Page 3 of Seren

I looked around, searching for the girl whose voice had carried across the property.

“Oh my God!” she yelled again.

Goosebumps popped up all over my body, and I jumped to my feet, bolting a hundred yards across the lawn to the pool house where the voice seemed to carry from. I couldn’t run fast enough to reach the voice. My breath heaved as I approached the front door. I grasped the knob and pulled, but it was locked. I hurried to one of the floor-to-ceiling windows and cupped my eyes to keep out the sun’s glare so I could peer inside. I scanned the furnished sitting room and the kitchen area. Everything appeared silent and still.

I turned back toward the pool, thinking maybe the sound had come from there or the outdoor patio.

“Seren!” she said, but she no longer sounded scared. More like she was urging someone on. And itwascoming from inside the pool house.

“You like that?” a deep voice asked, causing the hair on my arms to stand on end.

“Yes,” she said all breathy and unafraid.

I took another look into the window and spotted two people in the corner of the room. A shirtless guy with his back to me had his hands splayed on the wall above his head with a girl caged between him and the wall. I couldn’t see beyond the sofa blocking my view but from what I could gather, his hips were moving.

“Just like that,” she begged.

Shit.

I’d seen enough to know what was happening. And I’d beenverywrong.

I removed my hands from the window to get away from the embarrassing situation, but my elbow knocked against the glass.

I froze and my eyes widened.

The guy looked over his shoulder, locking his eyes on me. I winced, hoping my features conveyed my apology for stumbling upon the two of them. I expected him to stop what he was doing, but he didn’t. He kept me locked in his cold emotionless glare as he continued thrusting into the girl.

As much as I needed to move away from the window, my feet wouldn’t budge. I feared that when I moved, he’d see all of me. And the way he wouldn’t allow me to move from that spot told me he was used to doing what he wanted and to hell with everyone else.

I finally unfroze and spun away from the window, running back to the main house as quickly as I could. I didn’t turn back for fear of finding those cold emotionless eyes still on me. Because I knew, with much certainty, that he’d still be watching me.

CHAPTER 3

Seren

I left Kiki in the pool house and made my way into the main house, down the second-floor hallway, and to my mother’s closed bedroom door. I pounded twice on it before entering, not wanting to catch her and my stepfather in the act. Been there. Done that. Got the visual scars to prove it.

“Who the hell’s the girl?” I demanded.

“What girl?” she asked focused on her reflection in her vanity mirror. She was applying something to her face—the one that already had more surgeries than I could count. I think she thought by altering the outside, she’d be able to alter the inside. But she’d sold her soul to the devil a long time ago, and there was no redemption on the horizon.

“Don’t play coy with me, Mother.”

“Ohhhhhh. You mean Grace?”

“Who’s Grace?” I asked, wanting to know more about the girl who didn’t cower when I glared.

My mother swiveled on her pillow-topped seat. I found myself searching for traces of the mother I once knew under all the changes she’d made to her appearance. Gone was the distinct nose like mine—replaced by an upturned one. Gone was the dark hair my brothers and I had—replaced by platinum blonde extensions. Gone was the Cupid’s bow lips girls loved about me—replaced by filled-in bubble lips. Even our family’s signature green eyes had been swapped out with blue contacts. “Don’t you listen when I tell you things?” she asked.

I pushed away the thoughts and steeled my features. “No.”

My mother sighed. “She’s Rosalie’s daughter. I told you she’d be moving into the helps’ quarters with Rosalie until she leaves for college in the fall.”

“I would’ve remembered something like that,” I clipped.

Confusion crossed my mother’s face. “Wait a minute. What time is it?”

“I don’t know. One.”

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