Page 85 of Splitting Secrets
She’s here. She came, just as she promised she would.
“Oh, it’s you,” Finley greets unceremoniously, lifting his legs to roll off the bed. He leaves the packet behind, muttering something about seeing me later before he disappears into thin air.
Unbothered by his rude exit, she beams at me. “I told you I would come.”
“It’s just been so long. I wasn’t sure if you were still able.”
“Has it?” she muses. “Time moves differently here.”
We go back and forth for a bit, falling into our comfortable banter as I explain where we are and what’s happened since she...you know,left. I tell her how Beatrix, Ava, and Jonah have become like family to me. I admit the things that happenedbetween me and Raze. Poppy adds her commentary in all the right places as I word vomit all over. For a moment, I forget that she’s gone and that this isn’t one of our usual debrief sessions.
I forget that I’m sitting in a bedroom in my parent’s secret home on bed rest after a major mental breakdown. I forget all of it because everything with Poppy comes so naturally that it’s easy to pretend I’m not in such a miserable position in life. That we’re not on a brink of war and I’m supposedly their best bet to win it.
But I can’t forget for long. Not when I have to tell her all those ugly things, too.
“So, wait. Your parents have been alive this whole time?” she questions, her mind just as blown as mine was.
My head bobs in a fast nod. “They’ve been forming this whole rebellion. They sort of blame Raze for separating us.”
“Oh, right.Raze. The man who has been secretly working alongside themandthe secret society my mother has been a part of. But you want to pretend you two aren’t meant to be together.” She looks at me from the side of her eyes and pretends to examine her nails.
“What ever happened to him being professor weirdo?”
“That all changed when I got a glimpse of how hot he is with his shirt off. I should have made you send a picture before,” she teases. “And those shadows? Damn, I can think of some creative uses for those things. How do you feel about bondage?”
I bark out a laugh, covering my mouth before I stop myself short.
That was weird. I actuallylaughed. And not just a small giggle or in a forced or sarcastic way, but because I was genuinely having a good time.
“I’ve missed you so much,” I admit for the millionth time. “Are you able to tell me anything? What about Costa Rica?”
Her expression sobers. “Oh yeah, the travel group. It turned out to be a lot worse than I anticipated. We never even made it to Costa Rica.”
I balk at that. “But you were in the house. And you had all the stories...”
“There were three men who met us at the airport in Florida. Before we realized what was happening, they had rerouted our flights to California. We were herded off the plane and brought to a hotel, where they controlled our every move. The things I was forced to do, Sonny...” She looks away. “They were horrible, horrible people.”
“How were you able to talk to me? Why didn’t you tell me when we were on the phone?” Even a vague text would have probably had me sniffing around.
“Any time you called or texted, they were listening. I wasn’t allowed to say anything without the threat of them killing one of the other girls, and vice versa. If we got too loud, they would slip us something, so we became languid and easy to control. We were in a constant state of terror.”
I scowl down at my comforter, trying to piece together everything she’s telling me. There I was, complaining to her about my meaningless schoolwork and talking about Raze, and she was literally looking death in the face. “How did you come home for Thanksgiving?”
“They came with me after I told them what would happen if they didn't. They were waiting at the end of the block the whole time. I didn’t know how to tell you without one of them finding out. Trust me, I wanted to. Even if I were to write it down, I thought they would have somehow found the note. I was paralyzed with fear. When I left, it was because they ripped me out of my room in the middle of the night. That was what put my mom on their scent.”
She left so abruptly, I thought she was mad at me. But now that I think back, everything about that visit was a cry for help. If I didn’t have my head stuff so far up my own ass, I could have saved her.
“Divina knew?” I shouldn’t be surprised. Once again, her mother is found to be caught up in secrets and lies.
“She eventually hunted me down, yeah. That’s when the Syndicate stepped in and got me out. But that was just moving me from one prison to the other, because when they realized it wasmethey were rescuing, they quickly caught onto the fact that you were at Ravenshurst, pretending to be me.”
“So, they killed you . . . ”
She nods, her expression neutral. Her death doesn’t bother her. “Yes. They used me as leverage over my mother for a bit, but the asshole who was guarding me in the hotel room couldn’t stand me, and I didn’t want to be trapped any longer.”
I don’t know what to say. Here I’ve been claiming she’s my other half, and I couldn’t even recognize when she was in real danger. She showed all the signs, even if she hadn’t meant to, but I was too self-absorbed to see them.
“I’m so sorry.” It’s all I can manage, and it’s still not enough.
