BLUE BLOOD

59 | [avery dragomir]

x

All the money in the world could not save my mother.

She was dying. I knew this as I secretly watched her lie in an armrest. No one else but my father knew her cancer had returned. Tyson, Shannon, they all had no idea. Ever since I found out, I haven't spoken or even looked at her.

No money in the world could change my mother's will. She'd rather succumb to cancer than return to chemotherapy. I hated her for that. I hated her for refusing treatment because it meant we weren't worth living for.

I watched as a tear slipped down her cheek. Mother clutched a necklace to her heart and I knew she was grieving for Grace. Despite my mother's efforts, she never loved Shannon like she loved Grace. I knew why. I've known for a long time. Shannon was a product of my father's infidelity. Her bright blue eyes gave it away.

Mother was silent in her grief but she grieved deeply. She grieved because the universe had slowly taken everything away from her. Her husband's love for her, her daughter's life, and now her own life.

That was the price of being a Dragomir. You lose everything but money in the end.

x

I silently watched Grace's funeral ceremony. She was gone. Grace, who never cared about anything but honor.

They say death changes people. My mother now wilted in bed every day. My father wasn't even in the country half the time. Shannon grieved, but she was never affected as much as Tyson, who spiraled. Mason was now always drunk or high. He was sober now, though, as he stood by her coffin. I knew this was his self-inflicted punishment. Staying sober sliced at his heart. He blamed himself.

Bianca softly touched my arm. "I'm sorry."

I flinched away from her. I knew exactly what she felt for me but I also knew what Tyson felt for her. "Is Tyson okay?"

She sighed, hurt in her eyes from my subtle rejection. "No. He-" she winced, "He hates you."

I expected as much. He blamed me for Grace's death. Tyson blamed me because he said my friends drove her to die. Grace was so strong, he said, she'd never suicide. She'd never do that. Those were his words.

"He doesn't believe the suicide note," Bianca told me quietly. "She said Grace would never suicide."

I examined the look in her eyes. "You believe that too."

"She was my closest friend," Bianca shrugged, but I saw the clear confliction in her eyes. Grace was practically her sister but Bianca was also a blue blood and the first rule of being a blue blood was to never turn on your own. "I knew things about her even you don't know."

"Bianca," I said, almost warningly as I caught the implication of her words. "What do you know that I don't."

"Avery," she shook her head. "You know I can't say anything."

I stared at her. She watched back, her eyes searching mine in desire. Bianca never denied her affection for me. As she reached over to touch the bruise on my cheekbone, which Tyson gave me after he found out about Grace's death, I gripped her wrist. I could never love her like that, even if my brother weren't in love with her.

"Enough," I said as evenly as I could. "You know how Tyson feels about you."

"No," Bianca snapped, dropping her hand as if I had burned her. "No, I don't and I don't care. Avery-"

"I know you've heard the rumors," I reminded her, emotionlessly. "I'm getting engaged to Satin Queens."

Her eyes fired up in anger. "You don't love her. You don't even care about her."