by Gemma Weir
“Give it a rest Wats. She’s Tally’s sister, and Carson’s girl,” Olly says, his tone an unexpected warning.
“I get it Watson you think I deserve it and I’ll be the first to admit that everything I’m dealing with now is probably karma’s way of getting its own back on me for all the shitty things I’ve done the last few years. But I’m here trying to make amends, to put my life back together, now that my entire future has been changed,” I say.
“You saw how wrong things were and you started to put them right, constantly blaming yourself isn’t going to help anything,” Tally says, reminding us all why she’s the nice twin and I’m not.
“But that’s the thing,” I announce. “I was thinking that while we’re here trying to put our lives back together, they’ve got off scot free.”
“Who? Your parents?” Carson asks.
“Yes. We were kids when all this started. I’m not trying to say it was all them, but they coached me, they drilled those rules into me over and over so they were so ingrained I’ll never be able to forget them. Mom told me what to do, what to say, how to behave, she conditioned me to believe that all of our lives would be ruined if we didn’t play our part in securing all our futures,” I tell them, looking between the faces of the guys in the room, before moving back to my sister.
“They did it to me too,” Tally says, her voice quiet and meek. “They made me believe that if I stopped doing what they said, that we’d lose the money and it would all be my fault.”
“Exactly, and if we stepped out of line, they doled out the consequences.”
“They hit you too?” Carson growls, his voice hard and lethal.
“No,” I say, shaking my head.
“They did other stuff, didn’t they?” Tally asks, her voice barely above a whisper.
“It doesn’t matter,” I say, wrapping my arm around myself.
“They starved you,” she utters. “And humiliated you and ignored you. I remember,” Tally breathes, her voice cracking as she covers her mouth with her hand. “Oh my god they did all of that and I never did anything, they did that for years.”
“I want revenge,” I shout, needing to silence her, to make her shut up about the things I don’t ever want to think about again. “It’s not fair that they just get to walk away from this. It’s not fair that they get to just pretend we don’t exist, that they weren’t as complicit in this as I was.”
“Carrigan,” Tally says moving toward me on wobbly legs.
“No,” I shriek, lifting up a hand to ward her away, to stop her from bringing all those memories down on me. “I want them to feel at least a little of what we felt. I want them to understand that they don’t get to just forget about us. I want revenge,” I cry through a broken sob.
“But they’re not here,” Olly says quietly.
“I know, and they’re still playing with us from the other side of the world. Because of them we can’t go into the house we grew up in, the house we’ve spent more time in than either of them. Because of them we’ve had to start over with almost nothing. Because of them we don’t have parents, we don’t have a family, and it’s not fair.”
“It’s not fair,” my twin agrees, nodding her head, even as tears stream down her face.
“I want them to suffer, even if it’s only a bit, even if it is only a blip to them. It’s not fair that they just get to forget us and everything we’ve done. I want revenge and you should want it too,” I say, imploring her to understand, to feel the way I do.
She nods, slow to start, then getting stronger as she reaches out and takes my hand. “What do you want to do?”
“I have no idea,” I say, the sound half laugh, half sob. “But I can’t just let them walk away without knowing that I’ve done something.”
“We can do it,” Arlo says, moving to Tally’s side, becoming yet again her strength and support.
“Hell yeah we can, we’re the future generations of the five most powerful old money families, between us we can make them feel this,” Olly says, jumping up and coming to join us.
“Oh yes, this is going to be fun,” Wats says, laughing manically.
“Let’s make them suffer,” Carson growls, his palm curling around my nape possessively.
“I want to piss them off, annoy the hell out of them and make them hurt in every way possible. I want them to suffer, I want revenge,” I cry, letting my body melt into Carson’s strength, knowing without question that he will hold me up, that he will be there.
“Together we can do this. Together we can make them regret being the shittiest parents ever,” Tally says, her fingers still entwined with mine, gripping me tightly.
