Page 257 of Depraved Boys

I glanced from Sebastian to Leopold. “That’s…”

“Yeah,” she said. “I wish he was dead.”

The mint tea in my stomach churned, and I dropped my gaze to the table. Nobody spoke for several minutes. By the time light streamed in through the dining room window onto Ashley’s dyed hair, I mentally urged the police to hurry the hell up.

Ashley slurped at her tea. “I wish I could go back to the start. If you hadn’t brought me to Brittas Academy, I would never have suffered all that shit.”

“Willow dragged you by the hair, did she—” Leopold flinched. I guess Sebastian must have kicked him under the table.

“You don’t know what it’s like to be me,” Ashley said with a sob. “No matter what happens, Willow always lands on her feet.”

“Have you thought about not comparing yourself?” said Sebastian.

Ashley’s face twisted. “How can—”

The doorbell rang, and all the blood drained out of my face.

Leopold and Sebastian both shot to their feet. I pushed myself up and walked on trembling legs to the doorway and paused to take one last look at the girl who had once been my sister. The corners of her lips turned down, and she stared into her mug.

Sebastian walked around the room and positioned himself behind Ashley’s chair. Leopold stood in the doorway that separated the dining room from the kitchen, and more importantly, the back exit.

They both gave me sharp nods as though to say I could do this. With a nod back, I turned toward the front door.

I advanced toward the huge figures standing behind the stained glass windows. Each step down the hallway felt like a hammer driving a nail in Ashley’s coffin. I was about to commit a betrayal she would never forgive, but after everything she had done, I couldn’t seem to muster up any remorse.

When I swung the front door open, I found another pair of officers standing six feet away from the two on the doorstep.

“Ashley?” asked a sergeant with a neatly trimmed, blond beard.

“She’s in the dining room.” I turned on my heel and led the police through the house.

Ashley’s hazel eyes—eyes the same color as Mom’s—widened at the sight of so many policemen. I slipped into the dining room, edged around the table, and stood by the bookshelf. Leopold remained at the entrance of the kitchen, and Sebastian backed away from her.

“Wh-what’s happening?” Ashley turned to me. “Willow?”

My tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth. I couldn’t speak. Couldn’t move. Couldn’t take my eyes off the twin I had just betrayed.

“Ashley Evergreen?” said the blond sergeant.

“Yes?” She put down her mug.

He strode through the dining room. “Ashley Evergreen, you are under arrest on suspicion of sexual assault and murder.”

CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE

The bearded sergeant gave Ashley a second for his words to sink in.

“What?” Her eyes widened, and she turned toward me. “I didn’t kill anyone. Willow, tell them!”

Another policeman appeared at her side. He pulled her out of her seat, clapped a handcuff on one wrist, and positioned her arms around her back.

Throughout this, the sergeant continued. “You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defense if you do not mention when questioned something you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence.”

As realization set in, Ashley fixed me with a glare that severed through my soul. There was no confusion. No hurt. Just understanding combined with an intense look of hatred that made me wonder if someone other than my sister had inhabited her body.

My throat dried. Maybe this was Ashley without the buffer of Mom and Dad. Without the ulterior motives and without the masks. If this was how she had felt about me all along, then all her hurtful actions made sense. Ashley had betrayed me over and over until it had become a way of life. Now that she had committed murder, I couldn’t show her any compassion.

She left without a fuss, without a word, without a backward glance. Perhaps her ordeal with Mr. Byrd had drained all her strength, or discovering that DJ Bones had swindled her out of a fortune had broken her spirit. Or maybe she could no longer look at me after what I had done.