*FREE WITH PAID BONUS CHAPTER*After being dumped by her boyfriend, Elodie Shepherd resigns herself to loving her older brother's best friend from afar, just like she always has, even though he only sees her as his best friend's immature kid sister.
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"Hello and good evening, I'm Jenna Archer here for HKWC News tonight sitting down with a very interesting name in the media as of late, Mr. Jay Shepherd. Mr. Shepherd has two children who've been in the spotlight recently. Jay, can I call you Jay? What's that like for you?"
My father, dressed impeccably in a dark navy suit, no sign of his red tinted eyes that gave off the fact that he'd been drinking, sat in front of the reporter who'd published the article that focused more on my relationship with Matthew than it did absolving him of the false steroids narrative that had risen once the media had caught wind of it from high school.
My father, the man who'd abused me and beat me down into submission more times than I could count, was free of his usual yellowing pallor, face clear of scruffy hair that usually adorned his chin and cheeks.
My father, the man who was supposed to protect me with everything he had in him, the man who'd betrayed me and my brother and my mother over and over again, was sitting down to do a fucking tell-all interview with a reporter known for flipping words and telling the story that she wanted, sometimes stories that weren't even necessarily true.
"It's amazing, to tell you the truth. All I wanted for my boy, for Eli, was to achieve his goals, and look at him now, on a huge team and married with kids to a wonderful woman. I couldn't have asked for more for him."
Eli snorted, muttering, "I'm not 'his' boy. He's my fucking step-dad."
But he wasn't my step-dad, unfortunately. No, I had a blood claim to the man sitting before us all on the television and my heart hammered uncomfortably in my chest as I tried to slow my breathing down.
My phone was blowing up with notifications from Phoebe, Zeke, Lan and even Dorian, all of them asking if I was okay and what the hell Jay was doing on national television, but I didn't respond, just stayed in a half catatonic trance while Matthew let me lean my entire weight into him, uncaring of the way it was perceived by Eli or V; he was giving me comfort and I wasn't about to refuse.
"And Elodie Shepherd, are you proud of your biological daughter as well? You helped train your step-son Eli in basketball, but Elodie was taken from your custody at just fourteen years old. What can you tell me about what happened there?"
My father tensed as he began recalling events that happened almost five years ago to the date. I was taken from my 'family' a month before my fifteenth birthday.
The five year anniversary of Eli and V taking custody of me was next month, and then the next month, November, it would be my nineteenth birthday.
"We were going through a hard time, Elodie's mother and me," Jay started, voice gruff like he was trying to hold back tears. I scoffed, feeling anger rise in my chest, but I stayed quiet so I could listen intently to what he had to say.
