A Superpowered Warrior in the Body of a Fake Heiress novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Packing

Kerensa goes back for her things, lays out four guards, and her mother hands her a camera clip.

The Haglund front door opened before Kerensa could knock.

A housekeeper stood there with her eyes down and stepped aside without a word.

Rafe stopped on the doorstep and put his hands in his coat pockets.

"I'll be here," he said.

"You can come in."

"You said stand there. I'm standing."

Kerensa went up the stairs alone.

Her old room was at the end of the upper hall, and it was smaller than the closet in the master suite.

A narrow bed.

A desk with a notepad on it, and the top sheet had been torn off.

She stood and looked at the torn edge for a moment.

Then she packed a duffel with the few things the body had owned.

Two sweaters, a foster mother's photograph with a cracked frame, a coffee tin with two hundred dollars in it.

That was all.

Twenty-two years, and it fit into one bag.

She zipped it and turned around.

Lorna was standing in the doorway in a cream sweater, with her right hand wrapped in a bandage.

"Kerensa," she said softly. "I only came to say I forgive you."

"For what?"

"For everything. You were scared. Dad shouldn't have..." Her eyes filled. "I want us to be sisters."

"Move, please."

Lorna did not move.

Kerensa stepped around her and walked down the hall toward the stairs.

She was halfway down the staircase when she heard the quick, light steps behind her.

She did not turn.

She heard a small gasp, and the scrape of a shoe on the top step.

Then Lorna fell.

She fell forward and backward at the same time, her arms spread, her face turned toward the hall below, and she screamed.

Kerensa's left hand shot back without her looking.

It closed on the collar of the cream sweater and stopped Lorna in the air.

Then Kerensa lifted her and stood her on the stair, upright, and let go.

Lorna swayed with her mouth still open for the next scream.

It did not come.

"You pushed me!" she said, a beat too late.

"I'm four stairs below you," Kerensa said. "Facing the other way."

At the bottom of the stairs, Ward had his phone up.

He lowered it slowly.

"I saw you jump," he said.

Lorna turned her head.

"Ward, no..."

"I got the whole thing. You stepped off." His voice had gone flat. "Last night I didn't want to believe it."

"I slipped!"

"You said her name before you slipped."

Lorna stared at him, her lashes trembling, and for the first time nothing came out of her eyes at all.

Gordon came out of the study at a run.

He had his arm in a sling, and his face was dark red.

"What is this? Get out of my house! Security!"

Four men in black jackets came through the side door.

They were the family's private guards, and every one of them had seen the sideboard.

They stopped in a half circle at the foot of the stairs.

"Take her," Gordon said. "Now."

"Sir," the oldest one said. "Sir, I saw her..."

"Take her!"

Kerensa came down the last three steps and put her duffel on the floor.

The first one reached for her shoulder.

She took his wrist, turned it, and sat him on the marble.

The second swung.

She leaned out of the way, and his fist went into the newel post.

The third tried to wrap both arms around her from behind.

She went down on one knee, stood up, and he rolled across the hall and under a side table.

The oldest one stood very still.

"I'll just stand here," he said.

"Good choice," Kerensa said.

Gordon's mouth opened and shut.

On the doorstep, Rafe had not moved.

He looked at the three men on the floor, at Kerensa, and at the duffel.

"You didn't need me," he said.

"No," she said.

She had meant it as a fact.

He seemed to take it as something else, and looked away.

A hand touched her sleeve.

Kerensa turned.

Her mother stood beside her, in a gray cardigan with pearl earrings.

Constance had stood against the dining room wall last night with her hands folded, and said nothing the whole time.

"I want you to see something," Constance said.

Her voice was quiet, and her hand shook.

She held out a phone.

"Your father had the dining room camera wiped last night. He believed that was the end of it."

"Constance," Gordon said sharply.

"The system keeps a copy for a day." Constance did not look at him. "I did not want to watch it alone."

She pressed the screen.

It was the dining room, from above, the long table with its chandelier.

Kerensa stood at the window in her coat, with her back to the room.

Lorna stood by her chair, with her hand around the stem of a blue vase.

On the screen, Lorna looked at the window.

Then she looked at the vase.

She tipped it over with one finger, and it broke on the floor.

She bent, picked up a shard, and drew it across her own palm.

She watched the red line fill in.

Then she began to scream.

← Chapter 2 · All chapters · Chapter 4 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend