Unwanted Blood (Harper) novel Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Harper’s POV

The clock on the bedside table beeped at 5:00 AM.

I woke up, eyes burning, I barely slept, and had spent the last four hours staring at the textured ceiling of my room,.every time I closed my eyes, the scene from the community center replayed-the look in Ryder’s eyes, and the jagged panic that had clawed at my throat.

One thing was clear-I didn’t want anything to do with that family

anymore.

“I’m not going back,” I said under my breath, over and over again.

Vancouver was different. This community was the first place that had ever felt like mine. I had learned how to breathe. I had a job, a routine, and people who looked at me without seeing a mistake. I wasn’t going to let the four ghosts from my past haunt me and snatch that away.

To stop myself from spiraling, I pushed the blanket off and sat up, forcing myself out of the room, then I grabbed my jacket and left the apartment. I need some fresh air.

The air outside was cold. I walked past school, hands in my pockets, heading toward the McDonald’s near Central. The school offered free breakfast, but I just needed an excuse to get out of my own head. By the time I reached the golden arches, it was just after six. My mind was still a tangled mess of what ifs and not agains as I reached for the door handle. I pushed it open, my head down, lost in my own messy thoughts.

Bang.

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My shoulder collided with someone. A cup clattered to the floor. The / plastic lid popped off, and a dark, steaming puddle of coffee surged across the white tiles, splashing onto my sneakers and the other person’s shoes.

I froze, staring at the mess. Fear grabbed me instantly. My heart jumped into my throat, hammering so hard my vision blurred.

“I’m sorry,” I said softly. “I didn’t see-”

Then I stopped. I stared down at the dark stain spreading like a bruise. felt like I was the coffee spilled on the floor, being knocked down, being stepped on, no matter what I did, no matter how hard I tried to tell myself I am a different person now, the part of me would never be the same as I did before everything happened,before the hot soup soaking my lap on my sixteenth birthday,before the laughter that still rang in my ears when the lights went out, before the pain I felt when I made a mistake.

.”Are you okay?” the voice asked.

I kept my eyes down, nodding automatically, still not looking up. “I’ll pay for it.”

“Harper?”

Then again, louder this time, almost synced with the voice in my head.

“Hey-Harper!”

The pain seemed to happen in next second, I flinched, staggering two steps backward, my body reacted before my brain could process the sound. My hand flew up shielding the side of my head before I could stop it, shrinking away as the air around us tightened instantly.

“…It’s just coffee,” he said with calm but bitter tone.

That calm tone made me pause. Slowly, I lowered my arm and lifted my

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Ryder stood there, his eyes searching my face, a forced smile on his face pale, coffee cup empty in his hand, wet stain still dripping from his sleeve.

I took two quick steps back, my heels clicking on the tile. “Are you following me?”

Ryder shook his head immediately, his hands held out. “No. I was here first, Harper. You ran into me.”

I nodded, looked past him at the empty counter and back at the spill. I swallowed hard, nodding once, as I avoided meeting his eyes. “Then… I’ll pay you back. What did you order? I’ll get another one.”

My voice came out polite, but distant. The kind of voice I used with strangers. He frowned, his mouth thinning into a line as something flickering across his face. In the end, he just let out a slow breath. “Forget it. It’s fine.”

“No, I should pay,” I insisted, already moving around him toward the self- service kiosk. “I’ll get my breakfast and yours.” I just wanted the

transaction over with.

“Wait-” he called out.

His voice rose louder than he meant it to. A few people sitting in a nearby booth turned to look at us. Ryder winced and lowered his voice quickly. “Let me buy you breakfast. Please. Okay?”

My finger hovered over the screen. “I don’t need-”

“Consider it a way for you pay back for the coffee,” he countered.

I mumbled under my breath, “Shouldn’t I be the one buying yours since I spilled it…”

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He let out a soft breath, almost a sigh. “Then let me do it this way. Just let me treat you.”

He looked at me then. “Harper… I just want to talk to you. Properly. Calmly.”

Silence settled between us.

I didn’t like this. I really didn’t want to face him. But I was hungry. And…I didn’t know how to say no. A minimal compromise seemed easier than a scene. So I nodded.

I ordered at the kiosk: a muffin, two hash browns, an iced coffee. We sat at a small table near the window. Even while we sat down I stayed tense, shoulders tight, one eye on the door. At one point, I caught the eye of a girl working behind the counter and held it a second too long, but she just looked confused and went back to bagging an order.

Ryder brought the food over and set it down. I glanced at his tray. He had ordered almost exactly the same thing.

“Thanks,” I said quietly. I picked up a hash brown, focusing entirely on the salt and the crunch, anything to avoid his gaze. He sat across from me in silence, just watching me eat. For a long minute neither of us spoke. Finally, he cleared his throat. Hearing that, my heart sank.

“Harper… I want to apologize. For everything. For what I did before.”

I stayed quiet, fingers wrapped around the cold cup and kept chewing the food in my mouth into a mashed paste.

“You don’t need to carry what wasn’t yours,” he continued, voice low. “Who our parents were… what happened before you were born… it doesn’t matter. You were just a kid. Even if you hadn’t been our full sister… you were never responsible for any of it.”

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“I know saying sorry doesn’t change anything. It doesn’t fix sixteen years.” he said, even quieter now. “But I need to admit it. That was my fault. I was the eldest. I set the tone. It was us too blinded by our own bitterness to see you, with the wrong way. I’m Sorry.”

His eyes found mine, “If I could go back… I would treat you differently Maybe I could’ve given you a better life you deserved.”

I stayed silent. It was all too late.

“I don’t expect you to forgive me,” he said softly. “But I want you to know one thing -”

“I see you,” he said.

That made me look up.

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