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“Real mature,” she says.
“Do not screw with me,” I warn her. I don’t care if she’s helping Ro and my twin. I’ll play nice for the sake of what they’re trying to accomplish, but I will never forgive her for selling us out. Or hurting my twin.
“I’m not screwing with you.” She stands her ground, but that awareness in her eyes. It fucking shines.
I poke her in the shoulder. “Do not look at Ivy like she’s your next story. She isn’t. Do you understand me?”
“Okay,” she says. “But Rogue, there’s something about her.”
“She’s off-limits to you,” I snarl as I climb into the Jeep and start the engine. Any good mood I thought I had has been completely eviscerated by Marty trying to stick her nose in my business. Worse yet, I gave away too much. Being in the spotlight is a lot, and Ivy is so shy. I would want to minimize the media scrutiny for her under normal circumstances. Throw in the fact that Hawthorne is out there… I need to protect her. “Leave it alone.”
She opens her mouth to speak and I turn up the radio to block her out before I leave her standing in the driveway as I drive away.
Chapter Seven
Ivy
I stand outside the house I grew up in, my phone clasped in my hand. My palms are sweating and my heart is galloping.
After Rogue dropped me off I started on Narnia, but it wasn’t long before my thoughts outweighed the clothes I was pulling from the racks. I didn’t even make it through the eighties studded leather collection before I’d grabbed my keys and jumped in my beat-up little hatchback.
Danica Garfield thinks I’m worth her time. She is offering me an opportunity so far beyond anything I could ever have imagined. I’m not a designer. I’m not even very talented. Mostly I create what Adira asks me too, so I would probably just screw up the opportunity if I took it. But it’s like what Rogue said the night we were chased by those photographers. I have people in my life who want to fight for me when I can’t. And I…I want to be worth that. So I have to fight for myself too, no matter what career I choose to pursue.
I straighten my spine and smooth my palms over the back of my jeans. I’m never going to feel strong enough to face the woman who raised me. Never in a million years.
The terracotta-colored Italian style villa sits beyond the spiked iron gate. To anyone else someone important lives inside this three-story mansion, perhaps even living in a fairytale. To me it’s three stories of the worst moments of my life.
Jaffa idles roughly at my back. I could get back in the car and leave before anyone even realizes I’m here. It’s been a long time since I stepped foot inside the fence line.
Nothing has changed.
The same paved driveway with its topiary lined edge curves behind the big concrete fence so that you can’t see the front doors from the street. The same immaculate frontage is visible when I crane my neck.
I figured…Ugh, I don’t know what I figured. That the house would look different to me. In my mind, it grew like one of those houses in kid’s movies where the child’s fear makes everything appear that much more spooky. As I’d driven here, a chill had washed through my veins, settled in. I rub at the goosebumps on my upper arms.
The house looks exactly the same as it did when my dad was alive. And what waits for me inside is only changed by the loss of him. Otherwise, it’s completely the same. The more time I stay away the more clear that becomes.
Alec has always been…mean.
Nicole has never been supportive.
I’m the one who’s changed. Grown. I could walk away without ever having another conversation with Nicole and be okay. I don’t need her approval on my life. I don’t need to make her happy. Only the promise I made to my dad has me needing to do this one last thing his way. “I can’t keep the peace, Dad. I can’t let her keep walking all over me.”
I don’t know if he hears me, if he’s disappointed and angry or proud of me like Rogue thinks he is. But I want to believe that he would be proud that I’ve finally found my voice and am putting my foot down.
A bright orange dragonfly alights on one of the gate spikes. Its wings settle and its body stills, almost as though it’s waiting for me.
“If she could see me as a person with my own needs and strengths and interests then maybe we could have a relationship.” My need to justify myself to the insect doesn’t make sense. “I don’t imagine that will happen though.”
I have no delusion that Nicole will take it well when I explain to her my resolve. I’m not her property or her slave, and she needs to understand that. I’m going to pay her the cost of my tuition too, somehow. I can’t have that hanging over my head.
I turn and walk back to my vehicle. Climb in behind the wheel and stare at the gate’s intercom, willing myself into action.
My phone starts to ring and I let the distraction wash over me. I can take another minute. The number is private so I swipe my thumb across the screen. “Hello.”
“Ivy.” Nathaniel’s voice fills my car. “Don’t hang up.”
I pause with my thumb hovering over the phone icon. I was so ready to do just that. He’s messaged me. Showed up at campus. Showed up at dinner with my mom. And at the bridal expo. “Why can’t you just get the hint? I want nothing to do with you.”
