Total pages in book: 139
Estimated words: 135958 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 680(@200wpm)___ 544(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135958 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 680(@200wpm)___ 544(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
I had loved it, though I never said a word. I didn’t know if Brooke enjoyed it. She never spoke for or against it, but I could see now why people thought that way. We both had dark black hair. Okay. Maybe I couldn’t see why now. That was the end of our similarities. Brooke had a rounder face. I was fairer in skin. My eyes were more narrow. My face a little longer. And taller. I was always taller.
Brooke used to sigh that I could be a model, but she was wrong. She was the future model. I saw the proof now.
She looked like she’d gotten a tad bit taller too, maybe another inch, but that was it. It didn’t matter. Brooke could’ve been a model just because she had turned into a celebrity—which was also why the story about her being missing had been picked up by a news channel from New York City, where I didn’t think she lived.
“That’s her, right?” Blade prompted again. He shoved back his chair to stand as I heard the sounds of an approaching car outside.
We lived near Cowtown, but we kept to the forest for a reason. The cabin we were renting belonged to a friend of a friend of a friend of another friend, and there were probably three other sets of friends before we actually got to the owner. There was a reason for that, just like there was a reason Blade hurried to his computer, turning off the news as he brought up the feed from the electronic sensors outside.
A second later, he relaxed and flipped the screen back.
All was clear. It was our third roommate, Carol. But I wasn’t paying attention to her or to the sound I heard when the screen door opened and something dropped with a thud on the floor. Carol cursed.
My eyes returned to the screen, glued there because an image of Kai Bennett appeared now.
Just like the last time I saw my friend, the bile of loathing pooled in my mouth. Kai stared right at the camera, offering whoever had taken his picture the same look he’d given me before taking my roommate away so many years ago.
While I couldn’t remember the last look on Brooke’s face, I couldn’t get his out of my mind.
Death.
His eyes were dead, just like they’d been back then.
A shiver went up my spine. I’d only seen Kai Bennett in person once, but it was enough.
I hated him.
CHAPTER TWO
Thirteen years ago
“Riley, dear?”
I liked Mrs. Patricia. Most of our other instructors were mean, always snapping when they talked to us. Not Mrs. Patricia. She was nice, kind. She spoke in a soft voice, and maybe that’s why it took a few minutes before I realized she was calling my name.
We were taking a test. I was focused. Question sixteen was going to fail me. I knew it, but when I felt a tap on my shoulder from the student behind me, I jerked my head up.
Mrs. Patricia was standing at the door. The headmistress was beside her, and she was not wearing the same smile as my instructor. Wait. I sat up taller in my seat. The headmistress never came for me…and her forehead seemed pinched together, her always-disapproving mouth turned even farther downward now.
That’s when I took in Mrs. Patricia, really took her in. She wasn’t smiling at me. Well, she was, but it was lined with sadness and something else.
She motioned for me. “Can you come here, Riley?”
I started to feel the same numbness it had taken almost a year to shed as I stood from my desk.
Sympathy. I named her missing emotion then. She pitied me.
My mother…
I felt a ball in my throat, and it grew as I started toward her.
“Bring your test, Riley.”
The headmistress barked, “Bring everything! You’re not coming back.”
That got everyone’s attention. Their heads snapped up like mine had—those who hadn’t already been watching.
Mrs. Patricia stepped away, her lips pressing together as she shot the headmistress a look before approaching my desk. She bent to pick up my books.
Collecting everything for me, she nodded. “I’ll hold your things for you, Riley.”
I was in trouble? Was it my mom?
I tried to ask her with my eyes, but she wasn’t looking at me. In fact, as I walked next to her down the aisle and toward the door, she swallowed and looked away. She was now actively avoiding my gaze.
That wasn’t good. Not at all.
“Come, Riley.” There was that same curt tone from the headmistress. She flicked her hand to me, motioning toward the hallway. “You’re needed.”
I was needed? No one needed me.
But the headmistress was already striding away in brisk steps, and I hurried to catch up. I lowered my head, even though the hallways were empty. This was how I walked at Hillcrest. Brooke was the opposite. She held her head high, and her hands were always waving in the air. When she spoke, everyone listened, even if you didn’t want to.