Page 31 of Madness & Mayhem

“Zane is my brother, Lakyn,” he clips, his eyes darkening.

My eyes widen, my jaw slackening as I stare at him.

It can’t be.

No, it’s impossible.

Reign doesn’t have any siblings. He’s always been any only child.

“Zane iswhat? How?” I ask, confused.

“Half,” he says easily.

“But… but how?” I cry out. “How is Zane your brother?” I nearly shriek the words, and panic ensues. It’s as if my entire world has been flipped on its axis, and I have no clue how to function.

He folds his hands on his upper chest as he watches me, a glint in his eyes as if he enjoys my unease. “My father had an affair with a slutty poker hostess on one of his trips to Chicago when I was two years old. The woman ended up finding my father years later, when Zane was in elementary school. I’ve never met him. Never cared to. My father moved them to New York and that’s where they’ve lived their entire lives. My father has essentially taken care of them without taking any responsibility. He was their money donor.”

My chest ripples with tension, my heart pounding erratically against my rib cage. I feel so confused, processing each piece of this story is adding twenty more questions.

So, Zane is Reign’s brother.

It makes sense, even though it doesn’t.

They don’t even share a last name.

“But… his name is Baswald, and yours is Whitmore.”

He rolls his eyes. “It’s my father’s bastard child. He didn’t deserve my father’s last name, hence why I’ve never met him, and why my father didn’t really have a relationship with him.”

None of this explains why he came home.

“Why’d you come back to Hellcrest Heights, Reign?” I whisper.

His eyes narrow. “I told you, my father had another job for me.”

“What was that job?” I ask him, fear causing my voice to shake.

He says nothing.

Goosebumps are like a dance as they pop along my skin.

“Reign… What. Was. The.Job?” I grit through my teeth.

He chin tilts up, ever so slightly. “To kill the girl who killed my brother.”

A ringing starts in my ears, and I want to scream. Betrayal is like a stab to the chest, and my fingers clutch the fabric of my shirt, squeezing tight, as if it could relieve the pain.

“You would kill me for a brother you didn’t know?” I whisper, being able to feel my heart actively shatter. I get we weren’t together. I understand we didn’t end on good terms. I realize what we had then may have meant nothing to him.

But it meant everything to me, even when we weren’t us.

An evil glint enters his eyes, traveling to his lips, quirking up slightly. “I wanted to kill you for sleeping with my blood.”

I swallow over the lump in my throat. “You would killme?”

He puffs out a laugh. “I would kill you for many reasons, Lakyn, most of all for sleeping with Zane.”

I tremble, and he smirks before it drops, and a blankness washes over his features. “I was going to make you suffer for sleeping with my family. It’s what my father wanted. Even though Zane was a bastard and was never considered part of our family, he was still my father’s blood, and that was a betrayal in his eyes. You fucking him was a betrayal to me, so the anger was there. The need to kill you. Though, seeing you changed that. It always did, Lakyn. I can’t just pull a blade across your throat and think I can call it even. You’re Lakyn. My baby Lake.”