AUTHOR’S POVThe air felt suffocating, and the mood of the whole hall was off. Hunter looked around, and of course, everyone was dressed in black. He had on a black suit too, and he sat between his brothers, trying not to let the tears slip. Because they weren't crying, even though he was sure they wanted to, and he could be strong like them. They were the only ones he had to look up to now, both of them successful men, and if he couldn't even follow in the tiniest of their footsteps, then there was no way his life would be as good as theirs."You good, bro?" Axel whispered, leaning closer to him. He had been watching him through the corner of his eyes, and his lower lip kept trembling. He didn't want him to start bawling right here.Hunter nodded, a tense look on his face. "I'll be fine."He looked up as Blaze rose, right in the front seat of the gathering, and left with a stone-cold expression on his face."Is it just me, or does he look angry?" Axel asked as Blaze disappeared thro
KATIE’S POV"I promise you, it's not going to be a distraction," I assured, flattening my palms on the table and leaning closer to the woman sitting opposite me. Luckily, I wasn't getting morning sickness except for the dizziness and sleepiness.She lifted a hand, fingers brushing aside her ginger hair from her eyes. "I'm sorry, miss, we can't have you here."I grit my teeth, feeling desperate. This was the second college I had applied to, and she told me the same thing. What does my pregnancy have to do with my studies anyway? "The baby isn't due till months to come. By then, I must have covered a lot of ground. I swear I can fit into your school schedule.""It's not just that, Miss Tessa." She took a deep breath, preparing to explain what I already knew she would say."Very soon, the pregnancy will start showing, and then what? You'll need to be skipping class for checkups, and we don't allow that here. The maximum amount of days you can skip class in a session is a week, and tru
KATIE’S POV"There must be a huge mix-up", I muttered, tapping on my email. I sent a complaint to the help email address on the portal, hoping I would be replied to quickly. I needed this to go on with my search for a college.I still had two more on my list to check out, and they couldn't just reject me. Whatever I had done wrong was not enough for karma to be this cruel.As I arranged my documents to keep them back, my eyes caught a number and name I had scribbled down sometime before.It was labelled 'Mallory', and the name rang a bell. I gasped; she was a friend of mine back then. Perhaps she would be able to do me a little favour. I dialled it in at once, hoping that she would pick up. She did, and I gasped in relief."Mallory, good afternoon," I said."Afternoon...""You're speaking with Katie..." My voice trailed off when I realised I had said my real name out loud. My eyes scanned the area around me; it wasn't empty like I would have preferred. But no one was paying any atten
HUNTER’S POV"Do I need to go today?" I asked, crossing my fingers behind me, hoping they would let me skip school today. I had already played the grieving brother card on them to skip school yesterday and the day before. I was sure it wouldn't work to keep me home today."Are you running from a bunch of teens?" Blaze asked in between a bite of pretzel. The way he said it made me sound like a coward, probably because that was what he thought I was at the moment."That's not what the Griffins do, Hunt", he continued, tapping his fingers forcefully on the table for emphasis. "We face things head on, and we do not rub from people."Easy for him to say. He wasn't the one going to be in a class whole of nosy people. And thanks to him, my situation just got worse. They now had the speech he gave to defend himself to torture me with. I bet they didn't think my family was that messed up. If they had sympathised with me before, they would probably be rolling on the floor on my behalf now. And
HUNTER’S POV"Hey, Coach Jordan,” I called, walking into the open office. I waved at Mason; he'd accompanied me here, and it was a huge relief to focus on his chatter instead of bearing the prying eyes that followed me. He would have come with me into the office, but he told me he felt this would be a private discussion.The burly man looked up from what he was writing, blond hair falling over his eyes as he did so. He flashed me a smile. "Hunter boy" I grinned at the nickname he gave the members of the baseball team. He always added 'boy' to our names, and I found it annoying until I found out that he only referred to his prize team members that way."How're you holding up?" He asked I shrugged. "I'm okay."He raised an eyebrow. "How okay? Because you missed two days at school, this must be hard for you."Great, I could imagine that this was what I would be getting from most of the teachers today. I moved forward and placed my hands on the chair opposite him. "I'm fine. Mason said
BLAZE’S POVI took a sip of the wine set before me, staring at the door. It had been an hour now, more time than I would have expected the lawyer to waste. "What's taking the lawyer so long?" I asked, turning towards Axel.My brother shrugged, placing his hands on the dining table. This wasn't really a meal, just something to keep us occupied till the man came. And yet, Axel had asked for a second round of the sausages that the cooks had brought."Think someone hijacked him on the way?" I tried again. Maybe Axel hadn't really gone to get a lawyer that morning. Perhaps he just wanted to waste my time. I hoped that was not the case, though; I had things to attend to at work and this time I was spending here put a lot of things at stake. I was only here because hearing what Dad's will said was important, and as much as I would have loved to listen to it from Axel, I needed to know what it contained first-hand.Axel let out a small laugh. "You're not that lucky, Blaze. We're going to he
BLAZE’S POVI glanced at Axel, trying to hold in the bubble of laughter that was building inside me. But one look at his bewildered expression was all it took for it to come out. At some point, Axel joined me in laughing too. This was such a funny scenario. Did people think they could pop up and claim to be my father's sons right when the will was about to be read?"Of course,” I managed to say. "Perfect timing, by the way."If she really was who she claimed to be, then I refused to understand why she was making an appearance now. Weeks after my Father’s death. Days after his burial. "What do you mean by that?" she questioned, her eyes darting between us with confusion written all over her face."Where were you at his funeral?" I threw at her while attempting to school my expression back to neutrality."I was there,” She answered "You can't be serious," Axel exclaimed, his tone giving his shock. "So, throughout that day, even the days that followed, you didn't deem it fit to introd
AUTHOR’S POVAxel watched the woman's expression morph from denial into shock. Sure, that was how he looked when he had looked over Blaze's shoulder to see for himself what the will said. This was a huge shock. There was no way anyone had expected this. Of all people, Katie?"Dad played a fast one on us, huh?" Blaze muttered, hands on his chin. He looked troubled, and rightly so. There had to be some form of foul play somewhere"I don't believe this," he said and turned to the lawyer. "Did you switch this will up or something? Tell me where the real thing is."The lawyer stared at him aghast. "Why on earth would I switch this up? You think I'm hiding the real will?" This had to be the most stupid thing he had heard since entering the law profession. What was his business with the Griffin family? What would he gain by hiding the real will from those it belonged to? He understood their shock, and he, too, had been shocked when he had opened it. But that was no reason for them to start