Page 72 of Amethyst Flame
When Mrs. Singh hugged me again, all tough silk and a delicate whiff of the very best French perfume, she murmured in my ear, “If you need anything, Imogen—a bed, a reference, anything at all…”
My eyes prickled. “I know. I love you too.” I vowed to never ask.
Downstairs, the Singhs had a rec room with a big tv on the wall, a ping pong table, and enormous bean bag chairs. I’d spent many, many nights down here with Swann watching movies while complaining about how boring everything was while texting memes from bean bag to bean bag while evaluating various fictional and real-world ships, fandoms, and social media personalities.
But our favorite activity was switching clothes every time we went upstairs to confuse Mrs. Singh. My second mother never even batted an eye, even though Swann was four inches taller than me, so flapping around in her designer jeanswasnoticeable. I think Mom Singh had always understood how much I’d wanted a sister.
On the square ottoman, three boxes of pizza waited, the top one open. Half the classic pepperoni was gone, grease left on the cardboard.
No donut boxes anywhere though. Hm. Luckily there were also a bunch of side dishes, including my favorite biryani and paneer tikka.
“So I have some news,” Swann told me as she dropped into a bean bag.
“Oh?” Grabbing a few sticks of the skewered cheese—can’t ever have enough cheese, right?—I pulled the half pizza to an ottoman corner and dragged up a bean bag to sit on.
“I’m adopting Bri.”
I caught the flash of happiness in Bri’s eyes as she scooted up close too, though the rest of her face pretended not to care.
“Like as a pet?” Just to clarify.
Swann leaned back to stroke Bri’s inky hair. “You know I’ve always wanted one. Mom might let me keep her.”
“Is she even house broken though?”
“Good point,” Swann said. “I’ll put down some newspapers.”
Which earned ahmpfand an eye roll from Bri, who was opening the second pizza box. Looked like…an everything veg. I was tucking into that next.
As I leaned back to enjoy inhaling my slice in hand, Swann made brief but pointed eye contact. It lasted a fraction of a second yet communicated tons.This situation has to come to an end. And big sis is the one who has to tell Bri.A tight tug to one side of Swann’s mouth asked,And doesn’t she have school or something?
Yeah, yeah.
“So, Bri…” I began.
“Here it comes,” she said, disgust in the downward curl of her mouth.
“I have an…acquaintance,” I went on. “He’s got an in with the police. And he checked into your friend Alex.”
“You’ve been talking to my dad.” Accusation sliced through her tone.
I gave her a small chuckle. “Your drama brought that rat bastard into my life, my house, and was part of the huge fight I had with my mom, who kicked me out.”
“Well, I’m sorry about that. But now maybe we can get a place together—”
“You’rea minor, you little brat,” I told her. “There’s no way in hell the bio-bum will sign you over to me. And I don’t want the responsibility of a child delinquent on my hands when my life is a shitshow.” And a dangerous one.
She looked mutinous.
“And that Alex—”
“He hasn’t even done anything.”
Yeah, mostly it seemed he liked to connect with girls from his old high school. Now that he was older, he was apparently cooler to teenage girls or something. The attention fed his fragile ego. Eventually, though, he might try something with one of them. Hopefully, the Dane spy treatment would put the fear of god into him.
“He will ruin your life,” I said. “And he’s not worth it.”
Alarm flatted Swann’s eyebrows. “Wait, what’s this?”
