Read Online Blue Blooded by Shelly Bell - Free Book Online Page B

roommates. She’d read classics such as To Kill a Mockingbird and Pride and Prejudice . She had gotten drunk and smoked pot. Skipped class. Took naps before going out to the bar at ten o’clock on a school night. But she also spent plenty of her time pretending she knew about things like everyone else. Pretending to be someone she wasn’t. It had been exhausting. Even now, she kept her past hidden away as if it was a dirty secret.
    Confusion remained on Logan’s face as if he couldn’t understand how anyone could have gone through life without hearing The Who. “Didn’t you have a radio in your house?”
    She shrugged. “My parents kept an emergency radio in their closet, but it never occurred to me to use it.” Contrary to the way she lived her life now, she’d always followed her parents’ rules. She hadn’t known any different until that fateful day when she’d learned that ignorance wasn’t bliss and knowledge was power. “Other than that, they had a CD player, but they only played classical and religious music. We didn’t even have a television.”
    But although she’d seen some family programming at other people’s houses, the awe of it hadn’t permeated until she’d snuck into her cousin’s den and caught her uncle watching a report about the fallen Twin Towers. She’d heard about the terrorist attack, of course, but seeing the reality of it and hearing the victims’ accounts of what they had gone through had changed her irrevocably.
    He turned down the radio’s volume. “And now you’re a television reporter. What do your parents think of that?”
    She recalled her father’s angry words and her mother’s cries when she told them she was leaving for college to become a journalist. According to her sisters, they still had hopes that she’d leave her career and “return to God.”
    Swallowing the lump that had formed in her throat, she put on the brave face she’d worn for ten years and shoved down the feeling of rejection. “My parents don’t approve. I speak to a couple of my sisters, but we’re not close.” At Logan’s frown, she jumped to defend her family and clarify the situation. As sad as it made her to no longer have a place in her family, she couldn’t blame them for their beliefs or the way they chose to live their lives. “Don’t get me wrong. They’re not forbidden to associate with me, and my parents would never refuse to welcome me into their home, but I just can’t bring myself to do it.”
    It was bad enough that she wore clothes that didn’t cover her shoulders, but to choose a career over family was something her parents could never understand. That’s why she’d made it easy on them and stayed away. Legally changed her last name and created a public bio that made no mention of the parents who believed by leaving home to have a career she was living her life in sin and would spend an afterlife in hell.
    Logan turned and looked at her, his eyes flashing with pity. She hated that look. That’s why she’d kept her past hidden. She hadn’t suffered tragedies like her friends Kate and Danielle. She’d been loved. Who was she to complain?
    â€œHow many sisters do you have?” he asked, surprising her with the question. She would’ve thought he’d ask why, if she was so brave when looking for a story, she was such a wimp when it came to her family. And she really didn’t have the answer.
    Relieved he hadn’t asked anything more personal, she smiled as if it didn’t hurt to think about what she might be missing by choosing to live her life on her own terms. “Five sisters and two brothers. I was the fourth child.” She shifted in her seat, angling her legs toward Logan. His gaze dropped to the exposed skin of her calves before he returned his attention to the road. “What