A Truthful Kiss: (Signed with a Kiss, Book 3)

by Sorensen, Jessica

  Still, despite the fact that she’s drunk, she appears as put together as she always does, not a wrinkle in her dress, her hair perfectly curled.

  Always look perfect, she used to tell me. Even if you aren’t.

  She eyes me over with eyes that I suddenly realize look nothing like mine. Then she frowns and shakes her head, stepping back into the room. “You can come in.”

  Sighing, I step over the threshold and shut the door behind me. Then I walk into the room. Or, well, suite. The bed is made and, other than the wine and empty plates on the table, there’s no sign she’s been staying in this room, which leaves me wondering … “Why are we meeting in a hotel room?” I ask as I stand in the middle of the room, on edge.

  Something is off. I can feel it.

  “To avoid the risk of this conversation ever being overheard.” She makes her way over to a table near the large windows in the far corner of the room and takes a seat. “Sit down. We need to talk.”

  Wariness floods my body. I don’t budge. “What about?”

  She narrows her eyes at me, her lips parting, but she’s cut off by the sound of the toilet flushing.

  I tense, my gaze darting to the bathroom door as it opens. When my father walks out, I’m not sure whether to be relieved or get even more tense.

  “These towels here are like sandpaper,” he says as he tosses the hand towel that he’s drying his hands off with onto the bathroom counter. “Honeyton is really going downhill …” He trails off when he notices me standing there. His entire face shifts then, going from casual to hard in the matter of a second, but he usually looks at me this way. “So, you’re here.”

  I shrug, stuffing my hands into the pockets of my jeans to hide my uneasiness. “I was told to be, wasn’t I? Well, more like threatened into coming here.” It’s a bold move to say that to him.

  Unlike with my mom, my dad is a lot harder to stand up to. But I’m tired. Fucking exhausted. Have been for years now, and things are only getting worse, something I was reminded of last night when I helped Holden and Ellis deal drugs to some rich assholes.

  “Yeah, well, sometimes threatening is the only thing that can get through that thick head of yours,” my father responds in a cold tone. “Well, that and a good beating.”

  The muscles in my jaw pulsate. I want to hit him. So badly. Have for the longest time. But I know where that’ll lead. And no, I’m not talking about getting arrested. That’s not my dad’s style. Too many people would find out. No, he’d handle it a bit differently, probably by hitting me back and then some. Maybe it’d be worth it. Maybe getting beat would be worth that swing I’d get in, that satisfaction of knowing that, for once, I hurt him.

  “West, get that look off your face and come sit down,” my mom orders in an uneven tone, like she knows exactly what my thoughts are.

  I stare at my father for a slamming heartbeat longer, and he stares right back, daring me.

  My fingers twitch to do it, to hit him like I hit Blaine.

  “Go ahead,” my father dares, stepping toward me. “See what happens.”

  “That’s enough,” my mom hisses. “If you two start fighting in here, someone could overhear and call the police. And then you’ll never be elected.”

  My father grinds his teeth while carrying my gaze. He doesn’t want to be the first one to look away. Neither do I.

  “Fine, you want to be the tough guy, then go ahead,” he murmurs, glaring at me. “I’ll be the adult here.”

  As he looks away, I get this twisted sense of satisfaction over it.

  I fucking defied him, and it felt so damn good.

  That feeling is quickly extinguished when I sit down at the table and my mom informs me of why she brought me here.

  “We need you to sign these papers,” she says as she opens a folder. “Your dad is a notary, so we don’t need anyone else present.” She shoves a pen at me.

  I take the pen from her and confusedly stare down at the papers as she slides the folder in my direction. “What are these?”

  “That’s not for you to worry about,” she tells me in a curt tone. “Just sign the papers, and then you can go.”

  I’m so beyond confused.

  “But I thought you …” I glance at her, unable to get the words out.

  I thought I was adopted. I thought that’s why you brought me here. To talk about it.

