Clear Lake Academy holds the worst of the worst delinquents from around the country. Each and every student there holds a notorious background that led them there and almost everyone avoids them.
After setting the tenth building on fire, which just...
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The sounds dug through every tough layer of skin and flesh I'd built over the years, unlocking the cage that beheld my heart —squeezing and threatening to annihilate the soft pumping organ.
This time, no one dared to speak. The room was frozen—so stunned by the sudden recognition of what the sounds were. People stood rooted to the spot, wide-eyed, some already calculating how they could twist this scandal to benefit their own companies. The downfall of one family was always the opportunity of another.
The breathy panting and the low, intimate moans spilled through the speakers with brutal clarity. Each new sound scraped against something raw inside me. The realisation hit me like a truck and I curled my fingers into my palms until my nails bit skin—anything to ground myself against the rising storm.
There was no denying it.
No misinterpretation.
No room for doubt.
It was clear who the male was.
My father had cheated on my mother.
This was even worse than what had happened on the stage. This has made the feeling of sadness intensify and burn like no other. The shame, the grief, the fury—they blended into something scorching, something too big for my chest. This wasn't just a scandal. This wasn't just a mistake.
This was the moment my family split clean down the middle. The point of no return. How do you come back from betrayal like that? From something that tainted every memory -regardless of how horrid -every carefully constructed lie that held us together?
They were marriage, for God's sake. He had a child -me. Yet he'd thrown it all aside without hesitation, without thought, without care. He chose this.
Shock was the only thing I felt—cold, total, consuming. I didn't even get the chance to process it before a hand clamped around my arm, fingers digging in hard enough to bruise. The grip was harsh, furious, dragging me through the doorway and down the empty halls with no regard for my stumbling steps.
He could go to hell.
As soon as we crossed into a quiet room, I ripped my arm from his hold. I moved towards the lone window that let in nothing but more darkness. Behind me, my father flicked on a floor lamp, its dim light spilling just enough to paint us both in a dull, suffocating glow.
I couldn't focus on anything but what I now knew.
No matter how much I knew he hated me for being such a troublesome kid and how much my mother pushed me aside, I was content with the fact that we were still somewhat a family. Even if they were absent -even through the neglect, the coldness, the constant disappointment -I'd clung to one thing: we were still a family. Fractured, distant, imperfect, but still a family.
But even that had shattered with my heart.
Before my father could get a word out, I spun around with my finger pointed and my voice trembling with barely contained anger and disbelief. "Tell me it's not true." I demanded.
