Chapter 5
My dad could swim just like me.
But honestly, nobody clung to life harder, nobody was more afraid of dying, and nobody was more selfish than him.
He never cared about anyone but himself. There wasn't a soul he'd risk his life for.
Isabel died.
Nobody could prove I was the one who pushed her in, so I got off scot-free.
My dad couldn't bring himself to admit he'd chickened out and let his precious daughter die.
So he dumped all the blame on me.
He forced me to drop out of school, tossed me out of Fairview for good, and made me spend my whole life paying for it.
My brother stood up for me, shielding me and taking the fall when the punishment came down.
He left school and went to Havenbrook to intern at the police department.
The day he left, I went to the airport to see him off.
He kept fussing with the scarf around my neck, making sure I was bundled up and warm.
Before he left, he tried to reassure me. "Kaylee, it's just a college internship. Everyone has to do it, doesn't matter where I go.
"Maybe I'll even get a chance to stand out over there, and if I'm lucky, they'll let me go full-time.
"When that happens, I'll take you out of here, get us our own place, and earn enough to take care of you.
"And we'll fight to take back everything that was rightfully ours, and Mom's."
I was crying so hard I could barely breathe, but hearing him say that, a flicker of hope sparked inside me.
In this world, we were all the family each other had left and the only ones who really got what was in each other's hearts.
Day after day, I kept waiting for him to come back, hoping he'd walk through that door.
Then one day, it was all over the news. Riots had broken out in the earthquake disaster zone in Havenbrook, and a cop had lost his life trying to protect people.
That night, I felt like I was stuck in a nightmare. I couldn't claw my way out no matter how hard I tried.
The next day, I got the call that my brother had died.
Snow kept coming down in Fairview for days, and I was so sick with a fever I could barely move.
Mabel came in with a bowl of medicine and, without a word, forced the burning hot liquid down my throat.
I couldn't take my eyes off the bracelet on her wrist, swaying back and forth, over and over again.
I remembered my brother's last words to me: "We'll take back everything that's ours."
But in the end, we never managed to do it.
Mabel was crying her eyes out, making a big scene in front of Dad, saying I nearly smashed the bracelet Isabel left behind.
My dad threw me out of the house.
After that, Mabel had her people banish me to some plague-ridden hellhole in a foreign land, left to fend for myself.
Everywhere I looked, it was pure devastation. Bodies littered the streets, like a scene straight out of a nightmare.
I lay there under the moonlight, staring up at the sky. It turned out, even in a foreign land, the moon was just as clear and pure as it was back home.
The moon seemed to drift and swirl overhead, turning and turning as if it was dancing just for me.
In a haze, I thought, 'Who even cares about revenge anymore? I'm done with all that.
'I'm thinking about Mom and my brother again. I just want to go see them.'
I closed my eyes, and after what felt like forever, I heard someone calling out to me. "Wake up, hey."
In that wasteland, he was like a savior sent from above.
That was the first time I saw Ronnie.
In that foreign land, he carried me on his back for miles through the mud, pulling me back from the jaws of death.
As I clung to his back, the darkness finally started to lift, and I caught a glimpse of morning light.
Maybe, for the first time in my life, it felt like fate was finally cutting me some slack.
Ronnie said to me, "I'm an orphan. Life's always been tough for me."
I wasn't about to accept my fate. I fought my way back to Fairview.
I brought Ronnie with me. We went back to the Ochoa family together, and I went back to college.
When I finally turned eighteen, I hired a lawyer and took them to court, determined to reclaim the money my mom had left behind for me.
Ronnie was the only one who stayed by my side.
Mabel refused to give up. She sent some thugs after me in secret, hoping they'd finish me off.
Ronnie literally put his life on the line for me, throwing himself in front of the knife. He took the hit, and the blade missed his heart by a hair.
He didn't even flinch from the pain. Instead, he grabbed my arm, worry all over his face. "Are you okay?"
As I looked at him, in that haze, he almost looked just like my brother.
I withdrew two million dollars from my account and hired Ronnie to be my bodyguard for the next ten years.
I couldn't stop thinking about my brother. After a few too many drinks, I broke down, crying in Ronnie's arms.
Ronnie gently patted my back, soothing me. "Hey, easy now. I'm here."
For so many years, I kept feeling it again and again.
It was as if my brother had found his way back to me—only this time, in Ronnie's form.
Ten years by my side, and slowly but surely, he chipped away at every wall I'd built.
I finally dropped my guard, stopped pushing him away, and put all my trust in him.
And after everything, all he said was, "All those ten years I spent with you—just so Isabel can finally have some peace after she's gone."
Seriously, what a freaking joke.
I went to the hospital and got my wrist fixed up.
Ronnie kept calling me over and over.
When I didn't pick up, he started blowing up my phone with texts.
It read: [Kaylee Ochoa, get back here and apologize to Isabel and Mabel.
[Are you seriously going to be this cruel when Mabel's sick?
[You'll regret this.]
For ten years, it was the first time Ronnie ever called me "Kaylee Ochoa."
The first time he ever called me vicious, the first time he ever went off on me like that, and the first time he totally lost it.
That bracelet was smashed to pieces. There was no way it could ever be put back together.
The Anderson family was insanely powerful. Jane never had any children, and now she had passed away from illness.
Ronnie was welcomed back into the Anderson family, becoming their sole heir.
Overnight, he turned into the most sought-after rising star in town.
If Ronnie wanted to settle the score, he had endless ways to come after me.
I probably couldn't survive whatever he had in store.
But even if they held a knife to my throat, I'd never apologize to the bastards who murdered my mom and brother.
I deleted his number and all his messages, then blocked him for good.
He saved my life ten years ago.
If he wanted to take it back now, let him.
Anyway, I'd already fought for and won back everything that belonged to me, my brother, and my mom.
I'd already written my will. If anything happened to me, I wanted every last cent to go to charity.
Honestly, I didn't have much to regret.
My dad sent me another message, his tone just as angry and demanding as Ronnie's—he was practically repeating Ronnie's words.
I went ahead and put every single person connected to the Ochoa family on my block list.
Finally, everything was quiet.
On my way back, Oscar Pacheco called me.
He told me the documents for transferring the shares and everything else were pretty much drafted—just waiting for my review and signature.
Oscar was my senior back in college.
He was also the lawyer who stuck by me for the past ten years, fighting case after case for me—even when everyone else was busy spreading rumors and talking behind our backs.
Whenever I went head-to-head with my dad over what belonged to me, everyone out there had something nasty to say—calling me cold-hearted and ruthless.