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“That doesn’t mean anything.” Even to my own ears, that protest sounds weak.
“She was wearing herunderwear.”
He sounds so hurt that I stomp down my own feelings to focus on him. Jackson’s never made any secret of how much he’s into Lily. The two of them were written in the stars—the cute bookworm and the football jock. They were practically a teen movie script. I could see them both on campus at Harvard, hosting all the fun parties and late-night study sessions, her on the sidelines of all his games, him kissing her passionately after she won some brainiac prize.
But then I had to go and ruin both their lives.
“I stole her clothes.” Jackson sounds like he may be sick.
“Youwhat?” Surely I didn’t hear him right…
“She and the guy hid somewhere. I couldn’t see them, so I just… I found her clothes and two of her knives on a bench, and I took them. I’m a sicko.” He pauses. “They smell just like her.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. The way she always smelled. Like cotton candy and spring blossoms.”
Fuck.
“Why is she here?” Jackson’s voice breaks. “Why isn’t she in college?”
“I don’t know.”
“Can you find out?”
“Well…”
“Please, brother,” he pleads. “I’m going crazy here. Why does she have all these knives? What’s happened to her since we’ve been gone that has made her into the Shadow?”
I’m afraid that the answer to that question will break all of us, but I can’t say no to my brother, my twin. After all, I’m the reason they were separated in the first place. “I’ll see what I can find.”
“Thank you. And don’t let Brooks know you’re looking into her.”
“I won’t.” I click off the phone, toss it on the bed, and turn back to my computer.
I tap the keys nervously. We’ve avoided the temptation to look for Lily. All these years, every time I opened my computer, I itched to look her up on social media or follow her class schedule online. That way lies madness. Any chance that Lily and I had at happiness died on prom night.
And all this time, she’s been so close I could’ve reached out and touched her.
I still can’t believe that Lily Dean is the Shadow.
I lean over the computer, my fingers poised. Am I going to do this? Am I really going to break the promise we made to ourselves? Am I going to open Jackson up to the pain of what we may find?
I type in Lily’s name and start digging.
8
EIGHT: LILY
Istorm into the honeymoon suite in nothing but my bra and panties, practically foaming at the mouth. Anger runs rampant through me as I slam the door hard enough for the entire room to shake.
Brooks, who has been leaning over one of the computer monitors on the desk, glances up in alarm. I take a great amount of satisfaction in the way his eyes widen, and red creeps up his neck and settles in his cheeks.
He turns away quickly, but not before I catch a glimpse of the unbridled lust in his eyes.
So I’m not the only one who thinks about that kiss in the alley.
Brooks’s mouth hot on mine, his huge, strong hands tugging on my prom dress, pulling me closer—
