Chapter Twenty-Eight
Amelie
I can’t get out of it anymore. Sunday family dinners have been reinstated for all of us and I’m dreading it.
Twice over the weekend my mother stressed the importance of coming tonight, so I’m nervous as to why, dreading whatever her little ‘surprise’ is.
I hope it isn’t anything to do with Christmas.
The incubator sends the limo to collect me, even though I have a car now. I get that it’s a power play, another way to control me. I sigh and climb into the back seat.
“Hey, Larry,” I call out to my regular driver. I may not have been over for a family dinner for a few weeks, but it’s always the same guy.
“Please take a seat, close the door and put on your seatbelt, Miss Knox,” comes the rough reply of a stranger. I ignore his instructions and bang on the glass privacy partition. It slides down and in the rear-view mirror I meet the cold eyes of a man who is most certainly not Larry.
“Who are you?”
“Your driver, Miss Knox.”
“Where’s Larry?”
“I’m not at liberty to say. Please take your seat, Miss Knox, I do not wish to deliver you late.”
“Stop calling me that,” I growl.
“Just following orders, Miss Knox. The door and your seatbelt, please.”
With that, he replaces the screen and I’m left gaping furiously at my own mirrored reflection.
I do as the driver says, deciding to choose my battles carefully. It’s not his fault that my mother is a manipulative piece of shit. No. I’ll unleash my rage on her.
Because I’m angsty, the drive feels like it takes forever. As soon as we pull up, I let myself out of the car and storm towards the house. I throw open the door, not caring when it slams into the table behind, knocking off a plant pot which shatters into a thousand pieces.
“Laura!” I yell. “Laura!” Fuck that bitch. She doesn’t deserve any term of endearment. Even fucking incubator is too good a term for her. It implies heat and warmth; two things she’s never been capable off.
“What are you screaming your head off about, Amelie?” Laura appears at the dining room door looking mighty pissed, her perfect housewife mask slipping once again. “You’re late. Take your seat,” she demands.
“Fuck you!” I spit, storming into the dining room with my fists clenched.
“Ooooh, family drama! This should be good!” Kalen crows. I ignore him.
“Amelie, you will watch your language and how you speak to your mother,” Monty jumps in, getting to his feet.
“Don’t,” I warn. “You’re a decent guy, Monty, but you are not my father and you can’t tell me what to do.”
“No, but I am your headmaster-” he begins.
To my surprise, it’s Onyx that cuts him off in his angry monotone voice.
“What happened to keeping home and school separate, dad?”
“Yeah,” Slate joins in, “seems like this is very much a family issue.”
“We are family.”
“Their family issues. Not ours.” Onyx grunts. For once I’m grateful for the exclusion.
“What’s the bitch done now, Amelie?” Kalen asks. He’s practically bouncing in his seat, loving the drama, relishing the tension. He feeds off it.
“Why do you have all of your staff insisting on calling me Miss Knox?” I seethe. I may be overreacting and making a scene over nothing, but it doesn’t feel that way to me. I know this woman, know what she’s capable of, and this smacks of an ultimate power play.
“Yeah, Laura,” Kalen chimes in, coming over to throw his arm around my neck. “My future wife is going to be Mrs Knox, not miss.”
“I’d put money on Amelie being Mrs K before Laura is,” Slate mutters to Onyx.
“Deal,” Onyx replies and they fist bump.
“Actually boys, you’re mistaken. Amelie is not, and will never be, Mrs Knox. Because Laura and I are engaged. Amelie will be your sister and we will be a proper family,” Monty announces to a shell-shocked room.
“WHAT?!” The three youngest brothers all shout at once. Only Sawyer remains silent, watching intently.
“Thank you for ruining the surprise, Amelie, we were hoping to announce it over dessert,” Laura hisses at me. She somehow manages to look at me with complete loathing, whilst looking at Monty like she’s the victim in all of this.
“That doesn’t explain the manipulation of trying to change my name.”
“I was trying to be nice,” she fake-sobs, even managing to squeeze a tear out.
Monty immediately rushes to her side and cradles her into his arms. “I didn’t want you to feel left out.
We wanted to welcome you to the family properly.
I wanted to mark this date on the calendar: November 12th, the day we officially became one big happy family. ”
I smell bullshit, but I can’t call her out on it without looking like a total dick. I just ruined their engagement. I look like the bad guy here.
“Bullshit!” Kalen cries, unafraid to say what I cannot. “You never wanted to make her part of the family. You wanted to control her!”
“Kalen!” Monty chastises.
“No dad! That...woman...is seriously fucked up!”
