and would only
cause irritation and redness, but Sam held back.
“You know, there are infinitely worse
things in this life than being told you’re not Hannah Fairbanks,” Sam
reflected. “For starters, being said you are.”
“You wouldn’t understand.”
“I guess not,” Sam shrugged
indifferently. “But I do know that Pierre Andre is a little French asshole. I
also know that he didn’t make her career—she made his. And frankly, I have seen
more attractive horse’s asses than some of the faces he declares beauties. He
is one photographer—not the end-all-be-all of fashion.”
“It doesn’t matter now,” McKenna hissed.
“She purposefully sabotaged my career. Now, I’ll only ever be known as her daughter.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Sam exclaimed. “How
about you jump off the crazy train for a second? Why would she sabotage your
career?”
“Obviously, she was just using me to
reestablish her brand.”
“McKenna,” Sam chuckled wearily. “Do you
have any idea how ridiculous that sounds? She never needed you to reestablish
anything. Her former career has always been there just waiting for her to
return. Over the years, she has turned down millions because she doesn’t
want that life anymore. She would never do anything to intentionally hurt you.
She loves you. Family is everything to her. Cut her a little slack—she can’t
help being what she is.”
Chapter 6
Kenyon figured whatever Sam had said to
McKenna hadn’t made her feel all that better because she spent the rest of the
day pouting inside her room. She didn’t emerge until after their moms went out
on an emergency shopping errand. No doubt, they were buying her some fabulous consolation
prize.
He cast her only a perfunctory glance as
she walked warily past him towards the kitchen. Sometimes he couldn’t stand
McKenna. She wasn’t happy unless the whole world revolved around her. Kenyon
stopped playing her game years ago. Life would probably be better if their
parents would stop too. But no, they babied her, both of them were just as
guilty, and as a result, she had grown into a little bitch.
He heard her messing around in the
kitchen for a few minutes before she walked back into the living room, carrying
a glass of water. She was hovering over his shoulder. He hated it when she did
that. It wasn’t as if she was interested in the video game he was playing. She
was only waiting to see if he had the other players muted as their moms always
insisted he do whenever they were around. Although they both claimed to abhor
the violence, whenever Willow wasn’t around, Hannah would sometimes sit down
and play with him. She was a pretty decent gamer too and ruthless as hell.
Kenyon paused the game. Looking over his shoulder,
he groaned, “What?”
“Nothing,” McKenna hissed. “I was just
watching you play.”
“Didn’t Sam make you feel better?” he
taunted.
“Shut up, Kenyon!”
“He only pretends to take your side, you
know. He would never really go against her,” Kenyon declared.
McKenna walked around to his side of the
sofa. “Sam would never lie to me,” she spat adamantly.
“Whatever,” Kenyon retorted as he rolled
his eyes. “Sam lies all the time—like when he claims to be our brother .”
“I know Mommy never legally adopted him,”
McKenna said.
“God McKenna, you’re so stupid sometimes.
Have you ever stopped to wonder how you could be so much like someone that you
weren’t biologically related too?”
“What are you saying?” McKenna whispered
in horror as the implications filled her insides with a cold wave of dread.
“Sam isn’t our brother. He’s our donor.
Maybe if you would have spent some time actually looking at yourself in the
mirror and not trying to see what wasn’t there, you might have figured that out
a long time ago like I did.”
“No,” McKenna gasped. “No,” she repeated
as tears flooded her eyes and choked her throat. “You’re wrong!”
Reaching for her phone,