I Found Out I Was the Real Daughter Before the SAT So I Tanked It Chapter 04

I Found Out I Was the Real Daughter Before the SAT So I Tanked It Chapter 04

Landon was wearing a black shirt today.

Trying way too hard to look cool, he asked, “What are you doing out here alone?”

“Getting some air.”

“It’s practically become Willa Nolan’s personal press conference in there. Your mom just announced she’s sending her to the U.K. for a university foundation program.”

“What does that have to do with me?”

He leaned against the railing beside me and turned his head to look at me. “You’re really not mad?”

I turned to him. “Why would I be?”

He scoffed. “You didn’t used to be like this.”

“What was I like before?”

“A coward. You’d take a detour the second you saw Willa, and you looked at me like I was a ghost.”

I laughed softly, laughing at the old version of myself—the one who gave way to Willa in everything and didn’t even dare complain.

When Willa first came to live with us when I was eight, she took my room.

I ran to Mom and told her, but Mom only frowned and said, “She’s my biological daughter. Let her have it.”

Later, Willa shoved me down the stairs, tore up my homework, and told our classmates I stole things.

Every time I complained, they treated it as me fighting for attention. All I got in return was corporal punishment and the same line: “You only get to live here because Willa doesn’t hold it against you, and you still dare complain?”

So I stopped complaining.

I was afraid that if she cried even once, Mom and Dad would hit me, then send me back to that rural backwater.

For ten years, I had not slept peacefully for a single day.

I studied desperately and waited for the SAT, hoping to give them a result they would finally be satisfied with.

I wanted them to be proud of me just once. Even if I wasn’t their biological daughter, I wanted to prove they hadn’t raised me for nothing.

So whatever Willa wanted, I gave it to her.

She liked hanging out with Landon, so I stayed away from him and refused to fight her for him.

…

I lifted my head and asked softly, “What about now?”

He looked away. “Now you look like a lunatic.”

I pulled my phone from my pocket and sent Willa a message right in front of Landon.

Annalise: [Willa, Landon said he’ll drive me home, so you don’t need to wait for him to take you.]

Willa replied almost instantly.

Willa: [???]

Landon stared at my phone screen. “Who said I was driving you—”

I slipped my phone back into my pocket. “So are you or not?”

He turned his face away, his voice muffled. “I’ll drive you.”

I leaned against the railing and looked out at the distant sea.

I remembered how, in the past, every time Landon said even a few extra words to me, Willa would “accidentally” mention it in front of our parents, saying, “Annalise seems pretty close to Landon lately.”

Then the family would hold a full-blown disciplinary meeting.

“You need to focus on school right now. Otherwise, we’ll send you back to that rural backwater.”

I was honestly curious. Now that the exams were over, what else could they say?

Willa rushed out of the cabin, her eyes red.

I immediately held out my hand. “Landon, didn’t you say you could read palms? Help me see what score I’ll get this time.”

Landon probably remembered the time he had read my palm when we were kids.

Once, I scraped my hand, and to comfort me, he offered to read my palm. He took my hand, kissed it gently, and told me a kiss would make it stop hurting.

He laughed, then took my hand without hesitation. “I can’t tell what score this hand will get, but I can tell you one thing. This hand says you’re going to get married ridiculously young.”

Willa bit her lip and turned to run.

Mom called after her, but she didn’t stop.

Landon lowered his voice. “You did that on purpose.”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

I looked at Willa’s retreating figure and smiled. “It was fun.”