  “You thought I what?” She plays dumb, but I can tell she knows what I mean.

  My father moves up behind me and leans over my shoulder. “Just sign the damn papers, you fucking idiot,” he says in a low tone then grabs my hand and tries to force me to do so.

  A while ago, I might have, but I think I’ve reached my breaking point.

  I jerk back, jumping to my feet, which makes my dad stumble back as my chair topples over.

  “What the fuck is wrong with you?” he growls out, his face bright red.

  “I’m not just going to sign some damn papers because you guys said so.” I pick up the papers. “When I read them over, I’ll decide if I will sign them.”

  I’ve never seen him as livid as he looks in that moment, his face red with anger, his eyes dark and full of warning that he’s about to break me. But this time, I’m not going to let him.

  I dodge around him with the papers in my hand. He tries to grab me, but I shove him away, and he’s so shocked by the move that it takes him a moment to recover, which gives me enough time to run out of the room.

  Since the hallway is empty, he chases after me. I run, heading for the stairs instead of the elevator since I’d have to wait for it.

  “West,” he growls out as he sprints after me.

  But I’m faster than him and reach the stairs before he can get to me. As I haul ass down the stairway, he chases me for a bit. When I reach the bottom floor, though, and exit the stairwell, he stops, probably knowing that if he continues to chase me, people are going to see him.

  I powerwalk through the lobby, ignoring the receptionist as she tries to apologize for earlier. When I burst out the front doors, I jog for my car and climb in. Then I start the engine, and my tires spin as I peel out of the parking lot.

  Even though I want to look at the papers first, I know I need to go, because I wouldn’t put it past my parents—whoever the hell they are—to try to corner me while I’m in my car.

  I drive for several minutes, my heart racing in my chest, my phone vibrating with incoming messages that I’m sure are from Loraine and Eli. I ignore them, trying to process what I just did.

  I’m so damn screwed. I know this, and while part of me cares, part of me doesn’t. I just want to be done with them and their games. But I’m not done yet. No. I need to see what’s on those papers, see why they seemed so desperate for me to sign them.

  Flipping on my blinker, I make a turn into the parking lot of the local grocery store. Then I park near the front doors where a lot of people are going in and out, so if my parents do spot my car and try to confront me, enough people will be around that they won’t make a scene.

  I put the shifter into park and leave the engine idling in case I need to take off. Then I pick up the folder and start to skim-read the papers. They’re clearly some sort of legal documents, and while I can’t understand all of it, I get the basic gist of what they contain.

  Someone has left me a large sum of money in their will, and signing these papers will basically transfer all the money over to my parents. But the question is: who left me the money? Why? And why do my parents need the money so badly when they already have enough as it is?

  I may not be able to find most of those answers right now, but I can find one.

  I flip through the papers, searching for a name. It takes me a moment to find it.

  Charlotte Everlyson.

  “Who are you?” I mutter. “And why did you leave me so much money?”

  A couple of ideas come to mind, like maybe this Charlotte was my real mother. But, if that’s true, then that means what Loraine said about me bei
ng adopted is true.

  It also means that my real mother is dead.

  3

  Alexis

  Before I leave for school, I check under the hood and do a brake check to make sure everything is good with my car. I feel extremely paranoid, but after everything that’s happened, I think that might be justifiable.

  Once I’m certain my car is good, I hop in and make the drive to school.

  During the drive, my mind is plagued by thoughts of this blackmailer and how in the hell they got so good with electronics. Clearly, they have to be some sort of hacker, which has me extremely worried.

  While I don’t know a ton about hacking, I’ve read enough to understand that a hacker may be able to access a lot of information about me. And they broke into my house, too, which shows they’re not afraid to break the law. I just wish I knew why they were doing this. Knew why they believed I’d done something to them. They mentioned it once in a text, that I ruined their life.

