But when I look back up at her, I know it’s too late.
Her rage has turned to remorse faster than I thought humanly possible. “Oh my god, what have I done?”
Her eyes flicker down to the phone under the pillow.
I don’t dare breathe. “Please tell me you hung up the phone.”
She doesn’t move, but I do. I jump to my feet and back away.
“Dana?”
Her hands fumble to pull the phone out, their motions large and clumsy. “No, no, no …” She slaps it several times, and then unsuccessful, throws her phone across the room so it smacks against the wall.
It lands next to my feet, the screen shattered, but her earlier phone call still live. I pick it up and hold the broken phone to my ear.
“Victoria?”
I hear a breathy laugh on the other end. “Well hello, Theodora.”
Chapter 22
It’s over. It’s all over.
All these past months; the trials, the humiliations, the triumphs … everything, it’s all been for nothing.
In one moment, one oversight by the one person I was supposed to trust, and my life is shattered.
Not just my new life, my old one too.
This time, when I look up at Hawthorne Academy there at the top of the hill, the only emotion I feel is dread.
“Sadie—” Dana, starts, but it just prompts me to start walking faster. I can’t speak to her; not now, not after what she did.
This thing, it’s mine to bear now. There’s no point avoiding it. No point in putting it off.
Better to face the truth than turn and run. Not that there’s anywhere to run.
Coming back wasn’t up to me. What was I supposed to tell Dana’s parents, that I’d decided to stay on as a permanent house guest? Or ask them to please stop by the local homeless shelter on their way to drop Dana off at school, since that’s about to be my new home?
I guess I knew this was coming eventually. It had to. I was delusional to think it would end any other way.
They’re waiting for me at the top of the hill: Dr. Baxter, two security officers, Victoria, and them.
They are the part of this whole thing I didn’t count on. The wild card. The unexpected loss.
Astor. Blair. Wills.
It’s them that I fear seeing the most. Even after everything we’ve been through, especially after everything we’ve been through, I can’t imagine a world where they’ll be able to forgive me. Still, the little spark in
me that cares for them still hopes they can care for me too, despite all this.
It’s that spark, that tiny, treacherous feeling, that makes the look on their faces cut me to my core.
“Welcome back Miss White,” Dr. Baxter says, “Or should I say … Miss Price.”
I turn straight to Victoria. “You didn’t waste any time, did you?”
She just purses her lips. “How could I? Not once I found out there was a serpent in our midst.”