Unworthy

by Evans, A. K.

  Unworthy

  Copyright 2019 by A.K. Evans

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, distributer, or transmitted in any form or by any means including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Cover Artist

  cover artwork © Sarah Hansen, Okay Creations

  www.okaycreations.com

  Editing & Proofreading

  Ellie McLove, My Brother’s Editor

  www.grayinkonline.com

  Formatting

  Stacey Blake at Champagne Book Design

  www.champagnebookdesign.com

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgements

  Connect with A.K. Evans

  Other Books by A.K. Evans

  About A.K. Evans

  “How does it feel to be the daughter of a man who will do anything for money?”

  My spine stiffened as I closed my locker and turned to stare up at one of the upperclassmen, Jared.

  It was the end of the school day.

  He was surrounded by four other people, three football players and his girlfriend, Bridget, the captain of the varsity cheerleading squad.

  Jared wasn’t just a senior at school.

  He was an all-star football player—the quarterback—and, subsequently, the most popular kid in the school. When he spoke, others listened.

  And if he chose you as his target, you needed to be prepared.

  Because it didn’t end with just Jared.

  Anybody who was somebody in school wanted to be part of that group. Being there meant you had little chance of ever becoming the focus of his provocation. It was the safest place to be. I should know because I used to be one of them. Granted, I was only a sophomore. But I was a cheerleader—captain of the junior varsity squad—so I was guaranteed to be accepted for that reason alone.

  And I was.

  Until it all changed about a month ago.

  Now I knew precisely the reason why it bothered me so much to be there. I’d never been a bully. While I’d seen it happen on more than one occasion and hated it, I refused to take part in it.

  It just wasn’t nice.

  And even though I was a cheerleader and was probably considered outgoing and talkative, I wasn’t. Outside of practices and games, I mostly kept quiet and focused on my schoolwork. I had my group of friends, most of them other members of the squad, and I stuck close to them.

  Generally speaking, I was well liked in school. I used that to my advantage only to fly under the radar because I assumed I’d always be able to.

  Unfortunately, I was now wishing I’d been a stronger person. I thought back to all the times I’d witnessed Jared and his crew harassing another student and instantly regretted not doing something about it. I wasn’t sure I could have actually done something to make it stop. But I wished I could have at least stepped in and taken the focus off their intended target. My thoughts, whenever I’d witnessed the bullying, were always with the victim.

  I couldn’t imagine what that person was feeling in that moment.

  Of course, now I knew.

  Because Jared, Bridget, and their friends were making certain of that.

  Jared’s question alone made me want to curl up in a ball and cry. Sadly, it wasn’t going to stop with just him.

  No sooner did Jared’s question get thrown at me when his girlfriend’s laughter took my attention from him to her.

  With a smile on her face, she ridiculed me further. “You don’t actually think she cares, do you? Daddy’s money is paying to keep her in that big, fancy house.”

  The guys laughed.

  “It’s his job,” I answered meekly, knowing it was partly true, but mostly a lie.

  “Ha!” Bridget audibly shared her amusement while the guys looked on and smirked at me.

  “You mean his job that allows him to decide what happens to people who are accused and found guilty of doing the wrong thing? The same job that if he were on trial for his misgivings would likely land himself in jail?” Jared scoffed, stepping closer to me.

  Steve, one of the other football players, shook his head, moved in, and added, “Ben’s mom is in a coma and your father let the man responsible for putting her there walk free.”

  I didn’t know why Steve felt the need to tell me that.

  I already knew.

  It was the most horrifying news I’d ever received.

  Ben was a junior at school and his mom was hit by a drunk driver. She’d been in a coma for months now, and the driver who hit her managed to walk away without a scratch on him.

  My father was the judge presiding over the case.

  While I completely understood the devastation that came to Ben’s family, I couldn’t imagine it was easy to be in my father’s shoes, either. The drunk driver was a young man in his early twenties. His newborn daughter had died, and it had hit him hard. He hadn’t been coping well with the loss and made a really bad decision.

  I tried to see both sides of it.

  There was no excuse for drunken driving, and the consequences were obviously devastating, but I couldn’t imagine the pain of losing your baby was easy, either.

  This was a situation where nobody came out a winner.

  Not Ben. Not his mom or his family. Not the drunk driver or his family. And certainly not the daughter of the man who had to decide the fate of that driver. Especially when she was a high school sophomore at a large school filled with teenagers who didn’t care that she wasn’t involved in her father’s line of work.

  Ben was suffering. Ben was one of the cool kids. And my father didn’t deliver a sentence that Ben, his family, and the students at my school thought was right. Even I didn’t think my father did the right thing.

  So now, I would pay the price.

  I loved my dad, but right now, I despised his career path. I also knew that perhaps Jared’s questions, all of them, were valid.

