All Chapters of His to Ruin: Chapter 21 - Chapter 22

The sound of suitcases rolling across hardwood was the death knell of our freedom.I was sitting at the kitchen island, nursing a cup of coffee that had gone cold twenty minutes ago, when the front door swung open. A blast of humid August air rushed in, carrying with it the scent of expensive perfume and the sharp, briny tang of ocean spray that clung to my mother’s clothes like a second skin."We're home!" my stepmom sang out, her voice echoing through the empty house.Leo stiffened beside me. He had been reading the paper—or rather, staring at the same paragraph for ten minutes—waiting for this exact moment. The spell was broken. The sanctuary of the empty house, where we could exist in our own twisted gravity, was over.My stepmom, Eleanor, swept into the kitchen like a tropical storm. She looked tanned and rested, her blonde hair highlighted by the sun, her smile wide and genuine. Behind her, my stepfather, Richard, lumbered in, looking vaguely sunburned and clutching a duty-free