Page 5 of The Facade

My dad was a neurosurgeon and my mom had been an interior designer before she got sick again. But their couple million-dollar net worth had nothing on the billions that Carter’s family had as the seventh richest family in the United States.

Thankfully though, the Hastings were all pretty down to earth…for the most part.

“Marie said dinner will be ready in about fifteen minutes,” Carter said as he led me up the grand staircase with marble floors and an intricately designed handrail. “So that should give you some time to get settled before we eat.”

“Sounds good,” I said, sniffing the aroma of the sweet pork burritos cooking in the kitchen. Cambrielle had said that their chef, Marie, would be cooking my favorite meal, and so I’d made sure to save lots of room for dinner.

Carter led me down the hall past his and Cambrielle’s rooms to the room that was across from Nash’s bedroom.

The Hastings family had plenty of guest bedrooms in their mansion, but Carter had told me I’d be staying on the second floor with the rest of the family so I wouldn’t be off in the west wing by myself.

My mom and dad had warned Mr. and Mrs. Hastings about the sleepwalking episodes I’d had the last time they’d gone out of town, but it was probably a good idea that I would be sleeping near everyone else.

I just hoped my subconscious would do what it did those nights I’d stayed in Cambrielle’s room and realize that I wasn’t all alone in their house, so I could just stay asleep in bed.

I really didn’t want to wake up soaking wet after sleepwalking to their pond again. It was late October and long past the time when anyone would believe I was just going out for a refreshing midnight swim.

“Here you go.” Carter swung the door open to his older brother’s room, revealing a very minimalistic interior with only a king-sized bed, a small couch, a bench at the foot of the bed, and a dresser in the large space. “Ian just moved into the pool house over the weekend, so I think most of the drawers in the dresser should be open for you to use if you want.”

Ian was the oldest son of Mrs. Hastings, coming from her first marriage. He’d recently graduated from Yale and had just moved back to his family’s estate to help Mr. Hastings manage the many investment companies run by Hastings Industries.

“Nice,” I said, plopping my suitcase and garment bag onto the navy-blue duvet. I’d only packed enough stuff for a week—I figured I could just run to my house next door if I needed extra clothes. But having a whole dresser would be an upgrade from having my deodorant and toothbrush stuffed in the back of one of Cambrielle’s bathroom drawers.

“I’ll see you downstairs when you’re done, okay?” Carter said. “I’m supposed to help set the table tonight since Dawn and Dad think we need to learn to take care of things like that before we go off to college.”

“Ah, so you have to start doing what I’ve been doing since I was three,” I teased, unable to keep a smirk from my lips.

“Yeah, yeah.” Carter made a face like he knew how ridiculous most people would find it that he and his siblings were only just now learning to do the household chores the rest of us commoners had been doing our whole lives. “I told herI’dbe fine since I helped Señorita Silvia with chores all the time at the orphanage. But Nash and Cambrielle didn’t think it was very fair for me to get out of helping, so I have to pitch in, too.”

Carter had lived in an orphanage in Guatemala for a few years after his mom disappeared and before his dad found him. He joked about it now, but I knew from the various stories he’d told me through the years that his life there had been hard in ways I could never imagine.

“Well, while you’re setting out the dishes, could you make sure to put my plate next to Cambrielle’s? I don’t want to accidentally play footsie with your mom when I’m trying to flirt with your sister.”

Carter’s eyes widened for a moment, like he thought I was serious about playing footsie with his little sis. Then he narrowed his eyes again and said, “Yeah, pretty sure I’ll be putting you two at opposite ends of the table. The last thing my sister needs is to be one of your weekend flings. She doesn’t need to be tempted by you.”

“Kind of like how you’re seducing Ava?”

“Pretty sure Ava is the one who likes to tempt me.” Carter shook his head, a hint of a smile on his lips at the mention of his girlfriend.

“Well, you know she’s my sister now, so maybe I should start pulling the ‘I’m your girlfriend’s older brother’ card on you, my friend.”

“That’s still so weird, isn’t it?” Carter leaned against the door frame. “That Ava and Elyse are your half-sisters?”

“Yeah. It’s definitely not something I was expecting when they first showed up at school.” I unzipped my suitcase, remembering how shocked I’d been when my dad had told my mom and me that he’d gotten the twins’ mom pregnant way back in the day and I had two half-sisters that none of us had ever known about.

My mom had her first brain tumor when she was twenty-two. She’d been dating my dad ever since high school, but when she’d gotten the first diagnosis, she’d freaked out and broke up with my dad without any explanation.

Heartbroken and confused, my dad ended up rebounding with Mrs. Cohen at their high school reunion. She’d gotten pregnant and told him about it. But my dad ended up having a mental breakdown from the stress of everything with my mom and the unplanned twins. So when Ava and Elyse’s mom realized my dad wouldn’t be much help with anything, she had faked a miscarriage and cut all ties with her past.

It was only after the girls showed up at school in September that they started putting the puzzle pieces together. Then just a little over a week ago, the truth all came out and I found out that I’d almost asked my own sister on a date.

So even though things sucked with my mom’s tumor right now, my being distracted with everything going on had actually paid off in that regard since it had kept me from making out with one of my sisters.

I shuddered just thinking about how bad the gossip at our school would have been if I’d found out a week or two later.

“Do you think Elyse knows you were planning to ask her out?” Carter asked.

“I hope not,” I said, pulling a stack of T-shirts from my suitcase and setting them in the dresser behind me. “I mean, I’m sure it was pretty obvious that I liked her since I flirted with her while you were flirting with Ava during our study sessions. But I just hope everyone interpreted it as me just being nice to the new girls.”

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