I rub my hand over my forehead and slowly bring my eyes up to who I just collided with, guessing Bishop’s dad is home. Swallowing through the bile of everything I’ve just witnessed, my vision reaches the owner of the body, and I gasp, shock spreading over every inch of me.
“Dad?”
“Madison!” my dad snaps at me in surprise. “What are you doing here?”
“No.” I shake my head. “What are you doing here?”
Dad looks down to the book that’s spread open as Bishop steps up beside me, looking down to it too. There’s an audible gasp that sounds through the air, and I turn to Bishop, my eyes heavy and weak from all the tears. His hand covers his mouth in shock, his eyes wide as he gazes at the book. He tugs at his hair, and I look down to the book, confusion clouding me everywhere. Shuffling over the floor on my hands and knees, I reach it, the next chapter open and ready.
9.
The Silver Swan
The truth is I don’t know what my husband did to my daughter. He said girls are tainted. There is no room for girls in his master plan, and that’s how it always will be. He said they would sell the girls, but something dark and doubtful always tickled the back of my mind. My husband was a liar, a cheat, and a manipulator. There’s absolutely not one part of his body that is truthful or redeemable.
Later that night, after my maid had cleaned me up, Humphrey came back into the cave, sat down beside me, and said, “Girls cannot be born into our covenant, wife. They’re weak by human nature. They must be taken care of at their birth.”
“You’re not God, Humphrey. You cannot deem who bears what when pregnant.”
“No,” he replied simply. “But I can take care of it.”
I shook my head, my heart in tatters, and my life turning bleak, dark, finished. “There will be no Silver Swans born into this family or any of the first nine. They will be demolished.”
“Silver Swans?” I asked, clipped and annoyed.
“The Silver Swan is, in old times, what they would call a tarnished being. Every girl that would be born into the first nine is a tarnished being. It’s no place for a her.”
“Humphrey Hay—”
I swipe the tears from my eyes, not wanting to read anymore. “Dad?” I tilt my head at my father. “Why are you here?”
He swallows roughly. “I was just sorting out a business deal.” His eyes pinch, worried. “Just some business I had with Mr.—”
Flashbacks come in at full force.
“Your dad has shady business dealings.”
“She’s a civilian!”
“She’s no civilian and you know it.”
“Do you know anything about us?”
“Have you been to The Hamptons before? And be honest with me!”
“Fuck your dad!”
“Trust me, Madison. Your father is no innocent in this!”
“He recognized her! Fuck!”
And then finally, Bishop’s words from the cabin. “Just promise me that you will always know we’ve done everything for your safety.”
All the secrets. The questions, the empty answers and promises. The lies!
My mouth drops open and my chest freezes as realization becomes clear. “Oh my God,” I whisper, my hand coming to my mouth. I look up at all the Kings and then look to my father, whose shoulders are slack in defeat. I look over his shoulder to see a strapping man in a tailored suit. His jaw is square and tense, his eyes dead and emotionless. He flicks the cufflinks on his wrist and glares right through me.
“I’m the Silver Swan,” I murmur to myself, searching the floor for some sort of clue that I’m overreacting. Everyone pauses, no one correcting me. “You all lied to me!” I launch off the floor and point to them all. Hate builds up in force. Tears stream down my face as I turn to face Bishop. “You lied to me. Oh my God!” I step backward, Tatum, being Tatum, following my back. “Who the fuck are you?” I whisper to Bishop, then turn to Dad. “And who the fuck are you, too?” I shake my head.
“Madi, wait!’ Bishop yells as I run through the door, clutching the book in my hand.
“Leave her, son.”
“Don’t talk about my daught—”
They all cut out as I pick up my pace, Tatum chasing me down the driveway. We reach the fence, and it slides open instantly as we get there.
“Madi!” Bishop yells, running down the steps of his house.
“Hurry, Tatum!” We run through the gates, and she beeps open her car. The gates slowly close behind us, and I quickly slide into the passenger seat, with her getting into the driver’s.
“Drive,” I hiss, my heart breaking when I catch Bishop’s eye, his hands curled around the bars of the fence.
“Where to?”
“Anywhere but here.”
“Okay. Are we running, Madi? ‘Cause I’m with you all the way.”
“Yeah, Tate, we’re running, and we’re not coming back.”
They are not the boys I suspected they were. They’re the kind of monsters you warn people about. Not naïve children, but adults. The kind who lie, cheat, manipulate, seduce, and kill, just to get what they want. They’re the kind you run from.
I’m Madison Montgomery, and I thought I knew who I was. But I was wrong. I’m not just some average girl whose mom killed herself after killing the