  That honestly doesn’t give me a clue as to who it could be. The really sucky part is the list of people who would want to torment me is pretty long. Although, I don’t really know anyone who has awesome hacking skills. In fact, if I was to go by that, it’d eliminate every suspect I can think of. However, any of these suspects could be getting help from a hacker. I mean, look at West. He knew Ellis, who is a hacker, and is using him to figure out who is sending me the texts.

  If he can’t figure out who the sender is, what the heck am I supposed to do? They already erased the thread of texts they sent me, which really is the only evidence I have against them.

  What I need is a game plan, a way to figure out who this is and gather some evidence against them.

  Yeah, that could work. At least, it works in the mystery books I read.

  When I arrive at the school parking lot, I find a place to park. Then I dig out a notebook and pen out of my backpack, figuring I’ll go old-school with this instead of making a list on the note app in my phone. That way, the list can’t be hacked into.

  At the top of the page I write: My To-do List:

  Below it, I scribble a short list.

  Find out who’s texting me.

  Find out why.

  Find out dirt on them.

  Use it against them to get them to stop blackmailing me.

  Find a way to delete that video of you.

  The list is pretty vague, but I’ll add more detail to it once I learn more.

  Closing the notebook, I tuck it away in my bag then grab my keys and get out of the car, feeling a little bit better. However, it’s a short-lived feeling as school starts and reminds me of other problems I haven’t yet dealt with.

  I was really distracted over the weekend and didn’t think too much about it. About how I’d see Masie and wouldn’t be able to just take off and avoid her. I didn’t think about how I’d have to see Masie and Blaine, holding hands and looking into each other’s eyes, all lovey-dovey. I also didn’t think about how many people would be gushing over how cute of a couple they make.

  “Oh my God, they’re so cute together,” Jane, one of the biggest gossiper in school, gushes to her friend Stella as she’s walking out of third period.

  The two of them are in front of me, lollygagging down the aisle, taking their sweet-ass time and blocking my path.

  “Blaine and Masie?” Stella asks as she texts on her phone.

  “Um, duh. Who else would I be talking about?” Jane rolls her eyes as they continue to lollygag toward the door, blocking my way. “It’s all anyone is talking about.”

  No, it’s not. It’s all she’s talking about. Everyone else acts like they expected it to happen. Or they already knew about Masie and Blaine’s relationship, which makes me wonder if they already did.

  Was I the only one who was blindsided?

  I shake my head at myself, wondering if I’ve just been seeing what I’ve wanted to see.

  I must have.

  “Yeah …” Stella is really distracted by her phone, and it’s making her walk slow as hell.

  I hug my books against my chest, telling myself to be patient, but not only is their what has to be an attempt to break the world’s slowest walking record getting on my nerves, so is their topic of conversation.

  The reason behind my irritation toward the subject of Masie and Blaine isn’t what I thought it would be. I thought I’d be jealous, but I’m kind of just pissed off. Pissed off that my two best friends lied to me, had secret conversations behind my back about my crush on Blaine. I feel like I just discovered who they both are, and my feelings for Blaine dissolved along with my friendship with Masie.

  Not that she hasn’t been trying to fix our friendship. She tried to corner me this morning before school started, but I stealthy ducked into class. I haven’t seen her since then, but I think I may have just spotted her outside of the classroom.

  “I thought you had a thing for Blaine?” Stella asks Jane as she continues to text on her phone.

  “That was so forever ago. Now I’m totally after Jay,” she declares. “He is so, so hot. And I heard he’s supposed to be going to the lake party this weekend. We should go.”

  Every single part of me locks up at the mention of Jay. I want to scream at her, tell her what a piece of shit he is, but the words become thick in my throat.

  “Maybe.” Stella stuffs her phone into the back pocket of her jeans. “You think West will be there?”

  And now my stomach is winding into knots. Wait—West? As in, my West?

