𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐲𝐧 𝐖𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 is far from perfect. Before starting her senior year of college, she's already guaranteed her position as the black sheep of her once prestigious family. To make matters worse, she took up bedding the rival family's eldest...
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𝑬𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒚𝒏 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒄𝒆𝒅 a painful swallow as she watched Jackie charge back and forth across the living room floor. Large fists balled at his side and the small muscles in his jaw flexing, he painted an exemplary portrait of a furious man. He hadn't made eye contact with her since she stupidly left his bedroom to come sit on his lap, but she knew that if he did and if looks could kill, she'd be a sorry, dead idiot.
She had tumbled onto the couch once he stood right up with no regard for her to walk Michael to his car, and she had remained there, frozen. His goodbyes to Michael weren't completed without him slamming the front door, and Evelyn made it a point to remain as silent and pleasant as possible so she wouldn't become the next victim to his rage.
An eternity of being at her fear's mercy passed before Jackie stopped pacing and turned to face her. The look of disgust paired with the flame of anger roiling behind what used to be his soft brown eyes made her stomach turn.
"You have any idea what you just did?" he asked in a low voice and intimidatingly quiet considering just how pissed off she knew he was. When she didn't answer, he licked his lips then inhaled a deep breath as if to keep himself from losing the self control that always characterized him. "If Michael starts runnin' his mouth, it's over for me! For us. Joseph will make sure my ass is never in a lecture hall again."
Evelyn tried to ignore the way her heart began racing and how her body had jolted at his switch from speaking to shouting. Her own voice came out as nothing more than a cracked mumble. "Baby, you know that's up to the dean and the educational board. Joseph can't do that. He can't just fire you."
Jackie shot her a sideways look. "What, you think Joseph ain't gonna go to them too? Who the hell you think owns this shit? His program brings in the most money so he got weight whenever he needs it."
She closed her eyes to keep them from burning with tears. Joseph Jackson's name etched in the stone sign above 'University of Arts' flashed in her mind, mocking her. Deep down, she knew that Joseph controlled everything. It was how he manufactured the talents of his sons enough to send them on tours and eventually generate the wealth needed to claim stake in a university with an internationally recognized music program. But none of that crossed her mind if any thought had. Nothing could have triumphed the sheer anger she felt when she heard Jackie belittling her and their entire mess of a relationship.
She opened her eyes to fix them on him then sat up a little more against the couch. "Michael is not about to tell on you, Jackie. That boy is quiet as a mouse. He wouldn't mess with you like that."
"You think 'cause he's student president and shit that he ain't a Jackson no more?"
Evelyn squirmed under his gaze a bit, feeling just as dumb as his rhetorical question aimed to make her feel. Admittedly, she didn't know any of the Jacksons the way she knew Jackie. She only knew of Michael just as much as the rest of the university's student body did. He was well-mannered, excruciatingly shy for how popular he was, and carried himself so well that he looked like a royal walking among the other guys their age. She couldn't fathom him doing anything vengeful, especially not against his older brother. Shit, he had asked if Jackie wanted him to expose his affair. Their short meeting showed Evelyn that Michael was just as much of a punk as she thought him to be. But clearly, Jackie felt otherwise.
