Total pages in book: 36
Estimated words: 33691 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 168(@200wpm)___ 135(@250wpm)___ 112(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33691 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 168(@200wpm)___ 135(@250wpm)___ 112(@300wpm)
My father’s latest mistake has given me a stepmother and a stepsister. I have zero doubt that both of them are after my family fortune. So, I have to fly home to fix the mess.
But when I get there, I meet her.
Molly Reynolds. My stepsister. A girl who somehow manages to capture my soul in the space of a few moments. I know I can’t let her go, not even if her mother is up to no good, which I still suspect.
Keeping Molly by my side will require some scheming on my part, but that’s what I’m good at. I am Asher Score after all. I’m cold and calculated and always get my way in the end.
I make a deal with her of sorts, one that will keep her close. So close, in fact, that I get to know my stepsister in every way.
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Chapter 1
About the Author
Also by Lucy Darling
1
Molly
The buttery croissant melts in my mouth. It's no wonder I’ve put on some weight since we moved into the Score home. I’ve gone from grabbing a banana or having a bowl of cereal in the morning before school to having a full breakfast laid out for me each day. Well, it’s not only for me. It’s for my new stepfather and stepsister, along with my mom.
In the past six months, my whole world has changed. It’s still a bit jarring, to say the least. My bedroom is bigger than the apartment Mom and I called home before she went and fell in love with Tomas Score.
One of the richest men in the world. I learned that when I googled him. When Mom came home one day after her twelve-hour shift at the hospital gushing over some man she’d met at work, I’d wanted to dig into said man to make sure he wasn’t some loser who was trying to take advantage of her.
I thought it would be hard to track someone down online. I’d never done it before but with only entering his name into my Google search, article after article came up about the Score name. They are pretty much American royalty, which I didn’t know was a thing. Until now.
“Morning, sweetheart.” Mom enters the kitchen where breakfast is laid out on the giant island.
“Morning.” I flip the page on my statistics textbook.
I have a test later in the day. I hate statistics. I hate anything with numbers. My stepsister Emily can do math in her sleep. She’ll help me from time to time. It’s nice that we’re in the same grade. I return the favor by going over all her language arts and composition class papers. Emily and I are opposite in almost every way.
It’s a day-by-day thing for us to grow closer. At first it was super awkward, but all that tends to slip away when we’re helping each other with schoolwork. She hangs out with the super popular kids at Bradford Prep, and she’s on the cheerleading team. In the fall, she’d cheered for the football team, which apparently is a big deal, but now she cheers for the basketball team. It’s often that she hangs out with the people from those groups at school. She’s part of the popular clique, which has no appeal to me.
I stick more to myself, but this is my first and only year at Bradford. It sucked to start a new school my senior year, but I could see how happy my mom was. It wasn’t as though I was some social butterfly in my old school, either. I’ve always been more of the quiet and shy type.
“Have you given any thought to those acceptance letters?” Mom asks.
“Not really.” I shrug. Tomas and my mom had me apply to a handful of colleges. They wanted me to be able to have options.
I thought they were crazy with some of their suggestions, and that it was ridiculous for me to even try to get into the Ivy League schools. Yet I took their advice and applied anyway. I don’t know why I was shocked that I not only got accepted to all of them but was offered scholarships. It didn’t take me long to put together that it was probably due to Tomas.
Mom starts to poke more, but thankfully Emily enters the kitchen, drawing their attention to her.
“Morning!” she chirps with a bright smile on her face.
She is in her cheerleading uniform, so that means she’ll have a game tonight. I’m stuck in the standard white collared polo and dark blue and burgundy striped skirt. I wear sneakers with it. The other girls at school will wear freaking heels. The sounds of clicking fill the hallways throughout the day. They aren’t any old heels either; most of them cost more than a month's rent in our old apartment. But the kids that go to Bradford don’t have to worry about money. If they did, they wouldn’t even be at that school. Everyone knows the only reason I am is because of Tomas. I’ve heard that whispered in the halls a time or two. I’m the outsider who doesn’t fit or belong.
“Morning,” both my mom and I respond. Emily goes for her normal granola and yogurt. I’ve noticed that she can be a creature of habit. Almost obsessive at times when it comes to her routine. “You’re in a super extra good mood today.” Mom refills my freshly squeezed orange juice.
“Asher is coming home today.” I glance up from my book. I’ve never met my new stepbrother. There are pictures throughout the house and even at our school of him. You’d think he graduated a few years ago and not five. Wow, why do I know the exact number?