A Vicious Rumor Read online

  A Vicious Rumor

  Contents

  Playlist

  Kintsugi

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Tyson: Present Day

  Chapter 2

  Tyson

  Chapter 3

  Tyson

  Chapter 4

  Tyson

  Chapter 5

  Tyson

  Chapter 6

  Lily

  Chapter 7

  Tyson

  Chapter 8

  Lily

  Chapter 9

  Lily

  Chapter 10

  Tyson

  Chapter 11

  Lily

  Chapter 12

  Lily

  Chapter 13

  Lily

  Chapter 14

  Tyson

  Chapter 15

  Lily

  Chapter 16

  Tyson

  Chapter 17

  Tyson

  Chapter 18

  Lily

  Chapter 19

  Lily

  Chapter 20

  Tyson

  Chapter 21

  Tyson

  Chapter 22

  Lily

  Chapter 23

  Lily

  Chapter 24

  Tyson

  Chapter 25

  Tyson

  Chapter 26

  Lily

  Chapter 27

  Tyson

  Chapter 28

  Tyson

  Chapter 29

  Lily

  Chapter 30

  Tyson

  Epilogue

  Excerpt from Beautiful Surrender

  Chapter 1

  Aubrey

  Chapter 2

  Aubrey

  Chapter 3

  Aubrey

  One Small Request…

  Acknowledgments

  Connect with Ivy

  Also by Ivy

  Copyright © 2022 by Ivy Wild

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Cover Model: Sergio Carvajal

  Photographer: Miguelanxfoto

  Main Cover Design: Betty Lankovits

  Editing and Proofing by Jessica Netzke

  Additional Proofreading provided by Jamie Davis and Jeananne Cappetta

  Promotional Assistance provided by Cover 2 Cover Author Services

  For L. J. Shen

  who has been the truest of friends and most amazing supporter. Without her, this book would not exist.

  Playlist

  Listen on Spotify

  * * *

  “ABCDEFU” by Gayle

  “Need to Know” by Doja Cat

  “7 Rings” by Ariana Grande

  “Blinding Lights” by the Weekend

  “L*** is a Bad Word” by Kiiara

  “Me vs. Us” by Tayla Parx

  “I Kissed a Girl” by Katy Perry

  “3 Strikes” by Terror Jr.

  “Emotional” by Anjulie

  “Steady” by Bebe Rexha feat Tory Lanez

  “Show Me” by Big Wild feat. Hundred Waters

  There is a crack in everything. That is how the light gets in.

  LEONARD COHEN

  Kintsugi

  Kintsugi roughly translates from Japanese to “to repair with gold.” It is the art of repairing pottery with gold and acknowledging that that the piece is more beautiful for having been broken.

  Prologue

  TYSON STONE: AGE 13

  “Say it again, I dare you,” I seethed at the kid standing across from me. I hated him. I hated everyone that was standing around us, laughing at me.

  He raised his hand up to his nose, wiping off snot with the back of his hand, before grinning from ear to ear. “I said that your mother’s a whore!” he shouted, and all the kids around us began to laugh and chant “Whore! Whore! Whore!”

  I’d told my Dad I didn’t want to go on this stupid field trip, but he’d insisted. It was good for me to learn that not everyone was as well off as I was, he’d explained. Since Kindergarten, I’d attended King’s Academy, a preppy private school in Potomac, Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C. It’s where Ambassadors, Congressmen, and the 1% paid to send their children to school. And our teachers had decided it would be an excellent idea to do a joint field trip with a middle school located in Anacostia, which was basically the worst neighborhood outside of the city.

  The news had traveled even all the way across the Potomac River and all the way into this little shit’s head. The woman that had raised me for the last thirteen years was leaving my father. Mom didn’t do it privately, either. No way. She left my father in a media blitz that would have made TMZ proud.

  And all of it was because of me.

  I’d always known that I was adopted. It wasn’t entirely hard to figure out, even at a young age. I was significantly different looking than my father. I had tanned skin and a stockier composition, whereas Dad was ghostly pale, tall and skinny. But, I guess my true origins hadn’t been fully disclosed to the woman who was no longer my mother.

  When she found out that my Dad took me in because he managed to get a stripper knocked up one night and not because I was just some kid he’d decided to adopt, that was it for her. At least that’s what she said was the reason. Even at thirteen, I wondered if she always sort of knew. But Dad’s business wasn’t doing so hot these days and money was a bit tighter than normal. Not like middle-class tight. Just like, no new Ferrari tight. So, maybe that was the real reason.

  I didn’t really care.

  If my mother wanted to walk out of my life with a look of disgust on her face over something that wasn’t my fault, then fuck her.

  I didn’t need her.

  I didn’t need anyone.

