Chapter 2

“Do you think one apology makes everything okay? Women like you are all the same. Stupid, shameless, and always pretending to be innocent victims.

“You should consider yourself lucky my brothers aren’t here. Scar your face now, and I might call it even. If they were here, you’d be dead before you knew what was happening.”

Mom rushed forward to check my wounds. Furious at what Sienna had done to me, Dad lunged at her.

Before he could reach her, Sienna’s men knocked him to the ground with two brutal punches.

Furious and desperate, I yanked the metal water bottle from my backpack and raised it to strike back.

Before I could swing it, two bodyguards seized me and pinned my arms.

The bottle was still clenched in my hand, but I could do nothing except scream in fury.

“Bring your brothers here! When they show up, I’d love to see what they’d do to me!”

I thought. “That’s right. When they get here, I’m going to demand an answer from them face-to-face.”

When they left our small rural town all those years ago, they had promised to make something of themselves.

Was this what success meant to them? Did they plan to use their power to bully innocent people?

As I struggled against the guards, the little wooden bird hanging from my backpack fell to the ground.

One of Sienna’s men picked it up.

“Boss, this wooden bird looks familiar.”

Sienna took from him the wooden bird my second brother had woven for me on the day he left our hometown.

“Of course it does. Antonio has six wooden birds of different sizes lined up on his desk. When I saw yours earlier, I knew you were up to something. It looks exactly like the ones he has.”

As she continued, she gave me a contemptuous look. “Are you still going to deny that you’re trying to throw yourself at Antonio? You women are harlots.

“You’re jealous because my brothers adore me, so you cut your hair short and tried to copy me. Let me tell you, I’m the only one who can call them brothers. You women will never have that!”

Until she mentioned it, I had not even noticed how similar our haircuts were.

I had kept my hair short and practical for as long as I could remember.

It was not that I did not want long, flowing hair. In the remote town where I grew up, proper showers were a luxury.

Long hair would also have gotten in my way whenever I did farm chores.

I stared at her smug, arrogant face as she sneered “you women” again and again.

Something inside me finally snapped.

“Aren’t you a woman yourself? You can call yourself a man all you want, but if every woman is a harlot, what does that make you?”

Apparently, Sienna had not expected me to talk back. Enraged, she grabbed a fistful of my hair.

“Are you still trying to mouth off to me? Hold her down. I’m going to shave her head. Let’s see her try to charm Antonio when she’s bald.”

Sienna picked up the switchblade from the ground and came at me to cut my hair.

I struggled with everything I had, but I was no match for the three of them.

Mom rushed forward to help me. She grabbed Sienna by the wrist and cried out, “I remember now! Were those three boys’ original names Bubba, Cletus, and Skeeter?

“My husband and I were their teachers. We practically raised those boys ourselves. Even the names they use now were made up by our daughter.”

She was right. I had named them.

Ten years ago, when I was just entering adolescence, my favorite pastime was curling up with my phone and reading billionaire romances.

I would look at the sophisticated names of the male leads, then compare them with the painfully backwoods names of my three foster brothers.

Eventually, I marched up to them and made a formal announcement.

“Bubba, since you can’t even remember your last name, I’m replacing the whole thing. From now on, you’re Damian Kane.

“Cletus Cross, you’re tall and intimidating, and you already carry yourself like a mob boss. From now on, you’re Antonio Cross. That name suits you perfectly.”