Chapter Twenty Six
River
––––––––
"Your father is alive."
River stared at Zane, standing at the end of the table. She heard what he said, but it was as if someone had tried to convince her that the tooth fairy was real. First Kenna tried to make her believe her dad was alive, and now Zane.
Tears blurred her vision. She couldn't move. Numbness had frozen her to the chair.
Despite Kenna's leg bouncing next to her and her sister's fist thumping the table, River sat, unable to process what Zane told her. He lied. That was the only reason he would say such a thing.
She couldn't understand why he would want to hurt her that way.
"Where is he?" Kenna placed her hands on the table to push herself to her feet and Kingsley, standing behind her, pushed her back onto the chair. "Don't try to lie your way out of this. We heard you."
"If you'll calm down, I'll tell you." Zane pulled out the chair across the table from her, turned it around, and straddled the seat all without taking his gaze off River. "Your dad is alive. He's in prison."
Prison? She looked at Kenna for answers.
"Where?" The strained words slipped through Kenna's tight lips. "What prison?"
"The state prison." He ran his hand over his face. "There's more you'll need to know."
She shook her head, wanting it all to go away. Her dad was dead. She loved Zane.
Pieces of her life were falling apart. She was at risk of losing him.
"There's no easy way to say this." Zane looked at her.
She'd seen the anguish in his eyes before, each time he walked out of the bedroom and refused to stay in the house with her. This wasn't his pain. It was her pain.
"Your dad is sitting on death row—"
"No." Kenna jumped up.
River listened to the pounding in her head. Death Row? Impossible. That's where the worst men in the world went to wait for their execution.
Kingsley put his hands on Kenna's shoulders and lowered her back to her seat. "Years ago, our dad, serving time in the same prison, asked us to do a favor for Tom Pruitt. He wanted us to watch over you girls, keep you safe."
Her stomach turned. She trembled.
"You were shoved around within the foster care system." Zane exhaled harshly. "We fought to keep track of where you both went, ensuring you weren't harmed. It was a coincidence that we were there the day they split you up, and Kenna went to a different home. That's why you'd periodically see us as you were growing up."
Kenna scoffed and folded her arms across her chest. Her leg continued to bounce against the seat, against the side of River's thigh.
"Kenna, I was going to bring you to Gem Haven the last time we spent any time together." Kingsley rounded the table and looked at Kenna. "I never got the chance. You've run from me ever since."
"Easy to say. You didn't believe me then, and I don't believe you now." Kenna stood from the table. "I want the address to the prison."
Zane shook his head. "You can't walk in and ask to see someone on death row. There are steps you must take."
The contents of River's stomach refused to stay down. She covered her mouth, hurrying from the table, and barely made it to the bathroom on the main floor of the house. Clutching the seat of the toilet, she let her head hang as dry heaves tortured her body.
Her whole life was a lie.
Zane—the one person she trusted—God, she didn't even know him. Everything was a lie.
She threw up. All the pain of losing her mom and then right afterward her dad, and even Kenna, hadn't compared to the devastating loss hitting her. Zane had replaced everyone in her life.
And now he was a stranger. Someone who was with her because he was doing a job.
She fell to her knees, swallowing repeatedly to keep the heaves from coming.
The bathroom door opened, and strong arms picked her up and led her to the sink. She cupped water into her hands and washed out her mouth.
She couldn't think. The sharpest, deepest pain consumed her.
Zane hugged her from behind, holding her upright. Like a ragdoll, she stared absently at nothing. She couldn't look at him.
He cradled her face in his hands. "Sweetheart, look at me. Let me explain everything."
In her shock, there was one clarifying moment that hurt the most. She could see it in his eyes and the way he tried to cover for keeping the secret the whole time. All the excuses he used to distance their relationship, and she fell into his arms the whole time, trusting him never to leave her.
"You were never going to tell me," she said hoarsely.
She read the answer in his eyes and walked away from him. In the kitchen, Kenna yelled at Kingsley.
Last night, learning how Kenna fell in love with Kingsley, only to have him not believe or support her, she understood why her sister was angry and fighting for the truth to come out.
There was a time when she never believed Kenna. She thought her sister pretended things were different because she couldn't revisit the painful past when they lost their parents.
She went to Kenna and slipped her hand into her sister's hand. "I need to get out of here," she whispered.
Kenna nodded, pulling her toward the door. She stopped and told her sister to wait. Running up the stairs, she grabbed her backpack and returned to her sister.
It was the middle of the night, but Gem Haven never really went to sleep. There were always plenty of bikers hanging around outside and coming and going from the clubhouse.
All she wanted to do was get out of the house.
And away from Zane.