Page 111 of The Dollhouse

“What’s worse is my parents knew about it. My parents actually knew before I did, and they kept it a secret from me.” I shook my head. “And when I found out, my parents tried to sweep it all under the rug, like it was no big deal. They told me to move on, to forgive my sister and my ex, like what they’d done was nothing at all.” A bitter chuckle left me. “And to think, if I wouldn’t have come home from class early that day, I never would’ve found out. It makes me wonder how long I would’ve been played the fool.”

“You’re better off without him,” Wyatt said. “And your sister…” He took another bite of the food, thinking.

“I’ve moved on. It’s why I left Hillcrest to begin with. I… didn’t exactly finish last year. I had to take a whole lot of incompletes.”

Not quite the truth; my parents had smoothed things over with the school in hopes that I’d come back, probably. I only knew this because I’d looked into it on the online portal thingy Hillcrest had to check your grades last week. A bit of information I’d found interesting. My parents always thought they knew what was for the best… and they probably thought they’d been right, now that I was back.

Oh, but they were wrong. So very, very wrong.

“But I found myself,” I said. “I found the real me while I was gone, and even though it hurt to find my sister and my ex together, I wouldn’t change a thing. I like who I am today a whole lot better than the me I was back then.”

A slow, steady smile grew on Wyatt’s face, boyish and gentle. A sweet smile, a smile that might’ve knocked me off my feet if I was, you know, on my feet and not already entangled with three men who had my heart. “Most people wouldn’t look on the bright side after something like that.”

“I’m not most people.”

“Clearly.”

We finished eating, and I walked him back to the shop, telling him I had to get to class, which wasn’t exactly a lie. Before I left, though, I told him we should do this again. Maybe Thursday we could eat together again… but it was also me phishing for information about my sister, if he had plans with her again or not.

But when Wyatt grinned and said “I’d like that,” I knew he didn’t.

“It’s a date,” I said, and then when he blushed and grew speechless, I turned around and walked away, being sure to put an extra sway into my hips. I left the shop, smiling to myself, temporarily forgetting the world around me… until a blond girl walked up to me, catching me just before the doors to the outside world.

“I know what you’re doing,” the girl said, and it took me a few moments, but when I snapped back to reality, I realized I knew who the girl was.

Willow. My not-so-sweet baby sister.

I folded my arms over my chest as I stared at her. “I don’t know what you mean.” A lie, because I so totally did know what she meant, I just didn’t give a shit. I couldn’t help but smirk when I saw how tight her lips were pressed together, how tense she looked.

“I saw you two together,” Willow hissed. Near the glass doors, we were far enough away from the shop that Wyatt wouldn’t see either of us. “Don’t play stupid, Zoe. I know you’re planning something, but whatever it is isn’t going to work. Wyatt isn’t going to fall for you.”

Chuckling, I asked, “And who would he fall for instead,you? He isn’t really your type, is he, Willow? I mean, he’s a scholarship student, for one, which means he doesn’t come from money. Would Mom and Dad approve of someone like him?” We both already knew the answer to that particular question.

I must’ve struck a nerve in Willow, for her white skin started to get a little red, like she was steaming at the ears. “I don’t care what Mom and Dad would want. I like him, Zoey, so stay away from him.”

“And if I don’t?” It was a question that might’ve been innocent had the situation been different, but the situation wasn’t different, and Willow and I had way too much twisted history for it to be taken harmlessly.

It was a trick question, too, because I knew Willow couldn’t do anything to me. She couldn’t hurt me like she’d hurt me in the past, even if she did her research on me and found out I had two boyfriends here in town with me. Neither Roman nor Carter would give her the time of day or fall for her seduction attempts.

God, it was so freaking nice to have guys at my side I knew I could trust, guys I knew would never lay a finger on my sneaky sister.

“Just stop,” Willow eventually said, not bothering to answer my question directly—probably because she knew she couldn’t do shit to me. “I know you’re only doing this to get back at me for what I did with Bryan.”

“Am I?” I pretended to think. “What if I really like Wyatt?” I didn’t wait for her answer to that question, instead saying, “I think you’re afraid he might just like me better, and I don’t know about you, but it’s about damn time a cute boy chooses me over you.” Though it appeared like she wanted to respond, to say something angry, I waved her off. “I’ll see you in class.”

And then I walked away, not giving her the chance to speak again.

Take that, Willow.

A better person might’ve decided it wasn’t worth it, might’ve chosen not to lead on another guy just to steal his potential love away from their sister, but if there was anything I’d learned during my time at the Dollhouse, with Roman and Carter, it was that I was not a better person. Lake, on the other hand, might try to claim I was a good person deep down, but I knew the truth.

I wasn’t. I wasn’t a good person. A good person wouldn’t have come back to Hillcrest. A good person with a good heart wouldn’t want revenge at all; they would’ve simply moved on with their life and never looked back. But I couldn’t do that.

So, no, I wasn’t good. My heart was darker than it should’ve been, and I didn’t care enough to change it. I was who I was, and Roman and Carter were at my side, helping me anytime I asked them to.

Lake didn’t want me to hurt Wyatt, but Wyatt would be a necessary casualty. Me flirting with him, smiling at him, acting sweet and coy at the appropriate moments, was a necessary evil. Lake would understand, and Wyatt would get over it, once it was all said and done.

When Thursday rolled around, I made sure to scope out the union early, just to make sure I beat my sister there. When it was time for lunch, I was quick to head to the store, where I found Wyatt on his phone, texting with one hand while pulling off his nametag with the other. He stood behind the counter, his focus on the phone in his hand. He didn’t even see me walk up.

---