My eyes run over the people in the room, ending on Carson, this boy who should hate me, but doesn’t. This boy who helped me, guided me, bossed me around. This boy who I need, who I want, who I like.
“I should have known that day you asked me to help you that I’d lose myself completely to you,” he says, his thumb rubbing along my jaw.
“I need your help again,” I whisper.
His laugh is soft and full of want and need. “I’ll always help you Priss.”
Smiling I lift up onto my tiptoes and kiss him, telling him without words that I’m his and that he’s mine. When I open my eyes again and look at my sister, I feel a weight lift from inside of me and then settle again.
The will of a dead man ruined my life, and now somehow it’s helping me put it back together again. Money is power and I lost a fortune, but maybe I found something much more valuable.
They say revenge is sweet, but the best form of revenge is to be better than those you seek justice from. Perhaps when this is all over I might be able to feel that way, but for now I’m looking forward to using all those lessons my parents taught me to reap a little of what they helped me sow.
My name is Carrigan Prudence Archibald and I’m not a good person. I’ve done things I’m not proud of, but I have a sister, and a boyfriend, and a life I’m ready to start embracing.
My parents spent most of my life ignoring me and my twin, then they spent four years using us. Now they think they can just walk away.
They’re wrong.
The End
(As if I would be that cruel)
The Heir – Part Two coming soon
About the Author
Gemma Weir is a half crazed stay at home mom to three kids, one man child and a hell hound. She has lived in the midlands, in the UK her whole life and has wanted to write a book since she was a child. Gemma has a ridiculously dirty mind and loves her book boyfriends to be big, tattooed alpha males. She's a reader first and foremost and she loves her romance to come with a happy ending and lots of sexy sex.
For updates on future releases check out my social media links.
Acknowledgments
Let’s be honest, so far 2020 has been a messed up old year. I expected to have released this entire series by now, but in March the world stopped spinning and so here I am in August and only just putting the finishing touches to this book.
I adore Carrigan and I really hope you do too. I’ve always been fascinated by the bad guys story and so I decided to give our evil twin a voice and it’s been so fantastic to try and figure out what makes her tick.
What’s also new about 2020 is that I was given the opportunity to sign with the fantastic Hudson Indie Ink. I’m so incredibly grateful to be working with such a fantastic team and I really hope this is the start of an incredibly successful future.
As always, I need to give a shout out to my bestie Sarah, she’s been as impatiently waiting for this book as you guys have, but even when she’s annoyed that I’m not writing, she’s still there for me and a constant source of support. I literally wouldn’t have made it through the last few months without her.
This world of the mega rich has let me embrace my inner mean girl and I can’t wait to write more about our kings and queens.
To my lovely and very patient readers, I’ve done it again and left you
with a huge cliffy, but I’m just having far too much fun with this series to end it. Keep reading and I’ll do my best not to having you screaming and throwing your kindles across the room with the next book.
Thank you so much to everyone who has helped me bring this book to life and happy reading.
Also by Gemma Weir
The Archers Creek Series
Echo (Archer’s Creek #1)
Daisy (Archer’s Creek #2)
Blade (Archer’s Creek #3)
Echo & Liv (Archer’s Creek #3.5)
Park (Archer’s Creek #4)
Smoke (Archer’s Creek #5)
The Scions Series
Hidden (The Scions #1)
Found (The Scions #2)
Wings & Roots (The Scions #3)
The Kings & Queens of St Augustus Series
The Spare - Part One
(The Kings & Queens of St Augustus #1)
The Spare - Part Two
(The Kings & Queens of St Augustus #2)
The Heir - Part One
(The Kings & Queens of St Augustus #3)
Other Works from Hudson Indie Ink
Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy
Stephanie Hudson
Sloane Murphy
Xen Randell
C.L. Monaghan
Sci-fi/Fantasy
Brandon Ellis
Devin Hanson
Crime/Action
Blake Hudson
Mike Gomes
Contemporary Romance
Eve L. Mitchell
Elodie Colt