Total pages in book: 128
Estimated words: 120230 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 601(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120230 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 601(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
Vansi would know, and even tortured by grief, she’d help Kaea. That was just who she was. Which was why I found it all the more surprising that she’d taken Darcie’s pill. “Vansi didn’t say anything about Kaea before she took the sleeping pill?”
Darcie flinched before squaring her shoulders and jutting out her jaw. “I didn’t drug her, if that’s what you’re implying.” Words thrown out like bullets. “Do you think I’m behind everything?” Her pitch was too high, hurtful to the ear. “That I smashed my own head and put that cursed doll on my bed?”
“I’m sure Luna doesn’t think anything like that.” Aaron, always the peacemaker.
But I was through with peace. Especially given the intensity of Darcie’s reaction. I wanted answers. “You’re the one who brought us all together.” I refused to break eye contact. “We’re in your house. You know every single secret room and passage. And how could anyone but you have Beatrice’s doll? Only you saw her after she died. Only you had access to her belongings. Only you got to say goodbye.”
If my other statements had been bitter accusations, my final words were a broken softness. “Why didn’t you let us say goodbye, Darcie?”
Her face went white, so much tension to her body that she appeared like one of those gruesome “medical artworks”—humans preserved without flesh, just bone and tendon and muscle. “Why do you care so much?” she screamed. “You were nothing to her. Just a pathetic puppy dog who followed her around. She used to laugh about you!”
If Darcie expected to cow me with that “revelation,” she didn’t know me at all. I’d never reacted well to emotional manipulation—and I knew exactly what I’d had with Bea. That treasure box of stolen tchotchkes? I still had it. I also still had the complete file of the nude photos Bea had asked me to take of her “while I’m young and beautiful, Nae-nae, so I can look back on them during my grandma years.”
I’d been the keeper of Bea’s secrets since the day we’d met and she’d slipped me a chocolate bar to hide in my jacket because, for a period, Mr. and Mrs. Shepherd had been militant about no refined sugars in the house. We’d later shared that chocolate bar while lying under a tree in the park, staring up at a blue sky patterned with leaves.
She’d turned, smiled at me, and I’d thought she was the most beautiful creature I’d ever seen. A bird with dazzling blue eyes who was meant to soar high while I watched from below to ensure she didn’t fall.
“Listen to yourself.” My voice was as cold as Nix’s skin. “We all know Bea was too kind to ever mock a friend that way. So not only didn’t you give us a chance to farewell her, you’re now trying to assassinate her memory!”
Ash attempted to step in, speak, but Darcie yelled over him. “I was grieving when I made my decision about Bea!” Red spots on her cheeks, a hard glitter in her eyes. “I’d just said goodbye to the last member of my family. I didn’t want spectators to my grief! Why the hell don’t you understand that?”
“So you sent her off with nothing?” Bea’s necklace burned against my skin. “Was that your final revenge on a sister who was brighter and more popular than you?” It was a truth none of us had ever spoken aloud, a silent contract of friendship.
Because though both sisters were stunning and accomplished, it was only Bea who carried within her the special spark that made people gravitate toward a person. Only Bea who glowed with charisma. Only Bea who could walk into a room and stop all conversation. And only Bea who Ash had loved with a mad devotion.
I didn’t look at him, not cruel enough to dig at that wound. But the knowledge hung in the air, a silence so shocking that Grace’s eyes had gone huge and round, Aaron a statue beside her.
“That’s enough, Luna.” Ash’s golden skin held a pink undertone, his hands fisted at his sides. “I know you’re distraught, but that’s no reason to attack Darcie.”
I barely heard him; this wasn’t about Ash or Aaron or anyone else. Stepping forward, I faced Darcie with only inches between us. “Why did you cremate Bea instead of burying her in the family plot beside your parents? Why did you throw her away so far from home?”
Ash, in the process of raising his hand as if to push my shoulder so I’d back off, went still . . . then lowered his hand.
And waited for his wife to answer the question.
Darcie looked from me to him . . . and screamed. Just threw back her head and screamed. When she looked at me afterward, it was with the bite of venom in her gaze. I’d seen it before. Not often, but enough to understand that Darcie would make a bad enemy.