“Kalen enough,” Monty barks. “You will watch your tone.”
“I won’t! Does Amelie know that her car has a tracker on it?”
“That’s for protection. Besides, it comes as standard.”
“And the gps in the key fob? Pretty sure that’s an optional extra!”
“Monty! Make him stop!” Laura yells, her face red and blotchy.
“Does being part of this family mean that all of our rooms are bugged as standard? Or just Amelie’s because she’s a girl and she needs ‘protection’?
How about the monitoring of her phone calls?
The weekly reports on her progress by all of her teachers?
” Kalen plows on. The bombardment of secrets that he’s revealing has me feeling lightheaded.
The room begins to spin. “What about the private security you hired to follow her around campus...and off?”
My eyes snap to Sawyer’s when Kalen drops that bombshell, and my face drains of all colour.
His eyes are wide, terrified, and it tips me over the edge.
The room swims in and out of focus, the noises of the room become distant, sounding like they’re underwater, but overwhelming, nonetheless.
Everyone seems to be screaming. Except Sawyer.
He’s deathly silent as my eyes manage to focus on him.
It’s the last thing I see before the world goes dark and I hit the deck.
When I come to, I’m no longer on the floor, but a bed.
I blink slowly and the room blurs back into focus.
I’m pretty sure I’m in Kalen’s room; the walls are a dark blue with photos all over of him and his brothers, the furniture all matching dark wood, the bedsheets surprisingly fresh smelling and soft.
“Hey,” Kalen whispers, his face popping into view. The bed dips under his weight and I carefully roll over onto my side. Kalen is stretched out beside me, mirroring my position, head propped up on his arm. He’s looking at me intently, brow creased with concern. “How are you feeling?”
“Bulldozed,” I say through a dry mouth. “Was all that stuff you said true?”
“I’m sorry, Amelie,” he says, dropping his eyes. When he meets me gaze again, it’s full of pity.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t know how.” I don’t know what to say to that. Sure, we slept together and we’ve been close - my feelings for him are maybe even genuine - but I have my secrets too, so I can’t be mad at him for having his own.
“What happened?”
“You passed out. Went down like a sack of shit, actually. Sawyer moved like lightning to catch you,” he adds darkly.
There’s no mistaking his jealousy. My heart soars but I’m careful to keep my expression neutral.
“The twins lost their shit and eventually stormed out. Sawyer helped me get you in the car. Once he knew you were okay, he took off.”
“Wait, car? Aren’t we in your room?”
“Yeah we are. My room at my mum’s house. There was no way I was leaving you in that house with that woman! Amelie, you didn’t see her. She went postal. Completely lost her shit and started smashing the place up, screaming. You wouldn’t have been safe there.”
I blink at him, processing, slowly. I don’t know what to say. I’m uneasy being in Maggie’s house - there’s no love lost between us - but I expect that Kalen did the right thing by pulling me out of there. Kalen only knows a little of my history with Laura. Unlike the twins, who know everything.
“Amelie, baby,” Kalen coos softly. He reaches out to tuck a strand of my hair behind my ear.
“You had me so scared. I was so worried when you went down like that. I swear my heart stopped until Sawyer confirmed you had a pulse. You scared us. All of us.” I highly doubt it.
I’m pretty sure the incubator was ready to dance gleefully on my grave after I ruined her big reveal. “Even the twins,” Kalen adds.
“It...it made me realise how I feel about you. I really like having a sister-”
“I’m not your sister.”
“You’re about to be,” he argues.
“As if the twins will ever let that wedding happen,” I scoff and Kalen almost cracks a smile. I’ve never seen him so serious before. His easy going, young boyish face looks lost, yet earnest. It makes my heart pang in my chest and I don’t want to think about that.
“Amelie, I like having a sister, but what I feel for you is so much more than that.” My heart starts to beat a little faster, wondering what’s coming. He’s going to kiss me, I’m sure he is. “Amelie, I’m falling for you. Real bad. I think I’m in lo-”
“Kalen! Don’t!” My hand flies out to cover his mouth, like my small fingers can stop the can of worms he’s about to unleash. “Don’t say it!”
“But it’s true. I’ve never felt like this before.” He looks so solemn that I don’t dare contradict him.
He leans in and kisses me, and I let him. He’s saved me from Christ knows what with Laura tonight, and I don’t have the heart to rebuff him. Nor do I want to. I understand how Kalen’s feeling, because as much as I want to deny it, I’ve been thinking and feeling the same thing.
When I don’t push him away, he rolls on top of me and deepens the kiss. He wastes no time bringing his hand up to cup my breast.
“Kalen…” I warn.