Pretty Misfortunes (Cruel Boys of Raven Oak Prep #2)

~Chapter I~

~Madelyn~

"GIVE ME ONE GOOD REASON WHY I SHOULD?" I asked, staring into the eyes of my blood father- blood, but a stranger to me.

Tobias raised a brow, as if the question confused him. "Those reasons should not warrant your hesitation, daughter. You know why you must take my hand. You don't belong with them. You belong at our side. With your true family."

"Family?" I raised my voice and stood up from my chair, jarring the man in front of me to retreat a step as I continued. He was cautious. Good. "You speak of family as if you know what it means. You don't. If you did I wouldn't have spent three years in a mental institution because people believed I killed my mother. I was thirteen. I didn't have your protection. I faced all of it on my own while the world hated me. Where were you then?"

"In a coma," he replied smoothly. "Recovering from the several bullets your mother put inside me many years ago when we were young. I was not at fault for what happened to your mother. Frankly I do not believe it was accidential. Had I known what she was planning that night things would have gone differently, but luckily your brother was there to stop your mother before you died."

A knot of emotions got stuck in my throat. "Died?"

Monster stepped towards me then and a weird epression overtook his face. "Don't you remember?"

I retreated from him, confused. "Remember what?"

"Fuck!" Monster turned to his father. "He wiped her memories. That motherfucker has gone too far this time. I am going to kill him personally when I see him again."

Tobias put a hand on his son. "Relax. That is talk for another time. Right now we only have five minutes before the police enter the building." He looked down at me. "I wasn't there for you for sixteen years. But I have the chance now to resurrect the past mistakes that have lead us here."

I stared up at him, brow raised. "You lead us here. Not your mistakes. What happened in the past was beacause you deserved it."

He shrugged. "Perhaps. But now I know the mistakes now are not based on the present. The past has returned and I have to protect what is mine. That includes you and your brother. Your mother will be looking for you to finish what she started, and that is to kill the children we brought into this world because I was not killed all those years ago. To keep you away from me she will do anything."

I couldn't trust that. Mom loved me. Why would she want to kill me?

"The choice is yours to decide. I will not pressure you, but I will not give up on you so easily either. I have the chance to protect you now. I have every intention to do so now that you can accept what has now been revealed. You are my daughter."

"You expect me to believe that?"

He stared deep into my eyes. "I expect you to believe the words of your father."

I shook my head. "You are not my father. You're a murderer. You killed an innocent boy and girl-"

"Innocent?" Tobias shook his head. "No one is innocent, my little rose. As for the murder accusation; I did not kill Charlotte Moon or Jonah Treehouse. Their deaths were not in my control, nor did I want their blood on my hands. We had to implicate someone to infiltrate the academy, but that was all we excogitated for work we put together before you arrived in Seattle to live with Morris."

"So you admit you had a part in their death?"

Monster sighed heavy before he said, "No. Cassidy has an idle hand. She killed him a year before we discovered you came to Washigton and enrolled in Raven Oak Prep. His death was not calculated. It was just our luck you did, and that Cassidy was a psychotic loon. Not that I am defending what she has done, but Jonah was the key to access to Raven Oak Prep."