  But, what I did need to do was teach this little punk in front of me a lesson. We were currently inside the Anacostia Community Museum, surrounded by useless exhibits I didn’t care about. So, here was as good a place as any.

  I walked straight up to the kid. I didn’t care that he had a good three inches in height on me. He was skinny and looked like he’d never been punched. I was about to change all that.

  I landed a fist right to his jaw and he crumpled like a cheap tent.

  Exactly as I’d expected.

  The kids around us started to cheer, and I climbed on top of him, straddling him.

  “What was it you said?” I asked him. “I couldn’t hear it through all the blood.”

  I had to give the kid credit. He looked like he was about to cry, but he didn’t break. Instead, he tried his best to spit at me. I dodged the bloody wad easily and shrugged my shoulders.

  “Have it your way,” I said. I landed punch after punch on this kids face.

  The cheers around me started to fade.

  I wasn’t sure if it was because the teachers were coming, because this kid’s face looked ready to cave in, or because I was just blocking it all out.

  I didn’t care.

  This kid deserved it.

  He wasn’t going to embarrass me like that and get away with it.

  I’d show him.

  I’d show them all.

  I felt something pull on my shoulders, but I didn’t stop.

  Then I felt something crunch against my elbow, and I heard a scream.

  That pulled me out of my haze just long enough.

  I was wrenched off the little shit by someone much bigger than me. It must have been a teacher or a security guard. I only had a minute to take in the scene. The kid was bleeding all over the floor
, his face almost unrecognizable from when we started.

  Something caught my attention to the side.

  A girl.

  She was my age, or looked it. Rather plain looking but with pretty blonde hair tied back in a ponytail. She was holding her nose and I could see bits of red seeping through her fingers.

  I cringed as I thought about what hit my elbow. It must have been her. She must have been trying to pull me off of him.

  It was her fault that she got hurt.

  She should have left me alone.

  They all should have just left me alone.

  “It’s a lucky thing that girl intervened when she did,” I heard the principal say to my father. The whole conversation bored me.

  I was in trouble.

  Big whoop.

  They couldn’t hurt me.

  I was already hurt so much I couldn’t even feel it.

  What were they possibly going to do to me? Take away my mother?

  I looked around at the stuffy office. Everything at King’s Academy was stuffy. The principal had his own son at the school. He was in my class and everyone loved him. It was all fake though. They just liked him because he was blond and had connections. They didn’t like him for him.

  “Did you hear that, son?” the principal asked in a stern voice, an obvious ploy to try and recapture my attention.

  “Interesting choice of words,” I snorted at him, crossing my arms and sinking further into my chair.

  “I appreciate everything you’ve done for us,” my father replied, filling the silence. “It’s been a rough couple of weeks,” he said, his voice trailing off.

  “Yes, well, life is difficult. He’s going to need to learn that he can’t beat someone to a bloody pulp just because they call him names,” the principal muttered.

  I rolled my eyes and my father stood up and began to hustle me out the door.

  “Mr. Stone,” the principal said, standing up. “I thought you might want the information of the little girl that did step in to help. I understand that her nose was broken and required medical attention. People from that area, well, they don’t have much,” he said.

  My father looked uncomfortable for a moment before finally reaching forward and taking the piece of paper that the principal was sliding forward.

  “Thank you,” he said, stuffing it into his pocket. “I’ll make sure everything is straightened out.”

  I slouched low in the seat of my dad’s Porsche, Cayenne as the city flew by me. I watched it all with disinterest, just wanting the day to be over.

  “I know the last few weeks haven’t been easy on any of us,” my Dad said, acting like this all wasn’t his fault. “But you can’t go around breaking people’s noses because of it. Especially not little girls,” he added.

  I rolled my eyes. “I didn’t mean to hit her. She got in the way.”

  “That’s how these things happen,” my Dad lectured. “Better to just keep on the straight and narrow.”

  “That’s rich coming from you,” I said through clenched teeth.

  My father just sighed. He didn’t respond. He was never going to respond. He was a pushover. He had been his whole life and even in middle school, I could already see that. My mother—well, my ex-mother, would bully him into buying anything she wanted for her. Look how far that got him.

  I had a stripper for a mother and a wimp for a father.

  What a joke.

  “We’re here,” my father said, putting the car in park. I sat up and looked around as he got out of the vehicle. We definitely were not in Potomac anymore. Potomac felt spread out and pretty much every car on the road was either an Audi, a Porsche or something more exotic. Everything here was crammed together. The houses weren’t even separated. They were just one right after the other, all connected together. And so were the cars. They all lined the streets basically bumper to bumper. And none of them were even close to Audis.

  I grimaced. Was he really going to make me get out of the car and apologize to someone in this neighborhood?

