Page 18 of Switching Graves

Poppy clears her throat. “Oh, yeah. About that, Mom . . . I was thinking I would go alone.”

Aunt Divina blanches. Her brows pull together as much as they can in a futile fight against her Botox. “You aren’t serious.”

“Poppy, you know your mother is excited about this,” Uncle Graysen chimes in, his eyes flicking back and forth between them, like he’s about to diffuse a ticking bomb. “Why wouldn’t she help you settle in?”

“Because she always has to find a way to punish me,” Divina wails, her voice raising an octave as she stubbornly throws her nose in the air and crosses her arms.

Poppy huffs out a humorless laugh. This is the point where I would break down and bend to my aunt’s will in an attempt to avoid the storm that’s about to hit. Perhaps we could find a way to have Poppy arrive at the campus with Divina, and then we could switch places once she’s gone. My mind races with alternatives to make this less painful.

But Poppy doesn’t have it in her to back down. Not from Divina.

“It has nothing to do with you. I’m twenty years old. I don’t need you to hold my hand.”

“It’s more than that, and you know it,” Graysen says, hanging his head into his palm.

I kick Poppy’s leg underneath the table to tell her to stop, but she only glares at me before turning back toward her parents.

“If you want me to do this, you’re going to let it happen on my terms. I’m not going to spend the next few years only being seen as Divina Ellery’s spoiled daughter.”

“That’s ridiculous. Everyone there is a legacy living up to their parents' reputations. That’s just a part of it. You won’t understand until you get there,” Divina cries out. Her face reddens, and the vein across her forehead bulges out.

Crossing her arms across her chest, Poppy leans back in her chair and purses her lips. “Then, never mind. I’m not going.”

“Grow up, Penelope,” Divina spits.

“That doesn’t sound very much like the tough twenty-year-old you want us to believe you are,” Graysen points out.

Poppy ignores him and examines her nails, acting every bit of the same petulant child she’s always been with them.

“Fine. I won’t go, then. But not because you don’t want me to,” Divina says, narrowing her eyes on the monster she created with a tight smile. They’re far more similar than Poppy wants to admit. “You’ll see what a grave mistake this is.”

Poppy huffs out another laugh, tilting her head with a saccharine smile. “Perfect. It’s settled, then.”

“You can’t be serious,” Graysen says, frowning at his wife.

She shrugs, raising her brows. “She’ll regret her decision.”

“Sure I will.” Poppy’s voice drips with sarcasm that has Divina’s vein popping out again, but she surprisingly keeps her thoughts to herself.

Poppy got our passports and driver’s licenses back this week, and we took that as the green light to start announcing our plans to other people. Whoever she found to create them knew what they were doing, because both items look exactly like the real thing sitting in my purse. They took longer than we had hoped because they ran into an issue with mine, although that was almost expected at this point. Any time I have to do anythingwith my government IDs, I run into issues. I’m just happy we were able to do it without raising any red flags.

Now, we’ve only got about a week before we each have to leave. Part of me hoped Aunt Divina and Uncle Graysen would try to insist we wait, given the short notice. I should have known this was something they’ve been hoping to come into fruition for years. It didn’t matter if Poppy waited until the day before classes began, they would be making sure she got on the plane in time.

“Ookay,” Uncle Graysen drawls out awkwardly, eyes bouncing between his wife and daughter. “We’ll have dinner this weekend as a proper celebration. This will be the first time all of us are under one roof in, gosh, how many years?” He looks to Aunt Divina for an answer, but she only shrugs, cradling her wine glass against her chest.

That tight, stubborn expression is still plastered on her face.

Uncle Graysen isn't deterred. He swats his hand in the air and leans back into his chair. “Doesn’t matter. We’ll go big. Louis Chop House—Sonny’s favorite.”

Turning toward me, his beaming smile reminds me so much of my father, I can hardly take it. I try to smile back before he catches onto the harsh emotions flooding my chest, then look down at my plate once again when he releases me from his stare and moves onto Poppy.

Guilt floods me. We’ve got to be the two worst people in the world, sitting here spewing lies this easily. One small glance at Poppy and the feigned grin she’s donning only makes me feel worse. How is she so good at this?

I excuse myself from the table with a lame excuse about not feeling well and quickly scurry out the front door before I ruin all the work we’ve already done.

I know I’ll have a text from Poppy before I pull into the flower shop parking lot, but I needed a break. I have no clue how I’ll be able to maintain the lie once I get to Ravenshurst.

7

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