Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 68858 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 344(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68858 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 344(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
Peyton nodded in agreement. “She’s right. No matter what happens, we do this together. Besides, you’re going to need us.”
I relented with a sigh. “As long as it doesn’t endanger either of you. I would never be able to live with myself if something happened to you guys because of me.”
“It wouldn’t be because of you,” Mel reasoned.
I looked at them and could practically feel their love for me. Distance—being worlds apart—hadn’t severed our bond in the slightest. It felt like we were picking up right where we left off. I was blessed to have them. Which is why I felt terrible about not divulging the truth about Eva. It’s not like I didn’t want to. I would’ve loved to bare my soul and confess my sister wasn’t in that casket.
But I couldn’t.
Not yet.
Revealing that kernel of truth felt so much more dangerous than telling them I wanted to know who was behind what happened to her and Aunt Molly.
“Let me get inside. She’ll stand there all night if I don’t.” I opened the door and was immediately engulfed in heat. “I’ll text you guys.”
I made my way into the house, feeling as if I’d been cast in a horror movie. Any second now, Aunt Molly would appear and point in the direction I came from, warning me to turn back and stay the hell away from here. I smiled to myself, hearing her Southern voice in my head. If only I could do that Molls.
My grandmother and uncle were in the foyer before I was all the way inside, one concerned and the other visibly annoyed. She had to of moved pretty damn fast to get here before I did.
“Are you alright?”
“You’ve gotta be missing some brain cells, girl. You wanna run off, take someone with you,” my uncle’s raspy voice drowned out her question.
“Like who? You?”
He opened and closed his mouth, no words coming out. He’d clearly forgotten how far our house had fallen, too caught up in his feelings.
“You can’t just go off on your own, Elena,” he practically growled.
“I wasn’t alone, and Grandma was fine with it. Besides, I rode with Peyton and Melody. You remember them, right?”
His mouth opened and closed, the tick in his jaw a tell. There wasn’t anything he could say about that. Both of them came from families of much higher standing than ours these days. Families that probably would’ve destroyed what remained of us Castello’s long ago if not for my friendship with their children. Not only had I lucked out with the greatest of friends, but their families weren’t like the rest of the power-hungry savages around here. They were content with what they had while remaining prominent by their own consistent methods.
Uncle Luis blinked, his round dark eyes blazing into mine before roaming over my body from head to toe. It made me highly uncomfortable. He’d always been an unusual guy, but at least back then he didn’t look at me the way he does now. My father would’ve killed him—brother or not. Doing my best to ignore his sick probing, I diverted my eyes to Grandma.
“I would like to get cleaned up.”
He guffawed, preparing to say something condescending no doubt, but my grandmother spoke before he could. “Of course, diosa. We can talk later.” She gave me a smile that wasn’t entirely genuine.
I gave one back that was just as fake and walked away.
I felt their eyes on me the entire way up the sweeping staircase. Once I was inside my room, I locked the door and began stripping out of my clothes. I headed directly to the adjoining bathroom and stepped into the shower, resolute in my intent to cleanse myself of the day's filth and gather my thoughts. It was then, amidst the heated cascading water, that the fragile barrier holding everything back finally shattered.
“Goddamnit, Eva,” I cursed my sister’s name, excessively scrubbing my skin with a purple loofah.
The grey and white mosaic tiled wall blurred through a curtain of tears. I’d told her countless times not to come back to this place, but she wouldn’t listen. Glamour and wealth were powerful addictions to girls who felt they had nothing but poverty and squalor. She soaked up this lavish lifestyle and all the attention people gave her like a sponge.
She immersed herself further and further past the point of no return, overly indulging in everything our father had tried to distance us from. Even when he promised our new living arrangements were temporary, it was obvious when he came to get us it wouldn’t be to return here. I never got the chance to ask what led him to that decision. We hadn’t received one phone call, letter, or e-mail since the day we said goodbye to him and our mother.
Eva thought they were happy to shove us out of his life. She swore Dad had a mistress and didn’t want his family anymore. It was a regular argument between us no matter how much I pointed out our mother would sooner castrate him than ever let that slide. A lot of women considered their husbands straying to be something they needed to accept. Many were more than happy for another woman to take up the gauntlet, or when their husbands paid for pleasure because they’d married for power and not love.