Chapter 97

Valen was working back tonight with Marcus, so after I got Valarian from school, I decided to have dinner with Zoe, Macey, and the girls. The kids had fun and it kind of reminded me of before our lives got so complicated when it was just us against the world. It’s comforting knowing that nothing has changed even now with my title. To them, I would always just be Everly, not Luna, not the rogue-wh0*e. Here, I was safe to be my normal self and was free to do as I please without judgment or having someone scrutinize me somehow. When the 7 o’clock news came on that night, I sent the kids to play with the Lego in Casey’s room. “Remote! The news is on,” I say, waving my hand at Zoe. She passes me the remote, and I quickly flick the channel over.

“Since when do you like watching the news?” Macey asks, and I race to the sofa and sit in the middle in front of the TV.

“I like the news when I don’t star in it. I may have handed a list of evidence to the media about Nixon and my father this morning,” I tell them.

“What? What’d you give them?” Zoe screeches excitedly, rushes over, and sits on the other side of me. It was petty, but if they want to talk sh!t about me. I should be able to have fun returning the favor. I was far from apologetic, even over the one thing that was total bullsh*t. But then again, it could be true! Either way, it makes for exciting conversations at dinner meetings. I chuckled to myself; he was going to kill me.

“Oh, this, I gotta see!” Macey says, snatching the cold bowl of popcorn off the coffee table. Both Zoe and Macey looked at me questionably. It was the only thing I left out. Getting comfortable on the sofa, we all squeezed on. Zoe is sitting with her legs over my lap and her feet in Macey’s lap.

Macey sat un-blinking, chowing down on cold popcorn from the kid’s movie we watched after dinner. Shoveling handfuls in her mouth in a very un-ladylike manner, but a complete Macey manner. When the news anchor comes on and Nixon’s photo pops up in the corner, we lean forward eagerly.

I purse my lips. They burned my hotel, and I will burn their reputations. The newswoman reports on Nixon’s first mate and how she became forsaken. How his wife isn’t the mother of his son Carter, but the most damning part to him, was that he abandoned his daughter to the forsaken. I even managed to find some old photos of Leah, his mate, and a hospital report of a young woman named Kayla, who was Carter’s twin sister, which would push the evidence along.