Page 25 of Pretty Lies

Della heaved herself up from the mattress, but really just wished she had stayed right where she had been before her brother waltzed in to drag her from dreamland. It was only because she loved her brother, and they did have a close bond, that she didn’t reach for the blade on her nightstand to make the asshole leave her alone, so she could go back to sleep.

“Besides,” J said, heading for the door, “I think you’re going to be … mostly happy today. Dad got some stuff figured out for you. You can do what you want; he gets what he wants. I can still do what I was doing elsewhere for work. You’re just going to have to deal with it.”

Still sleepy, she called out at his retreating back, “What does that even mean?”

“Get up and find out.”

He slammed the bedroom door shut.

Just perfect.

J knew the right way to make Della move. All she needed was a hint of something going on that dealt with her of which she wasn’t aware, and she started moving her ass to get ready for the day. Before long, she’d dressed in her staple skinny jeans, pointed-toe stiletto heels, had thrown her hair into a messy bun, and threw on a blazer that matched her shoes overtop a silk blouse. She took the most time on her makeup because that was a non-starter for Della.

It didn’t matter if she was only leaving the house to have brunch with her parents and brother. If she left the house, her face was painted to the Gods.

Always.

Unsurprisingly, J was already waiting at the door with her purse held out when she came down the stairs. She snatched it from his grasp as she checked her phone for any message she might have missed last night or over the morning.

Mostly, from Jennika.

It wasn’t like her best friend not to message her a half of a dozen times by the time Della finally rolled her ass out of bed. Yet another person in her life that she loved to death who also just happened to be one of those awful morning people.

Except there was no message.

Not even an emoji.

Della brushed it off but sent a message to her best friend all the same. Back to work ASAP—brunch with Dad in an hour if you wanna come?

Her parents wouldn’t mind. More often than not, Jennika trailed along anyway.

“Your chariot awaits,” J said, swinging open the front door to expose his muddy Jeep parked right behind her white Benz.

Della scowled. “Can we take my car?”

Not that she didn’t like the Jeep. It was the mud,which she didn’t know how her brother managed to find in a city, that bothered her more than anything. No matter how hard she tried to avoid it, she still got dirty whenever she traveled in her brother’s vehicle.

Because of course …

Wasn’t that just her luck?

J only laughed. “Fuck no—I got business after brunch. I won’t be showing up to that in your pretty little white coupe, sis.”

She wished she was shocked.

But nope.

“Let’s go, then.”

•••

“Have fun, hmm?”

Della’s mother smiled and winked at her husband as the two stood from their chairs. Always the gentleman, Frankie made sure to pull his wife’s coat from the back of the chair and help her put it on before he leaned in for a kiss.

“And mind yourself,” her father added with a chuckle.

“I’ll try. It is Abriella, though … you know how it is.”