The Bloodline She Burned novel · Chapter 13 of 24

Chapter 13: Off the Server

By one in the morning the clip had passed four million views.

Roz sat on the practice-room floor with her back against a machine, scrolling through the comments.

They were not kind.

"Heiress," one said. "Pushes her sister, then plays pro."

Nina had gone home to feed her cat.

Gabriel stood at the window with his arms crossed, not reading anything.

"I'm posting the full stream," Roz said. "Tonight, with the timestamps."

"I have it," he said.

She looked up.

"The whole party feed, from the moment you came out of the study." He did not turn around. "I saved it the week you walked in here."

"Why?"

"Because I wanted to see what you'd walked out of."

He pulled a drive from his jacket and set it on the desk.

That was the moment she crossed the room.

She put her hands flat on his chest, and he turned, and the kiss that came was slower than the one by the counter and a great deal more sure.

His hand went into her hair.

Her back met the wall beside the window, and the cold glass hummed against her shoulder.

"Roz," he said into her mouth.

"Don't talk."

"I have to."

She pulled back an inch, breathing hard.

His eyes were dark and wrecked and entirely honest.

"Two months after I refused to bench your brother, your father's academy dropped my sister," he said.

Roz did not move.

"She was nineteen. She works nights in a pharmacy now, and she tells people she likes it."

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