Inheritance Read Online Free

His face was ghostly pale, and his hair had a cowlick in the back and was plastered down in front as if he had tried to tame it with water. Through her computer’s speakers, she heard herself talking, and her voice sounded like a stranger’s.
    That was when Amber came down the stairs and turned Reese and David around. Reese couldn’t see Amber’s face in the video—it was obscured by the back of David’s head—but she saw Amber lean into her, whispering in her ear. A moment later Amber walked around them to talk to the reporters. In comparison to Reese and David, Amber looked like a movie star. She was dressed casually in a red hoodie and jeans, but Reese knew that it didn’t matter what Amber wore; what mattered was the way she wore it. She had a face that was made for the camera, with her big gray eyes and glossy lips. When she walked through the reporters toward the erim and the small craft, the cameras followed her until the craft took off. Then, with a jerk, the video turned back to Reese and David. They looked shell-shocked, and it took a minute before the press conference returned to the subject of what had happened to them.
    After the video ended, Reese shut off her computer, but Amber’s face lingered in her mind’s eye. Reese didn’t want to think about her. She was still angry about Amber’s lies—angry and hurt. How could Amber expect Reese to believe her offer of help? She couldn’t believe anything Amber said, even if she said it by whispering in her ear. Reese remembered lying on thebeach with her, Amber’s mouth against her skin, breathing her name.
All of that was a lie
, Reese told herself, shoving away the curl of desire that awoke in her.
You can’t trust her. It’s over. You don’t feel that way anymore
. A nervous energy skittered through her limbs and she got up. She needed to get away from what people were saying online. She decided to get a drink of water.
    She opened the door of her bedroom as quietly as possible and tiptoed down the stairs in the dark. The door to the guest room where her father slept was closed. In the kitchen she poured herself a glass of water from the filter and looked out the window at the backyard. Was the black triangle still out there? She opened the back door, stepping onto the brick patio in her bare feet. It was an unexpectedly clear August night, with no fog misting the air. The bricks were rough beneath her toes as she tipped her head back and stared at the dark sky. Few stars were visible, but she could see the triangular ship above, where white lights defined its three corners. It hung still and silent: a black ornament on a tree of night.
    She thought about the question raised in the Bin 42 blog post. Why had the Imria returned? There was one possibility that made immediate sense to her. They came back because they wanted her and David. Why else would that ship be hovering over her house like an omen? It wasn’t a comforting idea.

CHAPTER 3
    Reese’s parents were sitting at the kitchen table with a pile of newspapers when she came downstairs late Friday morning. “Good morning,” her dad said.
    “How’d you sleep?” her mom asked.
    “Okay.” Reese went straight to the coffeemaker and poured herself a cup, adding milk. She heard the beat of rotors outside. “Are there still helicopters up there?”
    “They’ve been there all morning,” her dad said. “The spaceship is still there, and people are still coming to look at it.”
    She went to the back door and peered out the window. She couldn’t see the black triangle from this angle, but she could see a helicopter making an arc across the sky. “How long can they fly around up there?”
    “I don’t know,” her mom said, sounding resigned. “As long as that ship is here, probably. There’s nothing to stop people from coming to look, either. It’s created kind of a traffic jam out front, but as long as people keep moving, the police can’t force them to leave. It’s a public