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My sister nods, tears still rolling down her face.
Gulliver pulls his cell from his pocket and dials a number. “We’re ready. Yes, thank you.” Ending the call, he presses a kiss to my temple. “The car will be here in two minutes.”
“Are we leaving without your dad?” I ask.
“Yes. I arranged for Thorn’s limo to be on standby around the corner just in case we needed to leave quickly.”
Burrowing a little deeper into his chest, I reach out and take my sister’s hand. “It’s going to be okay,” I tell her, even though after tonight, I’m not convinced it will be anymore.
She nods, her eyes unfocused. “It is going to be okay. I know what I have to do to fix this,” she says.
Gulliver checks his watch. “Let’s go,” he orders, unlocking the door and pulling me from the room.
I keep hold of my sister, towing her along behind me and not releasing her until we’re through the door being held open by Mrs. Humphries. “It’s time to quit,” I tell her, and she smiles as we rush down the steps and into the limo that’s waiting with the engine still running at the curb.
An hour later, we’re sitting in the penthouse suite at the Hamilton again, all of us subdued and quiet now that Hawthorn, Davis, and Kip have been filled in on my parents’ plans for us this evening.
On the way here, we stopped by Gulliver’s house, grabbed a change of clothes, and picked up the guys, and now Penelope is curled into a ball at the end of the couch wearing a pair of my pajamas.
Gulliver hasn’t let me go since we left my parents’ house. He insisted on helping me change out of my war outfit and into soft flannel shorts and one of his T-shirts. Now his arms are banded tightly around my waist while I sit in his lap.
“Tell them,” I prompt her.
Inhaling sharply, tears fill my sister’s eyes before she explains everything. She tells the guys about the drugs and our parents’ plan and the realization that it’s not safe for her to stay at home anymore. By the time she’s finished speaking, the haunted look in her eyes is still there, but a resolve has settled over her too. “I thought I could do this the easy way, but I can’t,” she says softly.
“Hey,” Thorn says gently, touching her shoulder. “This wasn’t you; this was your psycho parents. You did the right thing.”
Gulliver presses his lips to my neck, his hold on me possessive. “We have to figure out how to stop them. Your parents are out of control, and honestly, I don’t really know what they’ll do next.”
While a tense silence thickens the air, I scan the faces of the boys I call my friends, my sister, who maybe isn’t as bad as I thought, and Gulliver, the boy I’ve fallen in love with. As much as I wish there was another way, there’s only one solution that I can see, even if it’s not the one I want. Glancing at Gulliver, I offer him a sad smile before I turn to my sister. “There’s only one way to stop them. We run.”
42
PENELOPE
As I look over at my sister in Gulliver’s lap, guilt hits me like a wrecking ball, making the nausea that I’ve barely managed to keep at bay all night rise up like a wave once again. I’m not really sure what her relationship with Gulliver is, but I can see the spark between them in the way she looks at him and he looks at her when they think the other isn’t looking.
I’m an awful person. I let greed and power and my parents ruin me, but I won’t let them ruin her too. I’ve tried to find an easy way out of this because I’m selfish enough to want to come out of this whole mess unscathed, but I can see that’s not an option anymore.
Izabella deserves her chance at happiness, and to get that, she needs to be here, not on the run with me.
It’s time to stop thinking about myself for a change. I know what I have to do, and I think I know who will help me, but either way, before the night’s over, I’ll be truly ruined. I’ll do what I have to do to break this curse that has tarnished too many years of our lives already.
Maybe this small but significant act will go some way to redeeming myself and making up for three years of being the world’s biggest bitch to my twin. Maybe not, but either way, it will be over.
After that, maybe I’ll spend some time making my parents’ lives as miserable as they’ve made mine and Izzy’s. Because karma is a bitch, and it’s time my parents learned that you reap what you sow.
43
IZABELLA
When I wake up the next morning, I’m not surprised to find Penelope gone. Grabbing my cell to call her, I find a note on the coffee table from her.
Penelope, I’m fine, and I haven’t gone home. I figured out how to end all of this. Hawthorn’s going to help me. I’ll tell you everything at the party tonight. Xoxo
Dialing her number, I try to call her, but her cell goes straight to voicemail, and so does Thorn’s when I call him too.
“You okay?” Gulliver asks, stepping out of our room in just his boxers, his chest bare, and his tattoo on display.
