The Blood Between Us Read Online Free

regret calling Grace the word that was locked inside my mind, but I might regret letting him overhear it.
    My voice caught in my throat. “Who’s going to help me?”
    “Help yourself.” She practically spit the words in my direction.
    “That’s what I was doing before you so rudely interrupted me.” I took two steps up before pausing and looking back at her. “But while I have your attention: I know you took those pages from Dad’s journal. I want them back.”
    “No.”
    I raised an eyebrow. I’d half expected her to ask me what I was talking about. “So you don’t deny you took them?”
    “I have no reason to keep secrets. Do you?” She folded her arms and stared me down.
    “Why did you take those pages? What’s on them?” I could feel the heat rising in my face.
    “That is none of your business.”
    “What do you mean?” I took a step closer to her.
    “Let’s just say it’s a family matter.” She pointed toward the group of people in the living room. “Now get your butt back in that room and play the gracious host.”
    “You’re a real piece of work, Grace.” Turning away, I continued my ascent.
    As I reached the top of the staircase, she said, “Yes.I suppose I am. But at least I have the decency to treat our guests with the respect they deserve at a funeral.”
    “Memorial service. There wasn’t enough of Mom and Dad left for a funeral. Remember?” I continued down the hall without so much as another glance back in her direction.
    Twenty minutes later, as I lay submerged in hot water up to my chin in a large slipper tub, a soft knock came at the door. My godfather’s voice soon followed. “Adrien? Might I have a word with you when you’re finished?”
    “You can come in, Viktor. I’m dressed.” And dressed I was. Still wearing my slacks, my sweater, my shoes and socks. But soaking in a tub and wishing the world away. For how long, I wasn’t sure. Maybe forever. Maybe just for the moment.
    The door swung open slowly and Viktor popped his head in before stepping fully inside and closing the door behind him. He looked down at me and, grabbing a stool from the vanity, took a seat beside the tub. “It would seem you’ve forgotten an important step in the bathing process. Most people remove their clothing before getting into the water. Are you all right?”
    “No.” My words were flat as they left my lips. No feeling, no pain. They just were—the way that gravity was. Existing. But not something anyone ever really gave much thought to.“No. I’m not all right. I’m not exactly sure what I am. But I’m most definitely not all right.”
    Viktor’s frown deepened. “Perhaps you should stay with Julian and me for a while, until you can grieve and get your head around all that’s happened.”
    I shook my head slowly. “No. I want to go back to school. Only . . .”
    “Only what?”
    I met Viktor’s eyes, the lump in my throat growing exponentially. How could I tell him what I wanted to do? How could I take from him another family member, when he’d just lost my parents, too? I swallowed hard, finding my courage in the warmth of the water. “Only I don’t want to go back to the Wills Institute. I want to go somewhere else. A different boarding school, far away from here. Is that okay?”
    Viktor didn’t miss a beat. He had always been that way—supportive, at a moment’s notice. It was one of the many things that I had always admired about him. “It’s perfectly all right. If that’s what you want. But can I ask why?”
    I sank down into the water some more until it was covering my chin. “I want to be as far away from Grace as I can possibly get.”
    Viktor grew silent for a moment. From the look in his eyes, I could tell that he wasn’t surprised by my request, justdisappointed in it. “I see.”
    “No, you don’t. You think I’m pushing away the only family that I have left because I’m in mourning or something. But that’s not it. Grace may be my adopted