused to allow himself any happiness and I won’t stand for it anymore.”

“And coming here to the one person who hates him most is supposed to help that?” I question, looking back at the man who somehow earned this woman’s heart. “Did you consider that he doesn’t deserve happiness?”

She shakes her head. “The idea never once crossed my mind. Rivers is a good man, a great man. He’s lived in darkness since he was a little boy. If anyone in this world deserves happiness, it’s him.”

“And what about me? What about my happiness?” My eyes slice back toward Rivers or Samuel or whatever the hell I should call him, to find his dark eyes on mine.