  Because I knew that my dad hadn’t always made the right decisions. I didn’t know what the right one was in a case like this, but I did know that the one he made didn’t seem like the best one either.

  The driver who hit Ben’s mom received no jail time or probation. He didn’t enter a rehabilitation program. He wasn’t required to go to grief counseling. He didn’t even do a day of community service.

  And while I couldn’t know for sure, I had a feeling I knew the precise reason why.

  That driver was a wealthy man. He came from a wealthy family. And when trouble occurred within a family, especially one with money, there often wasn’t a sum too large that would be paid to make it go away.

  I frequently wondered, especially recently, whether my father was paid off on certain cases. Without
any proof, it was obviously all speculation, but it seemed there could be no other reason he’d decide certain cases the way he did unless that was the cause.

  “I feel awful for Ben,” I insisted quietly and honestly. “I know how difficult it must be for him and his family.”

  “Well, maybe you need to find out what—” Jared started before he was cut off.

  “Leave her alone,” a deep voice sounded from beside me.

  Stunned, I blinked and snapped my head to the side. My eyes connected with his.

  Trent Michaels.

  The cutest boy I’d ever laid my eyes on.

  A senior.

  One just as popular as Jared, Bridget, and their crew. Only, Trent’s popularity had nothing to do with being a star football player.

  No.

  Trent was constantly mocked by Jared for his family life. Apparently, Trent’s parents took off when he was a kid and left him to live with his grandparents. His grandfather died a couple years ago, and ever since, Trent has been living with just his grandmother.

  And life had been rough for him. Word had it that they were struggling to make ends meet and that Trent was working several nights a week to help ease his grandmother’s burden.

  It stunned me to see how cruel Jared could be. On the one hand, he felt so much compassion for someone like Ben, but he couldn’t do the same for Trent. He made no apologies for bringing Trent’s situation to light and ridiculing him for it.

  Trent always stayed quiet and walked away, never seeming to be bothered by it.

  I was.

  I always was.

  But I never stepped in to stop it.

  And now, when I was the target of Jared’s harassment and hadn’t ever spoken a word to Trent in my life, he was stepping in for me. His eyes softened only briefly as he looked at me before they turned hard and went to Jared.

  Jared laughed and taunted Trent, “Oh, isn’t this cute? The poor boy never says anything, but now he’s here to save the day. What’s this about, Trent? Hoping to hook yourself to some rich, cheerleader pussy?”

  I gasped.

  Trent’s jaw clenched before he lowered his voice and bit out, “Get the fuck out of here and leave her alone.”

  “Move along,” one of the teachers declared from somewhere behind us. “Buses are leaving.”

  Jared, Bridget, and the rest of them looked up. After offering a dip of his chin to the teacher, Jared looked back to Trent and assured him, “This isn’t over.”

  With that, they walked away while I let out a sigh of relief.

  “Are you okay?” Trent’s voice, now closer, penetrated.

  Looking to the side again, I saw that he’d closed the distance between us. I nodded. “Thank you.”

  His face softened again.

  “I’m Delaney,” I introduced myself. “Delaney Rogers.”

  Trent grinned and shared, “I know.”

  My eyes rounded. “You do?”

  Trent Michaels was a senior and he knew who I was?

  Apparently, my reaction only served to amuse Trent because he let out a laugh. “I’d have to be dead to not know who you are. I saw you walk into this building two months ago on the first day of school. Before the day was over, I knew your name.”

  Wow.

  Wow.

  I stared at him, feeling stunned once again.

  “Did you take the bus to school?” he asked, no longer looking at me.

  I nodded and pointed my eyes in the same direction as Trent’s. That’s when I realized he was looking out the window at the departing buses.

  Before I had a second to process what my next steps would be, Trent offered, “I can give you a ride home.”

  “You can?” I wondered.

  Trent’s head jerked back, and his eyes narrowed slightly. “I might not have a lot and it might not be fancy, but yes, Delaney, I can give you a ride home in my truck.”

  Suddenly, I felt a stab of guilt. “Trent,” I sighed. “That’s not what I meant.”

  He assessed me a moment. I assumed he was trying to gauge my honesty. When his lips tipped up, I knew he’d concluded I was being truthful. “You have all your stuff?” he asked, jerking his chin toward my bag.

  “Yeah.”

  He tilted his head to the side and urged, “Come on.”

  I fell into step beside Trent, walking with him toward the front door. Since he was a senior, he had parking privileges. This meant he had a dedicated spot for his vehicle in the school’s parking lot.

  We made it to his truck, where he opened the door for me and waited until I’d hopped in before he closed it.

  Once he’d gotten in, I didn’t give him an opportunity to drive away before I broke the silence. “Thank you again, for what you did for me back there.”

