Page 7 of Worse Than Wicked
“No,” I say. “It’s just a place.”
“Then why aren’t we going back to Faulkner?” Duke asks. “Our families are there.”
Baron sighs. “You know why.”
“I’d think you’d want to go,” Duke says to me. “You’ve been gone for years. Your family is probably dying to see you.”
“I talk to them online,” I say lightly. “My brother’s back in rehab, and my stepmother doesn’t know who I am.”
“Colt’s in rehab?” Duke asks, snorting with laughter. “What a pussy.”
I eye the bottle of champagne the waiter brings, but I would no more embarrass Duke in front of him than I’d embarrass my parents by mispronouncingfoie grasin front of the mayor.
“Do you feel bad about leaving your dad alone on Christmas?” Baron asks.
I know he’s gauging my level of coldness more than casting judgment.
“No,” I say. “He’s having dinner with the family.”
“I’m sure that’ll be fun,” Duke says. “Hanging out with the ex-wife he cheated on and his brother who married her. Hey, maybe they’ll both bang her at once. Just like us.”
He holds up a hand to high-five Baron, but Baron only frowns at him.
Duke laughs again, too loud, intentionally obnoxious. He knows I hate that I will never know if the rumors were true. That I only have their word, and they like to goad me to get a reaction. They probably never touched my mother. But there were rumors that they didn’t just target the Darling men. That they tormented them by going after their wives too. I’ve seen it with my own eyes, when they attacked my aunt. But I like to believe that if anyone hurt my mother, it was their brothers, not them.
“You don’t miss them?” Baron presses me.
“I see my aunt every summer,” I say. “And my cousins, when they come to visit her.”
Baron just shakes his head. I know he’s impressed, though. He thinks I’m heartless, but he likes it.
“You don’t miss Colt, though,” Duke says. “Too fucking funny. Can’t blame you there.”
“Why’s that funny?” I ask.
“Because you always acted like you liked him,” he reminds me. “Now you don’t give a fuck. Savage. I love it.”
“I care,” I protest, even though it will lose points with Baron. “I just wouldn’t see him if I went home. I wasn’t going to endanger either of us by contacting him before you found me.”
“Before you knew we’d found you,” Baron corrects. “We knew where you were for a long time.”
I nod and pop a slice of duck into my mouth, chewing as I absorb his words. I knew that already, though I’m not sure how long he was watching. Some part of me always thought he was, from the very beginning. I was waiting for them all along, always knowing they’d come, long before they showed up in New England.
“When you disappeared,” Baron says, slicing his meat while he speaks. “Why’d you choose that name?”
“What name?”
My heart stops, and I try to swallow. I can’t explain to Baron, but I can’t avoid the question, either. If I try, he’ll immediately see it, and he’ll know that it’s something I’m trying to hide. Once he gets suspicious, he’ll start digging. I don’t want that. I don’t want to tell him how simple it is, either. He’ll be disappointed. He won’t understand that at the time, it was an easy choice. If I was going to be someone else, I wanted to be Dahlia. She was the only secret I kept from him, the only one I had left. And now, I have to give her up.
Baron arches a brow at me like I’m being intentionally obtuse instead of stalling for time. “Dahlia Suskind.”
“The last name is from a book I like,” I say. “The first name was… An imaginary friend.”
We are sorry to inform you, we have no record of a student by that name…
“An imaginary friend?” Baron asks incredulously, his brows rising even higher. He shares a glance with Duke, who’s not laughing, to my surprise.
I’m not crazy, I remind myself.
