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Carson reaches out and squeezes my hand, but we remain silent, not willing to be overheard celebrating our success, as the car rolls up the drive and pulls to a stop in front of the house. My breathing becomes ragged as I stare up at the house I grew up in and before I know it, I’m reaching for my sister and asking her for comfort as we confront the home we’ve both run from so recently.
She takes my hand and for the very first time, possibly ever, we’re there for each other and I feel her strength, her pain, her sorrow and anger, and it buoys me. Nodding at me, she smiles and then tips her head to the house. “It’s our home, not theirs. They might own it, they might have lived there for the last few years, but it’s ours and so is the stuff inside. You ready?”
“Yes,” I say, nodding back at her.
Tallulah, Tally, is my sister, my twin, and even though I don’t deserve it, I think she loves me and I think I love her, and I literally have no idea why it’s taken me until I’m eighteen to realize it. The driver opens the door and she climbs out first, not an ounce of fear on her beautiful face, and I follow behind her stepping out into the bright sunshine as the guys all crowd around us.
I’ve lived in this house my entire life, but it’s not my home, I’m not sure it has been since the day the will was read and I became a different person. This place has been my salvation, my cage, my torture chamber, and now it’s just a house. So many of my demons live inside the walls, but I want my things, I want my revenge and I want to piss my parents off, so when the housekeeper rushes out of the front door, her hands clasped together at her chest I step forward to greet her.
“Miss Archibald, I’m Geraldine, I’m so incredibly sorry to hear about your parents, please let me know what I can do—”
“You can go,” I say interrupting her, using my best Carrigan voice.
“Excuse me?”
“My sister and I don’t know you. We would prefer to keep our grief private so you can go, your wages will continue to be paid but your services won’t be required while we try to process everything that’s happening,” I state coldly, keeping my voice level and emotionless. My mom would be proud, it’s probably the best impression of her I’ve ever done.
“I…” the woman faulters, looking from me, to Tally beside me, then to the guys who I know must make an imposing picture lined up like sentinels behind us
“The limo can take you anywhere you need to go, I’ll be sure to be in touch if we need your services,” I say coldly, dismissing her with a stern look as I lift my chin and walk past her toward the house.
Inhaling slowly, I step through the front door and into the foyer, the familiar scent of my childhood home hitting me and making my stomach drop with displeasure. There’s no comfort for me here, not like there is on the boat with Carson.
The others follow me into the foyer and I turn and stare at the bewildered housekeeper, who rushes to the kitchen and comes back a moment later with a purse and jacket.
“I…” she faulters again, obviously unsure what she should do.
“Goodbye Geraldine,” I say, crossing to the front door and holding it open in a very blatant gesture telling her to leave.
“Oh, well, er, okay. I’m so sorry about your parents,” she blurts.
“Thank you,” Tally says, moving behind her and guiding her towards the door with a gentle hand on her back. “It was nice to meet you,” my twin says, as she all but pushes her out the door, and with a fake smile, I close it on the poor housekeeper’s shocked face.
Silence fills the room as we watch Geraldine scurry down the steps and toward the limo, where the driver guides her into the back seat and closes the door. Only then do I turn to the others, my eyes wide, my mouth ajar as a half laugh, half gasp falls from my lips.
“Jesus, Crueligan, that’s was so harsh it was amazing,” Wats cries, his lips tipped up into a wide grin.
Carson grabs me, lifting me off the floor as he spins us in a circle. “My girl is a serious badass,” he announces loudly, before pressing his lips to mine in a hard kiss that makes my knees weak and my panties damp.
“Time for that later, let’s get sorted in case your parents come back from the dead sooner than we planned,” Olly says. “Girls, go get whatever you want from your rooms, while we head for your dad’s office and see if we can find anything interesting.”
“His safe is behind the mirror, his combination is 26, 32, 95,” Tally announces, kicking off her shoes and turning to pad barefoot up the stairs.
“How do you know that?” I ask, as I push out of Carson’s hold and follow her.
“It’s his locker combination from St Augustus, I overheard him telling Mom one time. There were some advantages to them pretending I didn’t exist,” she shrugs.
The stairs seem endless as I climb up to the first floor and toward my bedroom. The door is closed as I approach and I pause at the threshold, mentally preparing myself for the room to be empty, for them to have destroyed all evidence of their disappointment of a daughter. Grabbing the handle, I turn it and push the door inwards, shocked to find that my room is exactly the way it was the last time I was here.
Brow furrowed, I step inside, turning in a circle before I cross to my closet and throw the doors wide, finding it packed full of my clothes and shoes, just like it was.
“My room’s untouched,” Tally announces from behind me, startling me.
“Mine too,” I tell her. “It’s kind of anticlimactic isn’t it?”
“Kinda,” she giggles. “At least we can get our stuff. Do you want me to help you pack? I got most of the stuff I wanted from my room before I moved out.”
“Sure,” I say, moving and grabbing my biggest luggage case from the back of the closet. “I don’t want most of the clothes, they were picked by her, but I want my underwear and pajamas, my laptop that kind of stuff.”