  My father rapped his knuckles against my window and I grumbled but opened the door. “Yeah, yeah, I’m coming,” I said, pulling my hoodie up over my head.

  We walked up the porch in front of us. I took careful steps, not sure if the rotted wood would hold both of us up. My father looked around for a doorbell, but finding none, he just knocked on the door.

  “Who is it?” a voice from the other side of the door called through.

  “Uh, it’s Leonard Stone and his son.”

  “What do you want?” the woman’s voice asked.

  “My son has come here to apologize for what happened yesterday with your daughter on the field trip.”

  There was silence behind the door as I shifted first from one foot, then to the other. I wanted nothing more than to bolt right back into the car. I didn’t want to apologize to the girl. I didn’t even catch a good look at her yesterday, but she was probably just as shitty as the other kids who thought they could laugh at me.

  “Lily! There’s someone here to see you!”

  A few moments of silence followed by footsteps on a staircase passed before the front door was finally opened. A girl about my age with bright blonde hair and blue eyes stood before me. I winced as I noticed the bruising around her nose marring her face.

  She stood there, just looking at me. Her crisp blue eyes held my gaze until I felt so uncomfortable that I had to look away. I didn’t like the way she was seeing me.

  My father cleared his throat and gave me a nudge.

  “Hey uh, sorry about your nose,” I muttered under my breath, not looking up to meet her blue stare.

  “We’ve got swings out back,” she said in a sweet voice.

  “That sounds like a great idea,” my father replied, answering before I could tell the girl to shove off. “Why don’t you and Lily play out back for a while and I’ll talk to her mother,” he said with a fake smile to the rather round woman standing just behind her daughter. Maybe it was for the best. Her mom reeked of alcohol.

  I rolled my eyes and let out a sigh, but followed the girl through the house all the same. I wrinkled my nose as we walked. The house didn’t smell bad or anything, but everything around me seemed used and worn. Even the hardwood floors were discolored in places where people walked. I didn’t know floors did that.

  “Here,” she said, tugging at the sliding glass door with all her effort. “It gets stuck sometimes.”

  “Let me,” I said, yanking the thing open. It careened into the other side of the wall and I winced, hoping the entire house wouldn’t fall down from the force.

  “You’re strong,” the girl giggled, and I chanced another glance at her as she was walking through the door. She was smaller than I was, but not by much. Her frame was rather wispy. She looked easy to break, but those eyes of hers told me she wasn’t.

  She sat down on one of the swings and looked at me again. I kept my own gaze cast down on the muddy ground as I took slow steps to sit on the swing next to her.

  “I am sorry about your nose,” I said to her as I finally sat down. “It looks like it hurts.”

  She shrugged. “It’s fine. Mom was pretty upset, and it did hurt a little, but now that the pain’s mostly gone, I think it’s kinda funny. I look a bit like a raccoon.”

  “Yeah, well, raccoon or not, you shouldn’t get involved in fights that don’t concern you.”

  “But, it did concern me,” she said in a matter-of-fact tone.

  “How you figure?”

  “You would have killed that boy. Of everyone there, I think I was the only one that realized that. I had to stop you. He was too young to die. And you’re too young to kill.”

  She started swinging for real now as her words hung thick around me. I didn’t have anything to say back to her, but it didn’t seem like she was waiting for my response. We stayed on the swings like that for a while. Finally, my father walked through the sliding glass door.

  “Alright, Tyson, say goodbye.”


  “Bye, Lily,” I said to her, as I got up from my swing.

  I started to walk towards my Dad, but she grabbed my hand. “Don’t let it get to you,” she said.

  I shook my head. “Let what get to me?”

  “What they said.”

  She let go of my hand then and skipped past me and into the house. I looked down to see a shiny tiger-eye gemstone bead in my hand. By the time I lifted my head up, she was already in the house and out of sight.

  1

  TYSON: PRESENT DAY

  “Fight! Fight! Fight!” the crowd around me jeered as I stared down my opponent. He already looked unsteady on his feet. One more hit and he’d be done for, but I wasn’t going to let him off that easily. I enjoyed toying with my prey a bit, and the crowd seemed to love it, too.

  More than that, the kid standing in front of me deserved it, in my eyes. Cocky sonofabitch thought he’d be able to win in a fight against me. Clearly, he hadn’t been at the Academy that long.

  “Come on, Rock! Stop toying with him,” someone called out from the crowd. I smirked. Just a little bit longer. This kid needed to learn that you didn’t mess with the Triad. And, more than that, you didn’t fucking think you could walk into a fight with me and come out standing. It’d been a long time since someone had defaulted in Rochambeau and an even longer time since that person thought they’d be able to win back their debt by winning a fight with me.