  Well, he’s not really mine. We’re just pretending, and Stella doesn’t know about my and West’s fake relationship yet, so why am I getting all worked up? I shouldn’t care at all. But I do. In fact, I’ve been worried about West all morning. Not that I’ve heard from him. Maybe that’s a good sign. Maybe that means everything went smoothly this morning. But, how can finding out you’re adopted go smoothly, especially with how his mother told him?

  Yeah, there’s no way things went smoothly.

  Then, where is he?

  Maybe I should just text him.

  I’m debating if I should when Jane and Stella finally, finally reach the door. They turn right, heading down the hallway away from me and taking their conversation that has veered toward how delicious West’s lips look with them.

  I breathe in relief and head to the left toward my locker, making it a whole three steps before Masie steps out of the crowd and in front of me.

  So, it was her I saw. Crap.

  “I don’t want to talk to you,” I say before she can even get a word out.

  She looks at me like a wounded deer. “Lex, please. We need to talk. I don’t want this one little thing to ruin our friendship.”

  Little thing? She may think that’s what it is, but she hurt me in ways I’ll never be able to tell her aloud.

  I lower my voice as people turn to look at us. “I said I don’t want to talk about it.” I move to step around her, but she skitters in front of me again, nearly tripping in her heels.

  If I wanted to, I could just take off and outrun her. Masie can’t run for shit. Plus, she’s wearing a dress and heels while I have on shorts, clunky boots, and a black tank top, all of which are easy to run in. Well, they would be except I think my laces are untied. Then again, I spent all weekend running from her, and I’m getting tired of it.

  “Move out of my way,” I warn, crossing my arms and staring her down.

  “No,” she replies, her tone a little shaky. “Not until you talk to me.”

  I shake my head, my jaw ticking. “I don’t owe you anything. You’re the one that backstabbed me, not the other way around.”

  “I didn’t backstab you,” she says, her eyes watering up. “I just fell for Blaine. I didn’t mean to. It just happened. And I tried to fight my feelings for him for a long time, because I knew you loved him, but it’s like we were meant for each other, Lex.” A tear rolls down her cheek, but she quickly wipes it away with her hand. “I think I’m in love with him, Lex.”
<
br />   Maybe if she’d told me this beforehand, things might’ve been different. Or maybe if she hadn’t just declared to everyone in the hallway that I had feelings for Blaine, I would have felt sorry for her.

  As the whispering and staring starts to spread like a freakin’ zombie plague, my heart rate picks up, thudding deafeningly inside my chest.

  Everyone knows. This is what you were afraid of.

  Say something, Alexis. Do anything.

  I suddenly become that girl on the bathroom floor again, the freak who people made fun of. I start to shrink inside myself.

  I should run. Run home and grab a can of spray paint so I can distract myself from anything else other than this moment. And maybe I would’ve done just that if West hadn’t shown up at that precise moment.

  “Hey,” he greets me, sliding his arm around my lower back as he moves up beside me.

  I’m about to say “hey” back, am about to melt into him even if it makes me seem weak, when he does something completely unexpected.

  He presses his lips to mine.

  The kiss doesn’t last long, but it’s enough to send my already racing heart skyrocketing. When he pulls back, the corners of his lips quirk with amusement, though his eyes look a bit wild, like he just surprised the hell out of himself almost as much as he did me.

  “What the hell is happening right now?” Masie breathes out, wide-eyed, gaze flicking between West and me.

  “Hey, Masie?” West says to her curtly.

  “Yeah?” she asks, confusion flooding her eyes.

  West rests his hand on the small of my back as he looks at her. “Get the fuck out of my way so I can walk my girlfriend to class.”

  She blinks. “Girlfriend?” Her gaze lands on me, and she has the audacity to look hurt. “You’re dating West, and you didn’t tell me?”

  Guilt wells in my throat, and it pisses me off. I shouldn’t care. At all. But I do a little bit, which is annoying. I pretend it’s not that way at all.

  I arch my brow at her. “It hurts, doesn’t it? Knowing that your best friend kept this huge secret from you.”

  Her expression falls, and her lips part.