  “It was nothing,” he assured me, brushing it off.

  “Not to me,” I said softly.

  Trent glanced over, took in my face, and smiled.

  I went on, “I understand why they’re all angry at me.”

  “Jared’s a dick.”

  I jerked my head back in surprise. “What?”

  Trent gave me a disbelieving look before he repeated, “Jared is a dick.”

  This was not exactly a wrong assessment. Even still, I felt the need to explain. “I know, but what happened to Ben’s mom is horrific. I—”

  Trent cut me off. “You are not responsible for what happened to Ben’s mom,” he advised.

  “I know,” I assured him. “But my father is the one who had the power to see to it that justice was served for what happened to her.”

  “And that has nothing to do with you. That crew had no right to come to you about it and give you a hard time.”

  This was also true. There wasn’t anything I could do about the decisions my father made on any case that came into his courtroom. Knowing that did little to help resolve the guilt I felt, especially in a situation like this.

  “I’ve seen what Jared does to you,” I started, feeling remorseful. “Not once have I ever stepped in to do the right thing. I’m sorry about that.”

  Trent reached his hand over and curled his fingers around my forearm. He gave me a gentle squeeze there before he demanded, “Do not ever step in if you see it happen again, either. I know you’ve seen it. I also know that it’s not who you are.”

  It was a relief to know he didn’t know me at all, yet somehow, still knew the kind of person I was.

  “But I kind of owe you now,” I reasoned, still trying to ignore what the feel of his hand on my arm was doing to me.

  Trent grinned playfully and agreed, “Yeah.”

  He didn’t say anything else. He simply put the truck in reverse and backed out of the spot.

  “Where to?” he asked once he stopped at the entrance to the school’s lot.

  I gave Trent my address and he drove me home, mostly in silence. When he pulled into the driveway, I saw him staring at the house. He wasn’t the first person to be stunned by the sheer size of my home, but I could tell there was something more than just heart-stopping awe that had taken over him.

  There was something there that I didn’t like seeing.

  “Shit,” he muttered.

  It was well-known that I came from wealth, but I was certain it became apparent to Trent just how large the fortune was.

  “Trent?” I called.

  His eyes came to mine and warmed, but held a hint of frustration in them. I didn’t know if I liked whatever that frustration meant.

  Thankfully, Trent quickly shook it off and said, “It was nice to finally meet you, Delaney.”

  I smiled and returned, “The same could be said about you, Trent. Thank you for the ride home.”

  “Anytime.”

  “If you ever need anything,” I started as I reached for the handle and opened the door. “You know I owe you one.”

  Just as I was about to step out, Trent called my name.

  “Yeah?” I asked, looking back at him.

  He shot me a
beautiful grin and urged, “Don’t be a stranger.”

  I felt something warm flood through my body. I wasn’t sure what it meant, but I knew I liked the way it felt. Wanting to give Trent that same feeling, I tilted my head and returned, “I promise I won’t.”

  His grin grew even larger and I took that as confirmation that he got back at least some of what he gave me.

  I said goodbye, closed the door, and walked up the path to my front door. It wasn’t until I had pushed through and gotten into the house when Trent backed out of the driveway and drove off.

  Sixteeen Years Ago

  “My turn.”

  I slid my books back into my locker, closed it, and saw Trent leaning up against the lockers next to mine. “Your turn?”

  Nodding, he explained, “To come to you. Yesterday, you kept your end of the promise by seeking me out. Now, I’m returning the favor.”

  “Favor?”

  Trent cocked an eyebrow. “Considering a favor indicates that an act of kindness has occurred…yeah, I’m returning the favor.”

  I laughed.

  “Do you have anywhere to be later tonight?” he asked.

  I shook my head. “No.”

  “Can I take you out?”

  I stared at him, dumbfounded. “Take me out?

  Trent chuckled. “Yeah, sweet cheeks, I want to take you out on a date.”

  Wow.

  Sweet cheeks.

  I hadn’t been expecting that. Nor had I been expecting him to ask me out on a date.

  “Um, okay. Where are we going?”

  “Have you ever been to the haunted house in Fairfield?”

  I bit my lip. I was terrified of anything like that. No horror movies, no scary costumes, and definitely no haunted houses. “I’m a bit of a chicken when it comes to that kind of thing; so no, I’ve never been there.”

  “Want to go with me tonight?”

  “Did you just hear what I said?” I asked.

  Trent grinned at me and shared, “That’s even more of a reason why I want to take you.”

  My brows pulled together, slightly bewildered.

  Apparently, Trent must have noticed my confusion because he leaned in and whispered, “I’ll keep you safe, Delaney.”

  My eyes rounded and I bit my lip again. This time, it was for an entirely different reason. “Alright, I’ll go. But I have to be home for dinner. Mom has a rule about that.”