Rebirth Of The Lost Heiress

Chapter 6

Brielle

I didn't send that text.

I wanted to make that clear first. I had plans to, eventually. It was on my list because I wanted to plant the right kind of doubt between Adrian and his grandfather, and make the boy start pulling at the threads before I was ready to hand him anything useful.

But I hadn't gotten there yet. I had other things to take care of first, things with much shorter deadlines.

Someone else got there before me.

That thought sat stubbornly in my head the whole morning. It was so irritating and impossible to ignore. It meant someone else was moving pieces on this board. This was someone who wasn't me, who I hadn't accounted for, who apparently had their own ideas about how this was supposed to go. I didn't like that at all.

I worked through it while I trained in the backyard before dawn. I got in punches, kicks, and footwork against the old wooden post my dad had set up years ago and kept meaning to replace.

The routine was my master's, but he’d built it into my muscles until I could run through it without having to think through every step. I’d let it go completely in my past life because I was too busy chasing after Adrian. Too busy making myself small and easy to like so that people would let me stay close to them.

My muscles remembered, though. It had only taken a few minutes of real work to wake them back up.

I finished the last set, hands on my knees, breathing hard, sweat pooling on my body.

When I straightened up and looked at the house, I could see Liam at the upstairs window. He had on blue pajamas, his hair was sticking all around the place from sleep, and his face was pressed against the glass with those huge eyes watching me like I was the most interesting thing he’d ever seen.

The second I looked at him directly, he dropped straight down and ran out of sight.

I turned back around before my smile could get any wider.

***

School was quieter than usual. It wasn’t silent though, because the building could never be, but the environment around me was obviously quieter.

People gave me more room in the hallways. Nobody bumped my shoulder or lingered too close. It was clear that word about what I’d done to Marcus had spread.

I wasn't sorry about any of it.

Between second and third period, Lucy appeared in my path. She always did this—placing herself right near me like she just happened to be there, always at the right moment, always with that careful, concerned look sitting perfectly on her face.

"You're beginning to make enemies," she said softly. "People are talking, Brielle. You need to slow down and think about what you're doing. This isn't like you."

"I know," I said.

She blinked. I knew she had a full speech prepared because I could tell from the way she paused slightly.

The speech would obviously be about how she was worried about me, how she only wanted what was best for me, and how she was the only one who truly understood me. I had heard different versions of it a hundred times in my past life, and every single time I’d believed her, and every single time it had cost me something.

Not anymore.

"Adrian's grandfather called our house this morning." She said it slowly, watching my face. "He wants to move the engagement ceremony up. Apparently, he doesn't want to wait."

Everything inside me went very still.

In my past life, the engagement had dragged on for months and months. It had moved so slowly that I had stopped thinking it would actually happen. The ceremony had been nowhere near close when everything fell apart. So this—suddenly pushing the date up now—wasn't the way things were supposed to unfold.

Something had changed. Or someone had changed it.

I looked at Lucy while I thought it through. I took in the small muscles near her temples, the set of her mouth, and the way she was holding her shoulders. I could tell a lot about what someone was actually feeling by looking at the parts of their face they couldn't fully control.

There. Just for a second, I saw something that looked like satisfaction passing through her face. She quickly buried it under the layer of fake worry, but not fast enough.

She had done something. She’d said something to the right person, or passed along the right piece of information to someone who was close to Adrian's grandfather. She made sure the date was pushed up because I wasn't playing along the way she expected and it had rattled her, and rattled people always made rushed decisions.

"Thank you for telling me," I said. My voice sounded completely level even though I was burning inside.

I walked away before she could see anything on my face that I didn't want her to see.

Around the corner, in an empty hallway, I let out a slow breath and made myself think clearly.

The engagement being pushed forward changed things. I hadn't planned for it. I still needed the leverage I didn't have. I still had things I hadn't done yet.

And then there was something else. The text Adrian had gotten was sent by someone I hadn't accounted for. Was that connected to this? Was someone else trying to slow Lucy down? Or were they working an angle I couldn't see yet?

I needed to think. And I needed my master.

I had to go back to the woods tonight.